Evidence‐based dentistry skill acquisition by second‐year dental students

Introduction Identification and assessment of Evidence‐based dentistry (EBD) outcomes have been elusive. Our objective was to describe EBD skill acquisition during the second (D2) year of pre‐doctoral dental education and student competency at the end of the year. Methods The first and fourth (final) curricular‐required EBD Exercises (ie, application of the first 4 steps of the 5‐Step evidence‐based practice process applied to a real or hypothetical situation) completed by D2 students (n = 151) during 2014‐2015 and 2015‐2016 were evaluated to measure skill acquisition through use of a novel rubric with measures of performance from novice to expert. Exercises were evaluated on the performance for each step, identification of manuscript details and reflective commentary on manuscript components. Changes in performance were evaluated using the chi‐square test for trend and the Wilcoxon signed‐rank test. Results Seventy‐eight per cent of students scored competent or higher on the Ask step at the beginning of the D2 year; scores improved with 58% scoring proficient or expert on the fourth Exercise (P