Comparison of two formats of journal club for postgraduate students at two centers in developing critical appraisal skills

Abstract

Kaur M, Sharma HB, Kaur S, Sharma R, Sharma R, Kapoor R, Deepak KK. Comparison of two formats of journal club for postgraduate students at two centers in developing critical appraisal skills. Adv Physiol Educ 44: 592–601, 2020; doi:10.1152/ad-van.OOl 11.2019.—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 (prc-JC vs. post-JC session) after each format exposure, association of prescores to postscorcs, 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 singlesession 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.