Objective Evidence-based medicine practices of medical students in clinical scenarios are not well understood. Optimal foraging theory (OFT) is one framework that could be useful in breaking apart information-seeking patterns to determine effectiveness and efficiency of different methods of information seeking. The aims of this study were to use OFT to determine the number and type of resources used in information seeking when medical students answer a clinical question, to describe common information-seeking patterns, and identify patterns associated with higher quality answers to a clinical question. Methods Medical students were observed via screen recordings while they sought evidence related to a clinical question and provided a written response for what they would do for that patient based on the evidence that they found. Results Half (51%) of study participants used only 1 source before answering the clinical question. While the participants were able to successfully and efficiently navigate point-of-care tools and search engines, searching PubMed was not favored, with only half (48%) of PubMed searches being successful. There were no associations between information-seeking patterns and the quality of answers to the clinical question. Conclusion Clinically experienced medical students most frequently relied on point-of-care tools alone or in combination with PubMed to answer a clinical question. OFT can be used as a framework to understand the information-seeking practices of medical students in clinical scenarios. This has implications for both teaching and assessment of evidence-based medicine in medical students.

中文翻译：

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了解医学生在真实临床模拟中寻求循证医学信息

目的医学生在临床场景中的循证医学实践尚不完全清楚。最佳觅食理论 (OFT) 是一种框架，可用于分解信息搜索模式以确定不同信息搜索方法的有效性和效率。本研究的目的是使用 OFT 来确定医学生回答临床问题时用于信息搜索的资源的数量和类型，描述常见的信息搜索模式，并确定与临床问题的更高质量答案相关的模式。方法 通过屏幕录像观察医学生，同时他们寻找与临床问题相关的证据，并根据他们发现的证据提供书面答复，说明他们将为该患者做什么。结果 一半 (51%) 的研究参与者在回答临床问题之前只使用了一种来源。虽然参与者能够成功且有效地使用即时护理工具和搜索引擎，但搜索 PubMed 并不受欢迎，只有一半 (48%) 的 PubMed 搜索成功。信息寻求模式与临床问题答案的质量之间没有关联。结论 有临床经验的医学生最常单独依靠即时护理工具或结合 PubMed 来回答临床问题。OFT 可以作为一个框架来了解医学生在临床场景中的信息寻求实践。这对医学生循证医学的教学和评估都有影响。