Article type
Year
Abstract
Background:
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is regarded as core competence to improve healthcare quality. The present generation student community should be inculcated with sound and adequate knowledge of EBP, as they are the game-changers in tomorrow’s healthcare professions. The purpose of this study was to describe the attitudes, knowledge, understanding and barriers of students from various health science faculties regarding EBP.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey design with random sampling technique was used to collect the data from healthcare science students in Navodaya health science institutions who attended the free webinar, 'Practical application of The Cochrane Library with case study'. Participants completed a questionnaire designed to determine attitudes, knowledge, understanding and barriers regarding EBP, as well as demographic information about themselves and their practice settings.
Results:
- Attitudes about EBP: only 13% of respondents strongly agreed that EBP improves the quality of patient care, followed by 11% that strongly agreed that application of EBP is necessary in healthcare practice.
- Knowledge about systematic reviews: more than half of the respondants (58.9%) had a medium level of knowledge.
- Understanding of the terms: when we assessed the understanding of quantitative terms such as relative risk, absolute risk, odds ratio, meta-analysis, confidence interval, heterogeneicity and publications by us using systematic review, less than 10% of respondants understood them completely.
- Awareness of Cochrane: 60% had heard about Cochrane, 50% had heard about The Cochrane Library, 20% have used the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and 24% read systematic reviews in The Cochrane Library.
- Barriers in EBP: the top three barriers to practising EBP were: poor ability to appraise the literature critically, lack of role models, and understanding of statistical analysis.
Conclusions:
The study shows that the young researchers should be strongly supported through the education system to provide high quality health care.
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is regarded as core competence to improve healthcare quality. The present generation student community should be inculcated with sound and adequate knowledge of EBP, as they are the game-changers in tomorrow’s healthcare professions. The purpose of this study was to describe the attitudes, knowledge, understanding and barriers of students from various health science faculties regarding EBP.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey design with random sampling technique was used to collect the data from healthcare science students in Navodaya health science institutions who attended the free webinar, 'Practical application of The Cochrane Library with case study'. Participants completed a questionnaire designed to determine attitudes, knowledge, understanding and barriers regarding EBP, as well as demographic information about themselves and their practice settings.
Results:
- Attitudes about EBP: only 13% of respondents strongly agreed that EBP improves the quality of patient care, followed by 11% that strongly agreed that application of EBP is necessary in healthcare practice.
- Knowledge about systematic reviews: more than half of the respondants (58.9%) had a medium level of knowledge.
- Understanding of the terms: when we assessed the understanding of quantitative terms such as relative risk, absolute risk, odds ratio, meta-analysis, confidence interval, heterogeneicity and publications by us using systematic review, less than 10% of respondants understood them completely.
- Awareness of Cochrane: 60% had heard about Cochrane, 50% had heard about The Cochrane Library, 20% have used the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and 24% read systematic reviews in The Cochrane Library.
- Barriers in EBP: the top three barriers to practising EBP were: poor ability to appraise the literature critically, lack of role models, and understanding of statistical analysis.
Conclusions:
The study shows that the young researchers should be strongly supported through the education system to provide high quality health care.