A Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME) systematic review of: What works best for health professions students using mobile (hand-held) devices for educational support on clinical placements? BEME Guide No. 52

AbstractBackground: Ingrained assumptions about clinical placements (clerkships) for health professions students pursuing primary basic qualifications might undermine best educational use of mobile devices.Question: What works best for health professions students using mobile (hand-held) devices for educational support on clinical placements?Methods: A Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME) effectiveness-review of “justification” complemented by “clarification” and “description” research searched: MEDLINE, Educational Resource Information Center, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PsycInfo, Cochrane Central, Scopus (1988–2016). Reviewer-pairs screened titles/abstracts. One pair coded, extracted, and synthesized evidence, working within the pragmatism paradigm.Summary of results: From screening 2279 abstracts, 49 articles met inclusion-criteria, counting four systematic reviews for context. The 45 articles of at least Kirkpatrick K2 primary research mostly contributed...