Purpose: To evaluate the perceived effectiveness of our revised Journal Club (JC) curriculum.
Background: Per the PBLI milestone, residents must demonstrate self-directed learning and critical appraisal of medical literature. We previously revised (2016-17) and evaluated (2018) our resident-led, faculty-mentored, 10-session JC. Originally, PGY1 teams and PGY2-3s individually selected, critiqued, and presented recent OB/GYN publications to teach key clinical and research learning points. Specific EBM skills improved over time; others didn’t. In the new JC, PGY1-2s presented articles selected for their assigned research design, and faculty taught contemporaneous lectures (4-6) on the design-associated EBM skills.
Methods: Twenty residents were invited (3x) to anonymously complete an electronic, 71-item questionnaire assessing PBLI habits and confidence with 18 EBM skills (1-5: not at all-very) in June (PGY1-4) and July (incoming-PGY1). Spearman rank-order correlations assessed associations of confidence and PGY.
Results: 17 (85%) residents reported reading 2(0-6) research articles monthly: 10%(0-80%) thoroughly, 50%(0-100%) skimmed, 20%(0-90%) abstracts only. Confidence in critiquing and subjective confusion about research were moderately related to PGY (rho=0.469, p=0.059; rho=0.464, p=0.060).
Overall confidence in EBM skills was moderately related to PGY (rho=0.638, p=0.006) as were the skillsets previously improved (9 skills; rho=0.573, p=0.016) and not improved (9 skills; rho=0.660, p=0.004) through JC. Incoming interns reported low confidence (2.5±0.7, 3±0.9, 1.9±0.6, respectively); graduates reported high (4.9±0.3, 4.8±0.3, 4.9±0.2).
Discussions: Confidence in EBM skills was associated with increased exposure to JC. Graduating residents expressed high confidence in both EBM skillsets addressed in the revised curriculum. Coordination of interrelated resident and faculty-led sessions may be optimal for teaching EBM skills.
Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2021, Resident, Faculty, Residency Director, Practice-Based Learning & Improvement, GME, Lecture,
Shelley Galvin, MA, MAHEC; Lauren Knowlson, MD; Debby Chen, MD; Rongrong Fan, MD
