Teaching evidence-based medicine application: transformative concepts of information mastery that foster evidence-informed decision-making

Abstract

Information mastery is an approach to applying the methods of evidence-based medicine to everyday practice. The aim of this research is to describe concepts identified by clinicians attending a 3-day course on applied evidence-based medicine that led to ‘transformative learning’, in which they experienced a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings and actions in their approach to making medical decisions. We used a qualitative approach to capture the lived experience of 12 current and 9 prior attendees of the ‘information mastery’ course through individual interviews, focus groups and observation. Data were thematically analysed and themes were reported. We found that current and previous attendees who seemed to undergo transformative learning identified eight concepts that constitute an information mastery approach to medical decision-making, which we grouped into two general themes. Some participants attending this course underwent transformative learning, resulting in an alternative decision-making process no longer relying on the anecdotes or guidance of others (what ‘ought to work’) and instead on incorporating patient-oriented outcomes based on the best evidence (what ‘does work’).