Background: The National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan provide free online access to The Cochrane Library to 61 regional hospitals in Taiwan area since 2007 to promote the application of evidence-based medicine (EBM). The needs of different disciplines in medicine may be different as well as the promotion strategies for the information access instruments. It is most important to know the differences between physicians and nurses for a better strategy in promoting EBM. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to understand the behavior pattern and characteristics of physicians and nurses in using The Cochrane Library. Methods: This research collected 918 answered questionnaires (physicians: nurses = 457:461) from regional hospitals to evaluate the awareness of evidence-based medicine and behaviors of searching online databases including The Cochrane Library. We used student t-test and chi² test for our statistical analysis. Results: In regard to the awareness of EBM, physicians were better than nurses (p < 0.001) as well as the weights of importance. Nurses also had less chance to reach the related facilities (p<0.001) and participate in seminars (p<0.001), especially for utilization of The Cochrane Library (p<0.001). Physicians were more familiar with the online medical databases (p<0.001) and more frequent users of them than nurses (p<0.001). However, both groups agreed that skills of the EBM practice deserve improvement. Physicians were also more keen on Cochrane review articles and clinical trials articles than nurses (p<0.005). Conclusions: There were significant discrepancies between physicians and nurses in the application of EBM from our survey. The nurses can enhance the use of available facilities and participate in seminars to improve the knowledge of EBM and medical databases. The easy accessibility of facilities is essential for the nurses. Both groups will benefit from training programs in the EBM practice. The data suggest that training programs could be a useful means to promote the EBM practice and the use of The Cochrane Library.

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