Teaching Evidence-Based Literature Retrieval to Medical Students and Residents

With the growth on the emphasis on the importance of Evidence-Based Practice in the 1980s and 90s also came the need for clinicians to have a better understanding of how to find information about best-evidence outcomes in the medical literature. Academic medical librarians responded to this need by creating educational opportunities designed to instruct clinicians in how to most effectively use literature databases to find “the best-evidence needles” in what is often a very-large haystack. Many of these educational opportunities have been directed specifically towards medical students and residents with the goal of providing them with tools that will assist them in using best-evidence in the medical literature as they begin their clinical careers. This poster will demonstrate examples of educational programs focusing upon evidence-based literature retrieval that are in place at many NEGEA affiliated medical school libraries. Poster presented at the Northeast Group on Educational Affairs 2008 Annual Educational Retreat, April 12, 2008, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT