TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of a Medical Journal Club on House-Staff Reading Habits, Knowledge, and Critical Appraisal Skills
T2 - A Randomized Control Trial
AU - Linzer, Mark
AU - Brown, J. Trig
AU - Frazier, Linda M.
AU - Delong, Elizabeth R.
AU - Siegel, William C.
PY - 1988/11/4
Y1 - 1988/11/4
N2 - The journal club is an established teaching modality in many house-staff training programs. To determine if a journal club improves house-staff reading habits, knowledge of epidemiology and biostatistics, and critical appraisal skills, we randomized 44 medical interns to receive either a journal club or a control seminar series. A test instrument developed by the Delphi method was administered before and after the interventions (mean, five journal club sessions). By self-report, 86% of the house staff in the journal club group improved their reading habits vs 0% in the control group. Knowledge scores increased more in the journal club group than in the control group, and a trend was found toward more knowledge gained as more sessions were attended. Ability to appraise critically a test article increased slightly in each group, but there was no significant difference between the groups. We conclude that a journal club is a powerful motivator of critical house-staff reading behavior and can help teach epidemiology and biostatistics to physicians-in-training.
AB - The journal club is an established teaching modality in many house-staff training programs. To determine if a journal club improves house-staff reading habits, knowledge of epidemiology and biostatistics, and critical appraisal skills, we randomized 44 medical interns to receive either a journal club or a control seminar series. A test instrument developed by the Delphi method was administered before and after the interventions (mean, five journal club sessions). By self-report, 86% of the house staff in the journal club group improved their reading habits vs 0% in the control group. Knowledge scores increased more in the journal club group than in the control group, and a trend was found toward more knowledge gained as more sessions were attended. Ability to appraise critically a test article increased slightly in each group, but there was no significant difference between the groups. We conclude that a journal club is a powerful motivator of critical house-staff reading behavior and can help teach epidemiology and biostatistics to physicians-in-training.
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U2 - 10.1001/jama.1988.03410170085039
DO - 10.1001/jama.1988.03410170085039
M3 - Article
C2 - 3050179
AN - SCOPUS:0023771592
SN - 0098-7484
VL - 260
SP - 2537
EP - 2541
JO - JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
JF - JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
IS - 17
ER -