Teaching EBHC
The EBHC teaching resources library
The EBHC teaching resources library provides a platform for the global sharing of learning resources for teaching and learning Evidence-Based Health Care (EBHC).
The EBHC teaching resources library is aimed at helping people who teach EBHC to undergraduate or postgraduate health professionals, and students with a special interest in EBHC such as Students for Best Evidence. There are number of possible uses of the resources:
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Preparing a lecture at short notice
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Needing to find an amusing or engaging illustration of EBHC concepts
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Planning a course on EBHC
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Finding preparatory reading for students
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First-time course development
Development of the website was funded by the James Lind Initiative. It is hosted by the International Society for Evidence-Based Health Care.
Effective EBHC teaching
Effect of EBHC teaching
An overview of systematic reviews shows that multifaceted, clinically integrated interventions, with assessment, can lead to improvements in knowledge, skills and attitudes as well as improve critical appraisal skills and behaviour. Lecture-based versus online teaching appears to give similar results. The authors conclude that EBHC teaching and learning strategies should focus on implementing multifaceted, clinically integrated approaches with assessment. More research is needed to evaluate minimum components for multifaceted interventions, assessment of medium to long-term outcomes, and implementation of these interventions.
Sicily statement on evidence-based practice (EBP)
The Sicily Statement was developed as a result of an international meeting of EBHC teachers and developers representing various health professions in 2003. The minimum standard educational requirement of evidence-based practitioners were compiled along with a summary of evidence-based teaching strategies to effectively deliver and evaluate the steps of EBP. The article emphasises the role of EBM/EBHC in the clinical decision-making process and summarises the evolution of EBM/EBHC to EBP in order to incorporate the diverse range of healthcare professions. The statement compiled five key steps in EBP that can be applied in both clinical practice and teaching, thus integrating medical education with clinical practice.
"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."
Core competencies in EBP for health professionals: consensus statement based on a systematic review and Delphi survey
This paper reports a consensus on the core competencies of EBP that would ideally be achieved by a student of EBHC, from undergraduate to practising clinician, in any healthcare discipline. In providing direction on what ‘should’ be taught, it offers the opportunity to standardise learning across disciplines and countries. This can be augmented to help the teacher learn how to teach EBM/EBHC principles by referring to interventions identified by Young and colleagues.
The connection between shared decision making and EBP
EBHC should always start and end with patients. This article highlights the connections between EBHC and shared decision making—both needed for optimal healthcare. With the increased availability of pre-appraised evidence, clinicians need skills to critically interpret and implement research evidence using shared decision making, often facilitated with tools to improve communication. Shared decision-making skills are crucial for inclusion of patients’ values and preferences and for the practice of EBHC. This article points out that EBHC and shared decision making together reinforce the development of healthcare guidelines and not only the interaction between one patient and their clinicians. It ends unambiguously: ‘Evidence-based medicine needs SDM (shared decision making), and SDM needs EBM. Patients need both’. Teaching EBHC should, therefore, include teaching shared decision making—an area historically overlooked compared with the other EBHC steps.
EBHC Teaching Committee
The Society’s teaching committee is developing a number of areas to help those trying to develop and teaching EBHC within a healthcare program, including a curriculum statement, teaching materials, and workshops. The chair of the Curriculum Committee is Professor Craig Mellis at Sydney University.