A new approach to teaching and learning in journal club

Abstract

In order to develop the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances, trainee doctors need to equip themselves with skills in acquisition, appraisal and application of new knowledge.The journal club traditionally provides a forum where these skills can be fostered. A newly introduced journal club format is described, which has a careful selection of learning experiences to enhance deep learning of these skills. The journal club is placed in the context of clinical care problems that require use of information from the medical literature. These problems are converted into focused, answerable clinical questions. Based on the clinical question, systematic literature searches are conducted and the identified articles are appraised using structured methodological guidelines. Clinical problem-solving skills are acquired through use of teaching methods that are associated with learning-forunderstanding.