title: Peer-teaching of evidence-based medicine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many medical schools teach the principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM) as part of their undergraduate curriculum. Medical students perceive that EBM is valuable to their undergraduate and postgraduate career. Students may experience barriers to applying EBM principles, especially when searching for evidence or identifying high-quality resources.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Evidence Search is a service that enables access to authoritative clinical and non-clinical evidence and best practice through a web-based portal.
  
  
  METHODS
  Evidence-based medicine workshops were organised and delivered by fourth-year medical students, having first received training from NICE to become NICE student champions. The workshops covered the basic principles of EBM and focused on retrieving EBM resources for study through the NICE Evidence Search portal. The scheme was evaluated using a pre-workshop survey and an 8-12 week post-workshop survey. Self-reported confidence in searching for evidence-based resources increased from 29 per cent before the workshop to 87 per cent after the workshop. Only 1 per cent of students rated evidence-based resources as their first preference pre-workshop, compared with 31 per cent post-workshop.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results show that although many students were aware of evidence-based resources, they tended not to use them as their preferred resource. Despite appreciating the value of evidence-based resources, few students were confident in accessing and using such resources for pre-clinical study. A peer-taught workshop in EBM improved students' confidence with, and use of, evidence-based resources.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK.
authors.forename: Eliot
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rees
authors.forename: Yashashwi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Abhishek
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chitnis
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Archer
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fotheringham
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Renwick
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003162:Competency-Based Education / Q000379:methods*; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D011361:Professional Competence; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult