Addressing the ongoing friction between anecdotal and evidence-based teachings in osteopathic education in Europe

Abstract

Despite a growing interest in research and the implementation of standards for osteopathic education and practice in Europe, the inter-professional dialogue remains insubstantial. This article calls attention to the continuous challenges of reconciling anecdotal and evidence-based perspectives and offers suggestions on how to address these areas further.

Professional identity in osteopathy: A scoping review of peer-reviewed primary osteopathic research

“…Taking values as an example, research might investigate the nature of "osteopathic values" per se [52], or perhaps ask questions such as, "How do clinical role models impact students' epistemic values?" [51,67,87]. Equally, observation of behaviours may raise, or answer, questions about underlying values, for example "What can we learn about osteopaths' ethical values by observation of patient-practitioner interaction?…”

“…Initiatives in the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine (IJOM) have undoubtedly raised the profile of osteopathic education research [39][40][41], but this has often focused on practical issues such as student assessment [42][43][44] and learning resources [45][46][47]. A search of IJOM, from inception to present, revealed only three examples of peer-reviewed primary research with explicit OPI focus [23,24,48], although there are some discussion papers [39,[49][50][51][52][53]. However, inferences about OPI can be found across primary osteopathic research, even when not the explicit focus.…”