Journal Club 101: How To Get Started & Why You Should Join One

By Aryelle Roebuck, MS, OTR/L, CDP

Occupational therapist

Whether you are a new graduate or experienced clinician it is vital to physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology to provide our patients with the most up-to-date and evidenced-based practice. Clinicians use EBP to make informed decisions with the best available evidence. By doing so, the aim is for our patients to progress more quickly and improve patient outcomes with use of the most effective treatments.

Journal clubs are a good way of opening strong interdisciplinary discussion between clinicians or other pertinent disciplines (i.e., physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists, etc.) and initiating implementation of research into practice. With FOX, our journal club invitations are sent out to a region which include all occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapist, account managers, and exercise physiologists in that area. Most of the attendees usually include treating clinicians (OTs, PTs, and/or SLPs). In other settings journal club attendees could include doctors, rehab techs, therapy assistants or aides, nurses, or front desk staff, if interested. By having an interdisciplinary approach to the topic each person brings a different perspective, point of view, or experience for which will allow for diverse conversation, a vivid learning environment, and building a better understanding of other areas of practice.

HOW TO SET UP A JOURNAL CLUB

Journal clubs can be started by pretty much anyone on your team. This could include an occupational therapist, physical therapist, speech-language pathologists, an aide or assistant, a nurse, or simply someone within your team that is interested in a certain topic. Here’s an outline how setting up a club:

• Discuss starting a club with your team
• Determine who will facilitate the first meeting
• Have that facilitator pick a location, date and time, and article. While I’ve done this over email myself, any communication platform can suffice (text, Facebook groups). Roughly two weeks prior is a good time to send this out.

HOW TO CHOOSE A JOURNAL CLUB ARTICLE

Articles can be found in various places; however, most of the articles our team has found come from our national associations’ online databases (American Occupational Therapy Association, American Physical Therapy Association, or American Speech-Language-Hearing Association). If you have a specific topic of interest, perform an online search and simply review a few articles to determine their strength. One site commonly used is the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. Other ways of locating articles may be to check local and university libraries, seek out alumni associations that provide library access, or check with your company/facility to determine if you have access to subscription-based databases.

The topics of journal clubs could be anything of interest that usually pertains to your setting. The topics could be completely random from one meeting to the next or a series of articles based around one topic.

Our team has never limited our topics to one area of practice or to one part of practice (i.e treatments, diseases/diagnoses, medications, etc) so often the desire to research a topic comes from something a clinician is interested in learning more about or based on something in relation to a specific patient/case. For example, some topics discussed so far by our team have included: sleep hygiene, fall prevention, and Montessori techniques’ application to dementia. These listed topics of articles were sought out based these reasons:

• A clinician was having difficulty with the impact of sleep on participation in therapy, thus, the clinician wanted to find evidence on sleep hygiene and ways to improve sleep hygiene;
• A clinician wanted to ensure the fall prevention techniques being recommended were evidenced based, thus, sought out a research article related to fall prevention
• A clinician completed a continuing education on what Montessori techniques included in relation to individuals with dementia, thus, pursued further education about what specific techniques could be used.

The most valuable part about journal clubs is the fact that the attendees have various backgrounds and experiences, thus, enhancing the discussion and, in turn, the learning experience. Any clinician could research a topic, read the article, and use the information in practice, however, the group component allows us to drive innovation in a meaningful way rather than one individual reaching a conclusion on his or her own. Furthermore, by learning and implementing innovative ideas there will be a larger impact on the patients as a whole.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: DOES THIS RULE APPLY TO JOURNAL CLUBS?

Journal clubs meetings are not limited by location. However, it would be wise to choose a quiet location in order to promote concentration and have fewer distractions. Additionally, holding a journal club in a quiet or more private environment allows the attendees to freely discuss a wide range of topics– topics that may include taboo subjects or ones that are atypical in public form (i.e., alternative medicine such as CBD, sexuality in older adult population, human anatomy, urinary incontinence, etc.).

Another reason for using a quiet location is to allow remote access for attendees who cannot physically attend the meeting. They can use technology-based solutions such as video chat or call. With use of technological availability, meetings can be held entirely via conference call or a conferencing app. These technological-based services provide endless opportunity for journal clubs as it does not limit you to involve just locals but people from other counties or states.

In my experience, journal clubs have been held in the gym of an assisted living facility we work in, a facilitator’s home, and a coffee shop. Other suggested locations include a library, an office or meeting room space, or a park. Before confirming a journal club meeting the location can be discussed among the individuals who plan to attend to confirm an ideal location. Though most of our journal club meetings are in person, our team has utilized conference calls.

SET THE DURATION AND FREQUENCY OF JOURNAL CLUBS

In terms of time of day, the meeting could be held before, during, or after work hours. So far, the best time that works for our meetings has been around lunch time as this has been the easiest time to schedule our patients as well as host a working lunch. This is also the least likely time for interruptions and conflicts with other meetings. Depending on your practice setting, it may be more efficient to have a journal club meeting before or after work hours.

Here are my recommendations on timing:

• Hosting one per month is a reasonable expectation to work around various schedules without having attendees feeling overwhelmed or over committed. Also, this frequency allows enough time to read and discuss the article then be able to implement what is learned prior to the next meeting.
• Block out between a half hour to an hour to have enough time for all attendees to reflect and discuss the article as a group without requiring attendees to commit a taxing amount of time.

Within the given time the facilitator usually opens the meeting with a self-introduction if new members attend, the title of the article, the reason why this topic or article was chosen, and a general statement regarding the article. On our team it is the facilitator of that meeting who determines whether to have structured questions or an open discussion. Questions and/or discussion usually revolve around the topic, strength of the article, the results and/or conclusions, and implementation of the outcomes within our setting/population.