Embarrassment of Riches--Adapting to a Surfeit of Instruction Time Teaching Evidence-Based Dentistry Concepts to First-Year Dental Students

Abstract

Objective: The medical librarian will develop new active learning content for first-year predoctoral dental students to learn the Question and Find portions of the evidence-based dentistry (EBD) process. Methods: Restructuring of the dental curriculum resulted in the librarian being awarded more instruction time to teach the Question (PICO –Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) and Find (search PubMed) portions of the evidence-based dentistry (EBD) process in a two-credit critical thinking research class. Instruction time increased from one session of 90 minutes to two sessions, 240 minutes total.A new active learning activity will be developed to enhance skills in portions of the course where the students have traditionally under performed, due to lack of time. These skills include more accurately matching clinical question concepts to the corresponding PICO element and analyzing the rigor of the automatic term mapping results in PubMed. Another key skill is to create new search strategies in PubMed when the search result list is inadequate or null.Some teaching elements from the previous version of the class will continue: the flipped classroom pre-class recordings, a PICO worksheet for in-class use, student reasoning of their search strategies, and the librarian providing live feedback of search strategies. Results: Increased instruction time leads to more examples of clinical questions, PICO formatting, and PubMed searching. A segment on the importance of lifelong learning in the context of competency-based education was added. A formative assessment session, a Jeopardy-style quiz element, was reinstated to the course. Conclusion: The students had more opportunities to actively learn evidence-based dentistry skills –PICO formatting, PubMed searching, and learning the EBD process. With more instruction time, greater emphasis could be devoted to lifelong learning, and a formative assessment session was used to tie in all the elements.