Background: Physician assistant accreditation requires an evidence based medicine component. The librarian was approached by the faculty to lead three sessions: two in their didactic years and one during their clinical year. The objectives of the library component are to teach students how to ask, acquire, and assess research to answer clinical questions. Students prepare a mock systematic review they convert into a post as their capstone project.
Description: The librarian leads 3 sessions throughout the physician assistant curriculum. They structure the 3 sessions to match the stages of evidence based medicine: ask, acquire, and appraise. The individual sessions are then designed with a combination of the constructivist education theory, developed by Jean Piaget, and humanist theory based on Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This means creating a friendly environment to encourage participation through jokes, analogies, and cultural discussion. Scaffolding is done through active-learning activities such as pre and post assessment polls involving clinical scenarios, and keyword development.
Conclusion: The students must prepare a poster for their mock systematic review. The methods include the search strategy, database searched, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and example case. They must make a clinical decision based on their findings.
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