Medical Student Responses in Critical Appraisal: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Title: Medical Student Responses in Critical Appraisal: A Qualitative Analysis

Objectives: To identify themes in medical student critical appraisal skills when asked to complete an evidence-based medicine (EBM) assignment. Researchers will analyze identified themes to find common approaches used by medical students when critically appraising a research article.

Methods: Our team (three medical librarians and a statistician) will conduct a qualitative analysis of first year clerkship (third year of medical school) students’ responses to an EBM assignment wherein students are asked to critically appraise a research article and apply it to patient care. Previously, we noted that many students use factors such as journal reputation or impact factor as proxies for critically appraising study methodology and results. The librarian team is conducting a qualitative analysis of textual responses by gathering one years’ worth of quiz responses. Each team member is individually reviewing each response for general themes. After this open coding is completed, librarian team members will collaboratively develop a code list. Each team member will then code each assignment individually. Statistics will be run for inter-rater reliability and discrepancies will be resolved by librarian group consensus.

Results: The team will present main and secondary themes. Commentary and examples will be provided by the librarian team on trends seen in medical student critical appraisal.

Conclusions: This project is ongoing. However, we anticipate that our results will inform EBM instruction by identifying common themes in medical trainees' early attempts to apply critical appraisal skills to a clinical scenario.