scholarly journals Information seeking and evaluation: a multi-institutional survey of veterinary students

Author(s):  
Erin R. B. Eldermire ◽  
Suzanne Fricke ◽  
Kristine M. Alpi ◽  
Emma Davies ◽  
Andrea C. Kepsel ◽  
...  

Objective: To practice evidence-based medicine, clinicians must be competent in information literacy (IL). Few studies acknowledge the critical role that reading strategies play in IL instruction and assessment of health professional students. The purpose of this study was to understand the information-seeking and evaluation behaviors of doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) students in regard to scientific papers.Methods: The authors studied DVM student behaviors across eight programs in North America using a web-based survey of closed- and open-ended questions about finding and evaluating scientific papers, including a task to read a linked scientific paper and answer questions about it.Results: A total of 226 individuals responded to the survey. The sections of a scientific paper that were most commonly read were the abstract, introduction, and conclusions. Students who reported reading a higher proportion of scientific papers were more likely to feel confident in their abilities to interpret them. A third of respondents answered open-ended questions after the paper reading task. Respondents felt the least amount of confidence with one of the final steps of evidence-based medicine, that of interpreting the significance of the paper to apply it in veterinary medicine.Conclusions: DVM students may lack the skills needed to evaluate scientific literature and need more practice and feedback in evaluating and interpreting scientific papers. Librarians who support DVM students can (1) help DVM students to efficiently evaluate scientific literature, (2) seek training opportunities in alternative modes of teaching and learning IL skills, and (3) partner with veterinary faculty and clinicians to provide students with practice and feedback in information evaluation.

2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (6) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadia Mahmood Malick ◽  
Julie Hadley ◽  
James Davis ◽  
Khalid S Khan

Author(s):  
Abdullah Jibawi ◽  
Mohamed Baguneid ◽  
Arnab Bhowmick

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is an effective tool for identifying and critically appraising quality research findings, and allowing the best to be integrated within clinical practice. EBM requires familiarity with evidence grading systems, key statistical methods, and requires a good understanding of how to review and critique scientific papers to guide the clinical practice. This chapter introduces these tools and provide an easy-to-use layout for reading academic papers in hand.


2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (S4) ◽  
pp. 65-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Zaza ◽  
John Clymer ◽  
Linda Upmeyer ◽  
Stephen B. Thacker

Compared to evidence-based public health, evidence-based medicine is a more familiar phrase. Evidence-based medicine has become increasingly popular in the past decade, due in large part to the emergence of computerized database search technology and advanced statistical tools which allow researchers to quickly identify and summarize vast amounts of scientific information.Today, the concept of evidence-based public health is gaining momentum and has grown in popularity. However, the term “evidence-based” lacks clarification and is subject to a variety of interpretations. The evidence that supports evidence-based medicine or public health may include individual experience, anecdotal information, the content of a single scientific article, or the results of a sophisticated systematic review of scientific literature. The imprecise language used to describe evidence leads to confusion over what types of evidence are most appropriate in answering different types of questions.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1691
Author(s):  
Jozica Šikić ◽  
Zrinka Planinić ◽  
Vid Matišić ◽  
Tea Friščić ◽  
Vilim Molnar ◽  
...  

SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in population worldwide for the past year and a half, and thus a vast amount of scientific literature has been produced in order to study the biology of the virus and the pathophysiology of COVID-19, as well as to determine the best way to prevent infection, treat the patients and eliminate the virus. SARS-CoV-2 binding to the ACE2 receptor is the key initiator of COVID-19. The ability of SARS-CoV-2 to infect various types of cells requires special attention to be given to the cardiovascular system, as it is commonly affected. Thorough diagnostics and patient monitoring are beneficial in reducing the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and to ensure the most favorable outcomes for the infected patients, even after they are cured of the acute disease. The multidisciplinary nature of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic requires careful consideration from the attending clinicians, in order to provide fast and reliable treatment to their patients in accordance with evidence-based medicine principles. In this narrative review, we reviewed the available literature on cardiovascular implications of COVID-19; both the acute and the chronic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joey Nicholson ◽  
Adina Kalet ◽  
Cees Van der Vleuten ◽  
Anique De Bruin

Objective: Evidence-based medicine practices of medical students in clinical scenarios are not well understood. Optimal foraging theory (OFT) is one framework that could be useful in breaking apart information-seeking patterns to determine effectiveness and efficiency of different methods of information seeking. The aims of this study were to use OFT to determine the number and type of resources used in information seeking when medical students answer a clinical question, to describe common information-seeking patterns, and identify patterns associated with higher quality answers to a clinical question.Methods: Medical students were observed via screen recordings while they sought evidence related to a clinical question and provided a written response for what they would do for that patient based on the evidence that they found.Results: Half (51%) of study participants used only 1 source before answering the clinical question. While the participants were able to successfully and efficiently navigate point-of-care tools and search engines, searching PubMed was not favored, with only half (48%) of PubMed searches being successful. There were no associations between information-seeking patterns and the quality of answers to the clinical question.Conclusion: Clinically experienced medical students most frequently relied on point-of-care tools alone or in combination with PubMed to answer a clinical question. OFT can be used as a framework to understand the information-seeking practices of medical students in clinical scenarios. This has implications for both teaching and assessment of evidence-based medicine in medical students.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-228
Author(s):  
Lauren N Pearson ◽  
Robert L Schmidt

Abstract Background Systematic reviews (SRs) play a critical role in evidence-based medicine. Objective To determine the publication trends of SRs in clinical laboratory science (CLS). Methods We searched Scopus to identify all reviews published in the top 20 CLS journals during the past 10 years (2008–2017). We determined year of publication, review type (systematic vs narrative), citations, and whether the review was accompanied by a meta-analysis (MA). Results We identified 2934 reviews. Of these, 2833 (96.6%) were narrative reviews, and 98 (3.3%) were SRs. A total of 67 (66.3%) of the SRs were accompanied by a MA. Three journals accounted for 68 of 98 (69.4%) SRs. The percentage of SRs (relative to all reviews) has increased during the past decade (P = .01). SRs were more frequently published in high-impact journals (P <.001). Conclusion The publication rate of SRs in CLS journals has increased during the past decade.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elfatih A. Hasabo ◽  
Walaa Elnaiem ◽  
Abrar Y. Ali ◽  
Anfal M. Altahir ◽  
Elmuiz A. Hsabo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the use of the current best evidence for patient care. Medical students should critically appraise the research evidence to help them during their clinical practice in the future. We conducted this study to assess the skills, terms and attitude toward EBM. Method We conducted a cross-sectional study for medical students from governmental universities. Students completed an online validated questionnaire consisting of several sections to assess skills, attitude and knowledge about terms related to EBM. We used a scale ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree) for the 11 questions assessing the attitude and a scale ranging from 1(Poor) to 5(advanced) for EBM skills. Results A total of 761 medical students with a mean age of 21.97 ± 1.64 participated in the study. 327 (43 %) of them were males. The most commonly used search engines were Google 690 (91 %) and Wikipedia 465 (61 %). Medical books 719 (94 %) and lecture notes 353 (46 %) were the most common sources for health information. The majority of students rated their skills related to EBM as average and below average for all questions (overall = 2.18 ± 0.8). Students rated their skills as poor (31 %) in locating professional literature, as average (34 %) in searching online databases, poor (42 %) in critical appraisal of a scientific publication reporting findings from clinical research and poor (36 %) in Critical appraisal of available scientific literature. Regarding attitude, the overall mean score was 2.83 ± 0.76. There is no significant difference in attitude score between students with or without EBM training (P = 0.2). The terms with the highest understanding were case-control study (45 %) and case report (44 %) for study design. Median (44 %) and sample size (43 %) for statistics. Incidence (46 %) and prevalence (44 %) for epidemiology. Conclusions Medical students have a knowledge gap in skills and terms related to EBM and an average attitude towards EBM. The majority of them were using a nonscientific search engine to obtain medical information. There is a need to educate students about the proper steps for getting the scientific literature and EBM skills.


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