Open AccessComparison of two formats of journal club for postgraduate students at two centers in developing critical appraisal skills
Author(s) -
Manpreet Kaur,
Hanjabam Barun Sharma,
Simran Kaur,
Ratna Sharma,
Renuka Sharma,
Richa Kapoor,
Kishore Kumar Deepak
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advances in physiology education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1522-1229
pISSN - 1043-4046
DOI - 10.1152/advan.00111.2019
Subject(s) - journal club , session (web analytics) , critical appraisal , medical education , club , population , psychology , medicine , computer science , alternative medicine , pathology , environmental health , world wide web , anatomy
Journal club (JC) is an integral part of postgraduate medical education. Although several innovations have been attempted to improve its effectiveness, the influence of the number of sessions remains unexplored. The current study investigated the effect of the number of sessions (one vs. four) of conduction of journal club on critical appraisal skills of postgraduate students at two institutions. A quasi-experimental study was conducted comparing the effectiveness of JC in a one- versus four-session JC format using two objective tests: Critical Appraisal Skills Test (CAST) and Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) score. The degree of changes (pre-JC vs. post-JC session) after each format exposure, association of prescores to postscores, and correlation between the CAST and PICO scores were discerned. CAST score was higher in the four-session format ( P = 0.03), whereas PICO score increased in the single-session format of JC ( P = 0.03). Also, the change in CAST score was higher in the four-session versus single-session JC format ( P = 0.04). We conclude that a four-session format of JC is more effective in augmenting critical appraisal skills of postgraduate students, whereas a single session is sufficient for improving factual knowledge.