Prep for evidence-based nursing with a journal club
This excerpt was taken from the book, Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing: A Guide to Successful Implementation.
Creating a journal club is a good way to get started in evidence-based nursing practice. Journal clubs provide nurses with the opportunity and skills to read and critically evaluate current research and to determine its applicability to their practice area.
The journal club’s goals may vary by setting. In the beginning, a goal might be to learn how to appraise research and other evidence-based practice articles critically. Later goals may include keeping up-to-date with the current research in the field or evaluating current practice based on the evidence related to a particular issue.
Often a masters-prepared clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, or educator facilitates the journal club. Depending on the setting, however, any nurse or other healthcare provider with the knowledge and interest could act in that role. All educational levels of nursing preparation should be encouraged to participate, and nurses who participate in journal clubs often become champions for evidence-based practice in their settings. One hospital reported using the journal club as a way to help staff nurses develop their critical thinking skills (Speers, 1999).
According to Phillips and Glasziou (2004), the most successful journal clubs have a designated facilitator who helps lead the discussion and keeps the group focused. Other roles, which can be rotated among participants, include a presenter, a scribe to take notes, and someone to provide administrative support. Use the general guidelines below as a framework to get started.
Guidelines for journal clubs
1. Determine nurses’ level of interest. Notices placed on bulletin boards or electronic lists can provide the goals of the journal club and act as vehicles for recruitment.
2. Establish the support and participation of nursing leadership early on in the development phase to make organizational issues easier to address.
3. Meeting schedules should be set up ahead of time and align with staff availability. Lunchtime or change-of-shift are two logical options, but also consider the night shift. Determine meeting frequency by each particular setting.
4. Choose a convenient meeting location.
5. Identify journal articles for discussion and the availability of electronic databases that make literature searches easy to perform if the resources are available for access within your organization.
6. Select topics that are clinically relevant to the members of the group. Journal clubs work best if the nurses identify research topics that are relevant to their practice setting. In the early phase of the journey to EBP, nurses must become confident, proficient, and competent in finding articles and in conducting a formal critique of nursing research articles. As their knowledge level progresses, identifying specific topics and asking relevant clinical questions for evidence-based practice will evolve.
7. Distribute copies of the selected article and any critique guidelines in advance to allow enough time for nurses to read them before the scheduled meeting. In organizations with electronic library resources, the article link may be e-mailed to participants.
8. The journal club can be interdisciplinary as long as it focuses on nursing practice. According to Klapper (2001), including members from diverse clinical backgrounds promotes the exchange of different perspectives, but it may make focusing difficult.
9. Have fun, and encourage all to participate.
10. At the end of each session, evaluate the journal club and select a topic for the next meeting.
Editor’s note: This excerpt was adapted from the book, Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing: A Guide to Successful Implementation. To find out more about the book and to order a copy visit http://www.hcmarketplace.com/prod-3737.html.