ORIGINAL REPORTSA Structured Review Instrument Improves the Quality of Orthopaedic Journal Club
Introduction
Journal clubs have a long history in medicine and orthopaedic surgery, and are common in orthopaedic departments around the country.1, 5,6 Important goals of these clubs include teaching residents to critically evaluate scientific articles, instilling formal habits for reading scientific articles, and facilitating resident learning about current research.4, 6 There are multiple possible formats for journal clubs.5 In orthopaedics, the most common is trainee led discussions of assigned articles.5, 6 At our institution, a similar format is followed: trainees are assigned a particular article in advance by a faculty leader and subsequently must read, analyze, and present it.
One important factor in presentation-driven journal clubs is the quality of the presentations. Poorly structured presentations can fail to highlight important points of the study being discussed, which may lead to less informative discussion overall. In our experience, this can subsequently lead to poor attendance, and journal clubs that are of limited educational value. The use of a structured review instrument (SRI) that can be used to critique and present articles has been described.3, 5 In general, SRI take the form of standardized checklists that guide the presenter toward important items when reviewing and presenting articles. In the Emergency Medicine literature, the use of a review instrument was shown to significantly increase satisfaction with journal club without increasing workload,3 but the authors did not comment on whether presentation quality was affected. In the orthopaedic literature, orthopaedic specific structured review instruments have been described,5 however, no data regarding the effectiveness of these instruments has been presented.
Therefore, we asked: 1. Does the use of an SRI at journal club increase presentation quality, as measured objectively by a standardized evaluation rubric? 2. Does SRI use increase the time required to prepare for journal club? 3. Does SRI use positively impact presenter perceptions about confidence while presenting, satisfaction, and journal club effectiveness, as measured by postparticipation surveys?
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
A prospective interventional study was designed to assess presentation quality at journal club before and after introduction of a structured review instrument. The study was reviewed by our Institutional Review Board and found to be exempt. At our institution, journal clubs are held on a routine basis and are subspecialty specific; the Trauma, Pediatrics, and Spine services were selected to participate in the study. These journal clubs are all faculty-led, with articles assigned to residents
Results
Does the use of an SRI at journal club increase presentation quality, as measured objectively by a standardized evaluation rubric?
There were 24 participants in the pre-SRI group and 25 in the post-SRI group. Prior to introduction of the SRI, mean presentations scores were 14.0 ± 5.9 for all presenters, 15.8 ± 5.2 for senior trainees (PGY 4-6), and 12.3 ± 6.3 for junior trainees (PGY 1-3). After introduction of the SRI, mean scores increased to 24.4 ± 5.2, 24.6 ± 5.1, and 23.9 ± 5.9,
Discussion
Structured review instruments have been proposed for use at orthopaedic journal club,5 but their effectiveness has not been objectively assessed. At our journal clubs, the introduction of an SRI increased the quality of the presentations delivered by orthopaedic residents. There was no difference in preparation time identified, and there was a trend toward improved presenter confidence, satisfaction, and perception of journal club effectiveness.
There is little existing data objectively
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What makes journal club effective?—a survey of orthopaedic residents and faculty
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Cited by (4)
Redesigning Journal Club to Improve Participant Satisfaction and Education
2022, Journal of Surgical EducationCitation Excerpt :Even fewer studies have analyzed participant satisfaction and perceived educational benefits, and those that have analyzed those variables have been unable to consistently demonstrate improvements thus far. e.g. support for the use of a structured review instrument has been inconsistent with one study in 1995 demonstrating increased satisfaction and perceived educational value while another study in 2018 failed to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in those same variables.4-5 Thus, the purpose of this study was to describe programmatic efforts to assess and revamp the format of journal club as well as to evaluate participant satisfaction and perceived educational benefits.
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Musculoskeletal Educational Resources for the Aspiring Orthopaedic Surgeon
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Conflict of interest statement: Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.
Disclosures: MJG, KBW, JAB hold stock ownership, consultancies, or patent/licensing agreements unrelated to this study. One or more of the authors (MJG) has received funding from SMV Medical, SmartDevices, Medtronic, Synthes, but not for this study.
This study was reviewed by our institution's IRB and found to be exempt.