ArticleJournal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA2020
Understanding medical student evidence-based medicine information seeking in an authentic clinical simulation.
Article in Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of the EBM-integrated BOPPPS model on clinical competence and EBM confidence in neurology clerkships for three-year junior college medical clerks.Frontiers in public health · 2025Trial
- Information mastery skills among pre-clerkship students in a problem-based learning curriculum: a case report.Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA · 2026Article
- Digital health competences and AI beliefs as conditions for the practice of evidence-based medicine: a study of prospective physicians in Canada.Medical education online · 2025Article
- "I still have not mastered that skill!" Medical student perspectives on a simulation-based evidence-based medicine competency assessment.Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA · 2025Article
- Exploring prospects, hurdles, and road ahead for generative artificial intelligence in orthopedic education and training.BMC medical education · 2024Review
- Librarian-Led Assessment of Medical Students' Evidence-Based Medicine Competency: Facilitators and Barriers.Perspectives on medical education · 2024Article
- Initial efforts to improve medical student information-seeking behavior with embedded library instruction.Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA · 2023Article
- Undergraduate research in medicine: A summary of the evidence on problems, solutions and outcomes.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2022Review
- Practical guide for the use of medical evidence in scientific publication: Recommendations for the medical student: Narrative review.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2021Review
- Training and standardization of simulated patients for multicentre studies in clinical pharmacy education.Pharmacy practiceArticle
- The Role of Information Visualisation and Anecdotal Evidence in Medical Students' Clinical Reasoning Process: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveEvidence-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.
methodsMedical 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.
resultsHalf (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.
conclusionClinically 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.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.