Promoting evidence based medicine in preclinical medical students via a federated literature search tool

BACKGROUND: Medical educators are increasingly faced with directives to teach Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) skills. Because of its nature, integrating fundamental EBM educational content is a challenge in the preclinical years. AIMS: To analyse preclinical medical student user satisfaction and feedback regarding a clinical EBM search strategy. METHODS: The authors introduced a custom EBM search option with a self-contained education structure to first-year medical students. The implementation took advantage of a major curricular change towards case-based instruction. Medical student views and experiences were studied regarding the tool's convenience, problems and the degree to which they used it to answer questions raised by case-based instruction. RESULTS: Surveys were completed by 70% of the available first-year students. Student satisfaction and experiences were strongly positive towards the EBM strategy, especially of the tool's convenience and utility for answering issues raised during case-based learning sessions. About 90% of the students responded that the tool was easy to use, productive and accessed for half or more of their search needs. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that the integration of an educational EBM search tool can be positively received by preclinical medical students.