A Comparison of the Effect of Journal Club through New and Traditional Methods on the Attitudes of Anesthesiology Residents of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Journal club is one of the classical methods of medical education dating back to 100 years ago. This method can be used for teaching critical evaluation, evidence-based medicine, research design, statistics, and educational concepts to medical residents. The purpose of this study was to investigate the anesthesiology residents’ attitude toward a new method of presenting journal club (with the presence of specialists in community medicine and/or statistics). This was a cross-sectional, interventional study performed in the adult intensive care unit of Namazi Hospital, Shiraz, Iran. From among 50 faculty members and second year anesthesiology residents participating in the journal club through both the new and traditional methods, 36 returned their viewpoints. A questionnaire with 19 items was designed by the researcher with the collaboration of the Medical Education Development Office and the Anesthesiology Department of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by educational experts and its reliability was reported as over 90% using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The intervention group (journal club sessions with the presence of community medicine or statistics professionals) scored significantly higher than the control group on all items of the questionnaire. The participants in the experimental group reported that the most important effects of the new approach was their better understanding of statistical terms and research methodology, a positive attitude toward the usefulness of interdisciplinary communication, article reviews and the application of results in clinical practice, development of article assessment skills, creating motivation for further research, causing desire to participate in other journal clubs, and recommending colleagues to participate in such clubs. Moreover, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient showed that with the increase in the number of journal club sessions participated in, the rate of knowledge and desire to participate in more sessions also increased. Participants admitted that they had improved academically and were generally satisfied with this new approach. Regarding the generalizability and implementation in other training centers, this new approach can be exploited in other departments of specialized medical fields. In case of achieving valid and reliable results, the approach can be proposed as a national model.