Background

1
Peer Teaching of Evidence-Based Medicine for
Undergraduate Students EL Rees, Y Sinha, AR
Chitnis, J Archer, V Fotheringham, S
Renwick School of Medicine, Keele University,
Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
Background Defined as the conscientious,
explicit, and judicious use of current best
evidence in making decisions about the care of
individual patients1 evidence-based medicine
(EBM) is incorporated into the undergraduate
curricula of many medical schools. Medical
students perceive EBM to be valuable to their
undergraduate and postgraduate career2,3. There
are, however, many barriers to students applying
EBM principles to their studies. One such barrier
is ineffective searching for evidence based
guidelines and identifying high quality
resources.2 NICE Evidence Search (formerly NHS
Evidence) is a service provided by the National
Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
that enables access to authoritative clinical and
non-clinical evidence and best practice through a
web-based portal.4 Summary of work With the
assistance of NICE, we designed, implemented, and
evaluated a peer-taught workshop on the
principles finding high quality evidence. We
aimed to promote the use of, and improve
students ability to find, evidence-based
resources focussing on the NICE Evidence Search
web portal. The Workshops were organised and
delivered by fourth year medical students who had
received training from NICE to become Evidence
Search student champions. The student
champions attended a one day course that focussed
on how to use NICE Evidence Search more
effectively, and on teaching skills for the
facilitation of workshops.5 Summary of
results 191 medical students attended Year 1,
n44 (38 of cohort) Year 2, n82 (55 of
cohort) Year 3, n64 (49 of cohort) Response
rates 90 - pre-workshop survey 59 -
post-workshop survey Pre-workshop
findings 52 - searched for evidence-based
resources 29 - confident or very confident
searching 1 - evidence-based resources as 1st
preference Post-workshop findings 86 - find
Evidence Search useful or very useful 87 -
confident or very confident searching 31 -
Evidence Search resources as 1st
preference Discussion Attendees responded
positively to the sessions. Students stated that
it was helpful to have this session delivered by
other students, who were able to supplement the
sessions with anecdotes of how they have found
EBM useful in clinical placements. In addition,
the workshop facilitators emphasised the role EBM
plays in future assignments, such as student
selected components, critical appraisal and case
reports. Assessment is known to drive learning6,
and relating the sessions to future assessment
encouraged students to participate actively in
the workshops. At Keele School of Medicine,
students are taught EBM progressively each year
through repeated sessions in the spiral
curriculum. Students generally have a good
understanding of the methods for accessing
high-quality evidence-based guidelines but often
revert to the information that is most easily
accessed via general internet search engines such
as Google7. We anticipate that an early
intervention in year 1, followed by reinforcement
in subsequent years, will promote sustained use
of NICE Evidence Search. Conclusion Whilst many
students were aware of evidence-based resources,
they tended not to use them as their preferred
source. The workshops were effective in
promoting the use of NICE Evidence Search as a
tool for accessing evidence-based resources..
The workshops were received well by students with
one student commenting, due to the vast array of
material available online, it is good to have a
resource which you know can be trusted and
provides concise, relevant information.

• Evaluation of workshops
• Pre-workshop survey
• Post-workshop survey 8-12 weeks

• Key features of the workshops
• For students of years 1-3
• Voluntary
• 1 hour session
• Tailored to current topics

KMES
References 1. Sackett DL, Rosenberg WM, Gray JA,
Haynes RB, Richardson WS. Evidence based
medicine What it is and what it isn't. BMJ.
1996312(7023)71-72. 2. Ilic D, Forbes K.
Undergraduate medical student perceptions and use
of evidence based medicine A qualitative study.
BMC Med Educ. 20101058-58. 3. Cayley,William
E.,,Jr. Evidence-based medicine for medical
students Introducing EBM in a primary care
rotation. WMJ. 2005104(3)34-37. 4. NICE. NHS
Evidence Search. http//www.evidence.nhs.uk/.
Updated 2013. Accessed 25/07, 2013. 5. NICE
Evidence Search Student Champion Scheme
http//www.nice.org.uk/getinvolved/studentchampion
s/StudentChampions.jsp Accessed 25/07/2013 6
Raupach T, Brown J, Anders S, Hasenfuss G,
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powerful drivers of student learning than
resource intensive teaching formats. BMC Med.
20131161. 7.Duran-Nelson A, Gladding S, Beattie
J, Nixon LJ. Should we Google it? Resource Use by
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Keele Medical Education Society