Perception of journal club seminars by medical doctoral students: results from five years of evaluation

The nurses perceived educational values and experience of journal club activities - A cross-sectional study in Qatar

BACKGROUND

Journal club (JC) is widely used as an educational method to support nurses in up-to-date clinical practices, acquire critical appraisal skills, and promote evidence-based nursing practice. Traditionally, JC activities were conducted as face-to-face sessions. However, after the emergence of the pandemic, many educational activities including JC turn to the online platform. This study aims to assess the perceived educational value of JC and the experience of virtual journal club (VJC) among nurses.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional research design was used to gather the information from the nurses using the Nursing journal club perception scale. A purposive sampling method was used to enroll 450 participants from the JC attendees of various facilities between May andAugust 2022. The data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test.

RESULTS

The data from 450 participants were analyzed with a response rate of 40.1%. The majority of the participants were females (82.4%) and belonged to the 35-44 years' age group (39.6%). Mostly, the subjects were registered nurses or midwives (78%) and had more than 5 years of clinical experience (45.8%). The mean perceived educational value of JC and VJC was 62.9 ± 8.3 and 56.3 ± 8.9, respectively. The nurse educators are holding higher educational value of JC as compared to other participants including clinical nurses, charge nurses, head nurses, and director of nurses (P = 0.03). Additionally, 90% of participants strongly agreed that the nursing journal club helps them to disseminate and reinforce evidence-based practice, update their clinical knowledge, and was very informative. Furthermore, 80% of participants agreed that educational standards, social networking, and time allocation of the VJC are enhancing the chance of attending more sessions.

CONCLUSION

The JC has a vital role in preparing nurses for promoting research culture and practicing evidence-based nursing care. The national health strategies are focused on improving research capabilities and enhancing research within the national context. The implementation of evidence-based practice in healthcare involves enhancing formal research opportunities, promoting continuing education in research, developing skills in addressing research gaps, and enhancing research-oriented cultures in healthcare facilities. The nursing leadership can play a key role to support the initiatives to develop and conduct nursing JC in their facilities to improve the nurse's research skills and evidence-based nursing practice.

Effectiveness of Journal Club Presentation as a Learning Modality in the Endocrinology and Endocrine Surgery Module in an Integrative Undergraduate Medical Curriculum

Introduction

The journal club is widely used in most postgraduate programs of medical institutes; however, the use of journal clubs in undergraduate medical programs is nearly absent or very rare.

Aim

The aim of this work is to document the insertion of the journal club as a method for learning in the undergraduate starting with the endocrinology/endocrine surgery module to be fully implemented in all modules of the MBBS of FMBU. In addition, the study aimed to outline the steps of designing a journal club by following specific procedures and Identification of students' and faculty satisfaction through 5-years implementation of the journal club.

Material and Methods

A total of 453 students representing the five consecutive batches of medical students from 2019 to 2023 who studied the endocrinology/endocrine surgery module were entered into the study. Following guidelines for implementation of the journal clubs that were adopted by the quality and accreditation committee, the faculty select the types of papers from the articles chosen by students. The papers discussed were case reports, original research, and review articles. The students were asked to formulate critical appraisal topics, PICO, for each paper. A 20-question test was applied to all participants. The students' attendance, scores, and students/faculty satisfaction were estimated.

Results

A total of 50 papers were discussed in the 5-year journal club 15 case reports (30%), 26 original research (52%), and 9 review articles (18%). The student's attendance ranged from 72.53±3.74 to 98.07±3.15. The students and faculty's satisfaction were 3.52 and 3.82 respectively. The mean Students' score in A 20-question test in a 5-year journal club was 76.93 ± 9.78 and the lowest score was in the 2nd batch (online batch).

Conclusion

The insertion of a well-structured journal club in the undergraduate medical program is necessary to improve the knowledge including knowledge among students. In addition, journal clubs inspire students to be lifelong learners.

Evidence-Based Medicine Course in Combination With Journal Clubs to Promote Evidence-Based Surgery

Introduction To provide high-quality surgical care, surgeons must critically appraise medical literature to adapt their clinical practice whenever convincing evidence emerges. This will promote evidence-based surgery (EBS). Over the last decade, we have organized monthly journal clubs (JCs) and more extensive quarterly EBS courses for surgical residents and PhD students, supervised by surgical staff. We evaluated the participation, satisfaction, and knowledge gained by this EBS program, to make the program future-proof and aid other educators. Materials and methods An anonymous digital survey was distributed via email among residents, PhD students, and surgeons of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers' (UMC) surgical department in April 2022. The survey included general questions on EBS education, specific course-oriented questions for the residents and PhD students, and questions about supervision for surgeons. Results The survey was completed by 47 respondents from the surgery department of the Amsterdam UMC University Hospital, of whom 63.8% (n=30) were residents or PhD students and 36.2% (n=17) were surgeons. During one year of the combined EBS course and JCs, the EBS course was attended by 40.0% (n=12) of PhD students and was rated with a mean score of 7.6/10. JCs were attended by 86.6% (n=26) of residents or PhD students and received a mean score of 7.4/10. Reported strengths of the JCs were their easy accessibility and the acquisition of critical appraisal skills and scientific knowledge. A reported point of improvement was to focus more deeply on specific epidemiological topics per meeting. Of the surgeons, 64.7% (n=11) had supervised at least one JC and gave a mean score of 8.5/10. The main reasons to supervise JCs were the distribution of knowledge (45.5%), scientific discussion (36.3%), and contact with PhD students (18.1%). Conclusion Our EBS educational program, including JCs and EBS courses, was well appreciated by residents, PhD students, and staff. This format is advocated for other centers aiming to better implement EBS in surgical practice.