Japanese Resident Physicians' Attitudes, knowledge, and Perceived Barriers on the Practice of Evidence Based Medicine: a Survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Evidence based medicine plays a crucial role as a tool that helps integrate research evidence into clinical practice. However, few reports have yet to examine its application in daily practice among resident physicians in Japan. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes towards and knowledge of EBM among resident physicians in Japanese and determine perceived barriers to its use.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>A cross-sectional, self-administered anonymous questionnaire was distributed to 60 resident staffs at Saga University Hospital in Japan.</p> <p>Forty residents completed and returned the questionnaire. Fifty four percent of respondents understood the basic terminology of EBM, 3% could explain this to others, and 41% indicated they would like to understand the terminology more. Thirteen percent admitted having a good understanding of EBM basic skills. Fifty respondents indicated having read EBM sources, but only 3% indicated that they use these sources in clinical decision making. The most prominent barriers of EBM application revealed in this study were insufficient time to access the sources, a lack of native language references, and insufficient basic EBM skills, but not scepticism about the EBM concept.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In general, respondents positively welcomed EBM, and moderately understood and knew basic EBM skill; however, barriers in its application were shown to exist.</p

An instrument for evaluating clinical teaching in Japan: content validity and cultural sensitivity

BACKGROUND: Many instruments for evaluating clinical teaching have been developed but almost all in Western countries. None of these instruments have been validated for the Asian culture, and a literature search yielded no instruments that were developed specifically for that culture. A key element that influences content validity in developing instruments for evaluating the quality of teaching is culture. The aim of this study was to develop a culture-specific instrument with strong content validity for evaluating clinical teaching in initial medical postgraduate training in Japan. METHODS: Based on data from a literature search and an earlier study we prepared a draft evaluation instrument. To ensure a good cultural fit of the instrument with the Asian context we conducted a modified Delphi procedure among three groups of stakeholders (five education experts, twelve clinical teachers and ten residents) to establish content validity, as this factor is particularly susceptible to cultural factors. RESULTS: Two rounds of Delphi were conducted. Through the procedure, 52 prospective items were reworded, combined or eliminated, resulting in a 25-item instrument validated for the Japanese setting. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study describing the development and content validation of an instrument for evaluating clinical teaching specifically tailored to an East Asian setting. The instrument has similarities and differences compared with instruments of Western origin. Our findings suggest that designers of evaluation instruments should consider the probability that the content validity of instruments for evaluating clinical teachers can be influenced by cultural aspects. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1472-6920-14-179) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users