Faculty Overview of Evidence Informed Practice (EIP): Mapping EIP Competencies

School of Naturopathic Medicine (SNM) Program Outcomes

SNM Outcome #5: Demonstrate the ability to apply information literacy skills to efficiently and effectively practice evidence-informed clinical practice in patient-care settings.

Information Literacy Competencies

(for meeting the outcome above}

Competency  I: Determines the nature and extent of information needed.

Competency II: Understands copyright law and uses information effectively, ethically, and legally.

Competency III: Able to search across a wide range of platforms, tools, and media.

Competency IV: Acquires needed information effectively and efficiently.

Competency V: Critically evaluates information and sources and develops answerable questions; knows when to revise the initial search query and/or to use additional resources in locating answer(s).

Competency VI: Understands and can apply the principles of evidence-informed practice (EIP).

Competency VII: Understands that information literacy is a process requiring: knowledge of a broad range of resources and how to search them, ability to assess the relative value of a resource for a particular need, and motivation to seek out highest quality sources to answer the question at hand.

NOTE: Competencies based on the ALA Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering Technology and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Medical School Objectives Project: Medical Informatics Objectives.

ND Year 1 students:

• The benefits of learning how to locate and integrate relevant research into patient care. Such research is sometimes referred to as POEMs or Patient Oriented Evidence that Matters; it refers to studies that:
  • address a clinical problem or clinical question likely to come up in family practice settings;
  • use patient-centered outcomes; and that
  • could potentially change practitioner recommendations for patient care if, after careful analysis, the study results seem credible and relevant.
• Formulating background questions; thinking in terms of "What type of question is this?"
• Becoming familiar with a variety of background resources to ensure efficient searching.

ND Year 2 students:

• Importance of acquiring high level primary research skills in order to support individualized patient care.
• Differentiating background questions (general information) from clinical questions (directly related to patient care).
• Advantages of using PICO (Patient population/Problem, Intervention/Exposure, Comparison, Outcome)

ND Year 3 students:

• Evaluating research studies for validity, always keeping the patient in mind.
• Continuing to develop the necessary skills to formulate clinically-answerable questions.
• Importance of exploring new clinical resources and becoming more familiar with capabilities and search features of "old friends".