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Towards evidence‐based practice in medical training: making evaluations more meaningful
Author(s) -
Drescher Uta,
Warren Fiona,
Norton Kingsley
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2929.2004.02021.x
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , training (meteorology) , context (archaeology) , medical education , field (mathematics) , psychology , knowledge base , computer science , applied psychology , management science , medicine , nursing , artificial intelligence , engineering , paleontology , physics , mathematics , meteorology , pure mathematics , biology
Context The evaluation of training is problematic and the evidence base inconclusive. This situation may arise for 2 main reasons: training is not understood as a complex intervention and, related to this, the evaluation methods applied are often overly simplistic. Method This paper makes the case for construing training, especially in the field of specialist medical education, as a complex intervention. It also selectively reviews the available literature in order to match evaluative techniques with the demonstrated complexity. Conclusions Construing training as a complex intervention can provide a framework for selecting the most appropriate methodology to evaluate a given training intervention and to appraise the evidence base for training fairly, choosing from among both quantitative and qualitative approaches and applying measurement at multiple levels of training impact.