Journal club is of the educational methods for residency programms. It could develop both body of knowledge and critical appraisal skills of post graduate students and prepare them to decide if the findings could be applied in clinical setting. This study aimed to study the effect of teaching the way of running journal clubs on methodology and critical appraisal ability of faculty members and residents in Mashhad school of dentistry, Department of Oral Medicine. From February to December 2011.
Methods:
This experimental study was conducted on 10 Faculty members and 10 residents of oral medicine in Mashhad school of dentistry. The first 8 journal club sessions of feb semester of 2011 were observed by a valid and reliable check lists in terms of both educational methodology and critical appraisal.
Then a workshop was run to teach and develop their abilities for running standard journal club. This work shop was followed by an 8-week interactive course in which each session allocated to a special research and they learnt how they can appraise papers by their own specific appraisal tool. Afterward a 3-manth period was given to them to prepare themselves, and correct their mistakes for developing the journal club sessions. The first 8 journal club sessions of oct semester 2011 were observed and compared to previous ones. Data was analyzed by spss software using paired t-test.
Results:
According to finding, significant improvement was observed in journal clubs in terms of educational methodology and appraisal. (P< 0.005)
Conclusions:
As journal club sessions are considered as crucial gathering to promote critical appraisal Skills as long as literature update for postgraduate students , it is recommended to run educational course for faculty members to plan and conduct it in a standard manner and postgraduate student for appraising and come up with their related knowledge.