Attitude, Skills and Barriers in Practice of Evidence Based Medicine

Patient load, lack of time and treatment incentives are the major problems faced by healthcare professionals of being outdated and compromising quality of healthcare. Evidence based medicine has an enormous role to play in improving the present situation. Objective of study is to determine attitude, skills and barriers in practice of evidence based medicine among practitioners and pharmacy students. A cross sectional study was conducted. Institutional ethical committee permission, individual institute permission and consent from all the participants were obtained prior to the study. 323 students and 139 practitioner's responses were collected. 99.4 % of the pharmacy students and 94.2 % of practitioners were aware of evidence based medicine and had positive attitude towards evidence based medicine. The level of confidence for doing various tasks related to evidence based practice is varying widely among students. 56.3 % of pharmacy student's concurred lack of time, lack of skills and non-availability of resources were the major barriers in practice. 74.8 % practitioner's agreed that enhancing pharmacy student's knowledge in evidence based medicine will help to solve clinical queries in minimum time. Evidence based medicine practice among the pharmacy students and practitioners showed positive attitude towards evidence based medicine and supported skill development programs such as hands on training, workshops and seminars. Curriculum modifications in all healthcare professional's education according to the current needs are to be incorporated to enhance the patient care quality in this era of information explosion.