Perception of teachers on evidence based medical education (EBME) of different medical colleges in Bangladesh

Abstract

To assess the perception of teachers on evidence based medical education (EBME) of different medical colleges in Bangladesh. Research design is cross-sectional, descriptive type. The population is all the teachers of 4 government and 4 private medical colleges in Bangladesh. Sample size: 172. Research tool: Self-administered structured questionnaire. Result: Most of the respondents were in the middle age group 31-40 years 79 (45.9%), male 102 (59.3%) were than female 70 (40.7%) and they were equal in number (86) in each government and private medical colleges. Duration of teaching varied from 1 to more than 20 years. Access to evidence of teachers was more in private than government medical colleges. Most of the respondents agreed (mean 4.36) that promotion of EBME will improve professional development and also will increase patient's satisfaction. There was a significant difference about the attitude between government and private medical colleges (p<.001) and private medical college teacher's have better attitude towards education, policymaking but not differ in case of professionalism (p.008.). Although the respondents have less accessibility to evidence but they also have good attitude towards EBME (p<.001). In case of opinion moving from traditional to EBME most of the respondents 83 (48.5%) agreed that by using evidence based guidelines practice developed by others and significant difference was observed in government and private medical colleges ((p<.0001). In case of awareness regardings medical journals most of the respondents 115 (66.9%) were aware but regarding medical education journals most of the respondents 108 (62.8%) were unaware. Regarding awareness there was also significant difference between government and private medical colleges (p<.001). About understanding of the technical terms used in EBME 47 (27.3%) respondents can not explain at all, 95 (55.2%) respondents can explain at least one of those and only 30 (17.4%) respondents canexplain those to others and difference between government and private medical colleges was statistically significant (p<.001). Post graduation, duration of teaching, access to evidence were identified as the factors which have effect on perception and differ significantly as unpaired t-test, Chi-Square test and one way ANOVA revealed p<.0005 separately. Discussion: Similar study was also conducted in Scotland and published in BMJ in 1998(10), it also revealed that respondents had a very good attitude towards evidence based practice, but less awareness and understanding about the terms which are commonly used like this study. Most of the respondents expressed their opinion about moving from traditional to evidence based practice by using protocols or guidelines developed by others, which is also similar in this study. Conclusion: Study revealed that the perception of teachers on EBME is average and there is significant difference in perception between government and private medical colleges teachers. Workingmedical colleges, duration of teaching, having post graduation and access to evidence are identified factors which have effect on the component of perception, such as; attitude towards EBME (t-test, p<.001), opinion about moving from traditional to EBME (Chi-Square test, p<.0005), awareness about the resources of EBME (Chi-Square test, p<.001) and understanding about the technical terms used in EBME (Chi-Square test, p<.0005) and it was statistically significant