Background: The National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan provide free online access to The Cochrane Library to 61 regional hospitals in Taiwan area since 2007 to promote the application of evidence-based medicine (EBM). The needs of different disciplines in medicine may be different as well as the promotion strategies for the information access instruments. It is most important to know the differences between physicians and nurses for a better strategy in promoting EBM. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to understand the behavior pattern and characteristics of physicians and nurses in using The Cochrane Library. Methods: This research collected 918 answered questionnaires (physicians: nurses = 457:461) from regional hospitals to evaluate the awareness of evidence-based medicine and behaviors of searching online databases including The Cochrane Library. We used student t-test and chi² test for our statistical analysis. Results: In regard to the awareness of EBM, physicians were better than nurses (p < 0.001) as well as the weights of importance.
