Teaching and Learning Evidence-based Medicine in Complementary, Allied, and Alternative Health Care: an Integrated Tailor-made Course

Background: Current provision for teaching evidence-based medicine (EBM) to allied, alternative and complementary practitioners is limited. Using sound educational principles, an integrated EBM course was developed with an introductory 1-day workshop and a web-based module. This paper describes the development of the educational curriculum, evaluates its success, and appraises its methods critically.

Methods: The course introduced participants to the basic principles of EBM and showed how EBM could be integrated in their clinical practices. The curriculum focused on aims and objectives devised to meet the participants' learning needs. Course content organization, and teaching methods were developed using proven educational strategies.

Results: The course evaluation, based on completed responses to a questionnaire survey, showed that 140/187 (74.9%) of the participants felt that EBM was essential in their practices, following attendance at the 1-day workshops. Almost all participants who took the web-based modules (100%, 33/33) felt that the course gave them skills that were useful in clinical practice and gained the confidence to find and appraise literature.

Conclusions: It is important to provide a tailor-made learning experience suitable for the target audience when delivering EBM teaching. By using the educational strategies described in this paper, EBM teaching can provide an adaptable learning experience that is suitable for different target audiences.