Instructional methods used by health sciences librarians to teach evidence-based practice (EBP): a systematic review

Abstract

Background: Librarians often teach evidence-based practice (EBP) within health sciences curricula. It is not known what teaching methods are most effective.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted searching CINAHL, EMBASE, ERIC, LISTA, PubMed, Scopus, and others. Searches were completed through December 2014. No limits were applied. Hand searching of Medical Library Association annual meeting abstracts from 2009-2014 was also completed. Studies must be about EBP instruction by a librarian within undergraduate or graduate health sciences curricula and include skills assessment. Studies with no assessment, letters and comments, and veterinary education studies were excluded. Data extraction and critical appraisal were performed to determine the risk of bias of each study.

Results: Twenty-seven studies were included for analysis. Studies occurred in the United States (20), Canada (3), the United Kingdom (1), and Italy (1), with 22 in medicine and 5 in allied health. Teaching methods included lecture (20), small group or one-on-one instruction (16), computer lab practice (15), and online learning (6). Assessments were quizzes or tests, pretests and posttests, peer-review, search strategy evaluations, clinical scenario assignments, or a hybrid. Due to large variability across studies, meta-analysis was not conducted.

Discussion: Findings were weakly significant for positive change in search performance for most studies. Only one study compared teaching methods, and no one teaching method proved more effective. Future studies could conduct multisite interventions using randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trial study design and standardized assessment tools to measure outcomes.

Keywords: Health Occupations” [MeSh]; “Educational Measurement” [MeSh]; “Evidence-Based Practice” [MeSh]; “Librarians” [MeSh]; “Students; “Teaching” [MeSh].

Figure 1

PRISMA flow diagram

Figure 2

Frequency distribution of resources taught in evidence-based practice * Studies referencing the sources shown: DARE [32]; DynaMed [20]; InfoPOEMS [25]; AccessMedicine [20, 25]; PsycINFO [20, 24]; ACP Journal Club [32, 35, 39]; CINAHL [24, 39, 40]; MDConsult [22, 25, 39]; Clinical Guidelines [20, 22, 29, 38]; UpToDate [20, 32, 35, 39]; Cochrane Library [19, 20, 24, 25, 29, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39]; MEDLINE [14–17, 19–25, 27–40].

Figure 3

Methods of instruction* * Studies using each method: lecture [, , –, –28, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40]; computer lab [, –, , , , , , –37, 39, 40]; small group or 1-on-1 [14, 16, 18, 20, 21 (peer assessment), 22, 25–27, 30, 31, 33–36, 39]; online [17, 23, 24, 29, 32, 38]. † Combinations not used: lecture and online; lecture, computer lab, and online; lecture, computer lab, small group/1–on-1, and online; computer lab and online. Image icon credits: “Multiple users silhouette” (small group) and “Computer class room” were designed by Freepik <http://www.flaticon.com/authors/freepik> via Flaticon, used under attribution license; “Lecture” and “Monitor” (online) were designed by ClkerFreeVectorImages, CC0 public domain release, via Pixabay.