A survey of the perceptions and behaviors of chiropractic interns pertaining to evidence-based principles in clinical decision making.

OBJECTIVE

This study explored how chiropractic interns applied evidenced-based concepts, the sources of evidence they used, and how useful they perceived these sources to be in clinical decision making.

METHODS

A questionnaire containing 13 items in a Likert 5-point scale was administered to 28 chiropractic interns to gather information on the evidence types they commonly accessed and their perceived usefulness of these sources in clinical decision making. The interns were in the 8th semester of the training program.

RESULTS

There was a 93% (n = 26) response rate. Clinical guidelines were rated as the most helpful resource in clinical decision making (81%), followed by lecture materials (77%), journals (54%), databases (50%), and textbooks (35%). Students recognized scientific evidence as the most important aspect in clinical decision making. They found their personal experience and the views of their clinician to be equally important and patient preference the least.

CONCLUSION

Interns routinely employed high-quality levels of evidence in clinical decision making. They also considered their early, limited clinical experience as important as that of their clinical supervisor in decision making. This finding should be investigated further.