The Relationship between Information Literacy Skills and Evidence-based Medicine Competencies in Clinical Residents

The emergence of new information and communication technologies has emphasized the importance of obtaining reliable and up-to-date information. There is a need to encourage clinical residents to use up-to-date medical evidence in clinical decision-making, which could empower their information literacy skills. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between possessing information literacy skills and competencies of evidence-based medicine by clinical residents at Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KUMS), Iran.

The present study was survey-based. The study population consisted of all clinical residents at KUMS. One hundred fifty participants were selected at random to participate in completing the questionnaire. The data were presented using descriptive statistics (mean; SD) and analyzed using statistical tests: Pearson correlation coefficient; linear regression; independent t-test.

Pearson Correlation Coefficient between information literacy and evidence-based medicine was obtained 0.529 (p-value=0.001(. Also, there was a significant relationship between information literacy skills and evidence-based medicine competencies by the clinical residency. With a mean score equal to 3.22, the clinical residency’s ability as to the components "information need" and "information organization" was more than that with other information literacy skills. The clinical residents' ability to use pieces of evidence (3.09) in the evidence-based approach was also higher than that of other components in this approach.

Improving clinical residents' ability to apply information literacy skills to gain medical evidence improves their clinical decision-making performance and may lead to the improvement of health in society.