Abstract
Purpose: :
Practice-based learning and improvement is one of the six Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies for residents. Ophthalmology residents are expected to be able to locate, appraise, and assimilate evidence from scientific studies related to their patients’ health problems. The purpose of this study is to show that a structured evidence-based medicine (EBM) journal club is one method of achieving this competency.
Methods: :
A monthly journal club was started in July 2008, covering three current articles in one ophthalmology sub-specialty each session. Resident presenters were instructed to use a review checklist in analysis of the articles. An anonymous survey covering residents’ comfort with scientific articles, opinions about EBM, and practice of EBM was conducted before the first journal club and after the sixth session. Residents recorded their answers on a five-point Likert scale, with 1 indicating strongly disagree and 5 indicating strongly agree.
Results: :
Ten residents participated in the study. These included 5 men and 5 women; 4 PGY-2, 4 PGY-3, and 2 PGY-4 residents. All participants completed the survey both times. After six months of EBM/journal club, overall scores on all questions (comfort with scientific articles, opinions about EBM, and practice of EBM) improved significantly (3.5 vs. 4.2, p=0.003). Residents were significantly more likely to say that the EBM/journal club is well organized and integrated (2.7 vs. 4.5, p<0.001) and that the EBM/journal club has improved their comfort with evidence-based practice (3.0 vs. 4.3, p<0.001). In addition, although not statistically significant, residents were more likely to agree that they read the current literature in ophthalmology on a regular basis (3.0 vs. 3.8, p=0.09).
Keywords: learning • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques