C. H. Williams1, K. S. Malek1, M. K. McLeod1,2 1Michigan State University,College Of Human Medicine,East Lansing, MI, USA 2Michigan State University,Department Of Surgery,Lansing, MI, USA
Introduction: Journal clubs can be an integral part of learner and provider continuing medical education. Journal clubs encourage participants to keep abreast of current medical literature and to practice critical analysis and discussion of primary literature; as well, there is increasing emphasis on application of evidence-based medicine and primary literature analysis in the education of medical students. Often, when medical students become residents, they have never taken an active role in a journal club discussion. To our knowledge, there are no journal clubs that are intended for and led by medical students. We sought to implement a Surgery Journal Club that was led by medical students under guidance of attending surgeons, with the goals of giving students opportunities to practice analyzing primary literature, to practice facilitation and participating in journal club discussion, and to educate students on important issues in surgery.
Methods: We conducted a needs assessment survey of 38 third-year medical students. The journal club met once monthly for five consecutive months based on findings from that survey. Articles were chosen by students with input from an attending surgeon and were distributed at least one week in advance. Each meeting was attended by 3 to 8 students and a different attending surgeon. Discussion was facilitated by both student leaders and the attending surgeon. At the end of the semester, we conducted a feedback survey of both participating students and attending surgeons.
Results: 24/38 (63%) students responded to our needs assessment survey. 33% of these students were interested in surgery as a career; 50% said a surgery journal club would add value to the clinical curriculum. 50% of the respondents had never before participated in a journal club. Feedback from the faculty (4/5 responded) indicated they all ‘strongly agreed’ that they enjoyed facilitating a journal club, that the journal club was a good use of their time, and that they would facilitate another session in the future. Student feedback was received from 7 students out of 10 (70%) who attended at least one session. They indicated that the two main benefits to journal club participation were ‘practicing critical analysis of primary literature’ and ‘reading and discussing ‘classic’ articles in the field’. Additionally, students noted that a benefit to the journal clubs was networking with faculty and mentorship opportunities. All students agreed that they enjoyed the session(s) they attended, and 6/7 (86%) said the Journal Club should continue.
Conclusion: The initial implementation of a Surgery Journal Club was successful, as gauged by both participating medical students and attending surgeons. The Journal Club met the initial objectives, with the added benefit of mentorship opportunities. We plan to continue the Journal Club, and we encourage other medical school clinical sites to develop similar programs.