Course Support: Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship

In addition to those directives and tips listed in the clerkship syllabus, these tips will help you as you write your EBM assignment.

Case:

• Make sure that as your present the pertinent details of your case, you are explicit in describing the nature and context of what the EBM question is.
• Cases without a clear question are confusing.

PICO:

• Make sure that all of the important details of your case are in the PICO in the proper place. Make sure that your Outcome is not vague.
• Don’t write, “improvement of X”, “X is better than Y”, or “resolution of Y.” These are often too vague and don’t really offer an actual outcome.
• Think about how you would practically measure an outcome for your patient.

Search:

• You should be running multiple searches before settling on a final search.
• Consider using MeSH, where appropriate.
• Think about which filters make the most sense and don’t use ones that don’t (look at your results to see what effect filters have).
• Always consider using the Review filter.
• Think about how your search is organized and if that is helping or hurting you.
• While complicated searches seem better, often times simple looking searches work best.

Appraisal:

• Write this section in your own words, don’t just restate what the author has said.
• Make sure that anything that you take from other sources (words, graphs, images, etc…) are cited in your work.
• Use Vancouver Citation Style when referencing.