CAHE Journal Clubs
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Port Pirie Journal Club (left) and Noarlunga Journal
Club (right): big or small, your workplace
Journal Club can have a huge impact on clinical practices, morale,
communication and cooperation!
With the importance of evidence-based practice underpinning much of today's clinical practice methodologies there is a new importance and urgency for health care services to be based on evidence derived from rigorous, high quality research. This philosophy and approach now covers all medical arenas, from nursing to medicine to allied health. CAHE's new journal clubs aim to assist allied health practitioners with the incorporation of evidence-based research into everyday practice.
The difficulty facing many allied health practitioners is the increasing number of journals and publications in allied health care combined with more complex and increased workloads. Practitioners are often unable to keep abreast of current literature findings and clinical outcomes due to a lack of time and research availability.
Journal clubs have been in existence for over a century and with the movement towards evidence-based health care mandates that journal clubs must also evolve to address rapidly shifting demands on health care practitioners. Journal clubs provide an avenue for accessing, evaluating and reflecting upon evidence derived from the literature, thereby promoting evidence-based practice for both the individual practitioner and the organisations they work for. An additional benefit of journal clubs for practitioners is the role they play in ongoing continuing professional development.
CAHE JC stakeholders
Allied health care practitioners play an integral role in health care service delivery across Australia, and the world. With increasing focus on care in the community, and maintaining wellness for all Australians, allied health care practitioners provide services which aim to ensure that optimum well being is maintained for all Australians. In this climate of changing health care practices, allied health practitioners need to be supported and educated in evidence based practice principles.
Recognising this, CAHE, in association with Department of Health South Australia (DoHSA), initiated an innovative pilot journal club across allied health departments in South Australia. DoHSA was represented by Principal Allied Health Advisor, SA Health, Ms. Catherine Turnbull and CAHE was represented by CAHE Director, Professor Karen Grimmer-Somers. In consultation with DoHSA and CAHE, an internal working party was constructed to progress this initiative.
Goals of CAHE journal club
The general goal of any journal club is to disseminate knowledge and promote debate about research evidence and its implications for clinical practice.
Whilst the primary motivation of a journal club is the promotion of scientific discussion, journal clubs also aim to provide social networking, providing an opportunity for practitioners to experience regular contact with the club members, particularly important for AH practitioners who often work in isolation.
Specifically the goals of the journal club are to:
- Keep members up to date with the relevant literature
- Promote evidence-based practice in health care
- Provide opportunities for demonstrating continuing professional development
- Access literature sources
- Access to methodological quality tools
- Provide opportunities for improving skills in evaluation of scientific literature for methodological quality
- Provide social and peer support
The current evidence from research into journal clubs and continuing professional education highlights that traditional models of education, including didactic sessions and passive education strategies such as presentations, do not change health care practitioners behaviours. There is increasing evidence from literature on evidence implementation and behaviour change which suggests that incorporating principles of adult learning by engaging health care practitioners can lead to positive outcomes. These include uptake of information presented resulting in improvement in knowledge and skills and changes in health care practice behaviours. These principles of adult learning include:
- Relating the task to personal goals or the immediate environment
- Presenting learning objectives as clinical problems
- Using problem solving skills
- Using multiple teaching strategies to suit different learning styles
- Using active learner participation
- Providing ongoing, frequent constructive feedback
CAHE internal working party members:
Professor Karen
Grimmer-Somers, CAHE Director
Lucylynn Lizarondo,
CAHE Project Officer
Leah Jeffries, CAHE Project
Officer
Dr Saravana Kumar, CAHE
Deputy Director
CAHE Quick Link:
Are you and your colleagues thinking of starting a CAHE Journal Club?
Journal Club Summary printable PDF
(PDF 238KB)
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