摘要：Background: Many medical schools teach the principles of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) as a subject within
their medical curriculum. Few studies have explored the barriers and enablers that students experience when
studying medicine and attempting to integrate EBM in their clinical experience. The aim of this study was to
identify undergraduate medical student perceptions of EBM, including their current use of its principles as students
and perceived future use as clinicians.
Methods: Third year medical students were recruited via email to participate in focus group discussions. Four
focus groups were conducted separately across four hospital sites. All focus groups were conducted by the same
facilitator. All discussions were transcribed verbatim, and analysed independently by the two authors according to
the principles of thematic analysis.
Results: Focus group discussions were conducted with 23 third-year medical students, representing three
metropolitan and one rural hospital sites. Five key themes emerged from the analysis of the transcripts: (1)
Rationale and observed use of EBM in practice, (2) Current use of EBM as students, (3) Perceived use of EBM as
future clinicians, (4) Barriers to practicing EBM, and (5) Enablers to facilitate the integration of EBM into clinical
practice. Key facilitators for promoting EBM to students include competency in EBM, mentorship and application to
clinical disciplines. Barriers to EBM implementation include lack of visible application by senior clinicians and
constraints by poor resourcing.
Conclusions: The principles and application of EBM is perceived by medical students to be important in both their
current clinical training and perceived future work as clinicians. Future research is needed to identify how medical
students incorporate EBM concepts into their clinical practice as they gain greater clinical exposure and competence.
