U.K. Medical Students and Doctors Understanding of, and Views on Evidence-Based Methods

Abstract

IntroductionIn the absence of guidelines clinicians must make medical decisions using reliable evidence. This requires knowledge of research concepts and critical appraisal skills. Yet, it is recognized that training in this area is often lacking and widely varied. This paper’s aim is to survey medical students and clinicians to identify attitudes towards research education and overall confidence. MethodsA national cross-sectional study using a ten-point survey was distributed from February-March 2021. Eligible respondents were United Kingdom senior medical students in final or penultimate years and doctors pre-specialty training. Respondents were categorized into three groups: medical students, clinicians, and clinical academics.Results 139 eligible respondents completed our survey of which 58 were senior medical students across 9 medical schools. All medical students were in penultimate or final years of their medical courses. Also 81 doctors responded, 20% (n=16) of whom were clinical academics. Only 48% of medical students, 60% of clinicians and 65% of clinical academics said they’d received formal educational teaching during medical school as part of the curriculum. This increased to 72% for students who had intercalated or studied degrees previously. Clinical academics consistently reported having received the most training. Clinical academics also had the most confidence in understanding research concepts; study types, PICOS, P-value, null hypothesis, types of error, and types of bias. Medical students who intercalated were more confident in critical appraisal concepts with the majority rating themselves as ‘somewhat confident’ in 5 of the 6 research concepts compared to students who did not intercalate who rated themselves as ‘somewhat confident’ in 3 of the 6 concepts.Discussion The results show there is a general lack of teaching and confidence in evidence-based methods. Medical schools must address this to develop doctors who can make well-informed clinical decisions. Further action is required to standardize a research curriculum.