Journal Club/ Spring 2015
Case Presentation
Guidelines and Expectations
Goals of Journal Club/Case Presentation
Journal Club is one of the educational activities of the Genetic Counseling Program. The focus of the spring sessions will be on a case presentation with a summary of a relevant journal article that was used to either prep for the case or for follow-up. Note that review articles can be very useful but we’d like you to focus on a research article whenever possible. Some of the goals of Journal Club/Case Presentation are listed below. Students should keep these goals in mind when they prepare for their presentation.
1. To describe a clinical case you have been involved with in a clear and complete manner.
2. To succinctly summarize a relevant journal article
3. To explain how the information in the article presented allowed for the provision of better genetic counseling services to the patient or family in the case.
4. To prepare for the workplace where giving case presentations is a common occurrence.
Journal Club Schedule
Journal Club will occur every Wednesday except as noted on the schedule. Each second year student will present once in the fall and once in the spring.
Choosing a Case and Article
Cases chosen for presentation should be ones that added to your understanding of the clinical, molecular, cytogenetic or management aspects of a particular genetic disorder. If you’ve already used your “favorite” case in another class, then you may not use if for your JC presentation so give yourself time to think about a good case that you have not yet presented. One week prior to your presentation you should send out a journal article, preferably one which was used as a reference in preparation for either initial or follow up with the individual(s) presented in the case, to the JC listserv. We recommend that you select a research article for distribution whenever possible. However, if you can’t find any good recent research articles on the topic, then a recent review will be fine.
One last note…if you were not present for the entire case, please make sure to call your supervisor to find out test results/patient decision making/ pregnancy outcome/etc. so that you can discuss what happened after you participated in the case. It’s so much more satisfying to the audience when they
ask “What happened?” to be told that you followed up than to be told “I have no clue.”
First and Second year students: Students should download and read the article prior to the JC presentation and fill out the Qualtrix JC Evaluation weekly. This is an opportunity for you to share your feedback about the paper being presented and the presenter’s style and skill in discussing the article in a way that is constructive, anonymous and confidential (i.e. only the presenter – and Judith – will see the results).
NOTE: We expect all students to read the Journal Club article before coming to Journal Club!
Presentation Expectations:
Students are expected to clearly present a case seen in their internships, summarize a relevant article
and explain how the information in the article helped in providing genetic counseling to the patient or
family in the case. You should check the pronunciation of all words beforehand. You should also check spelling– and please don’t rely solely on SpellCheck! And…check color schemes carefully for how they project as what looks fine on a laptop may not look good when projected - especially when you are typing text on a colored background.
Dress is “business casual.”
As an added challenge for this semester, we ask that you not rely on PPT notes…you will not be allowed to use your notes for your final research presentations and this is a good time to practice!
Presentations should be approximately 35-40 minutes long. A general outline of time expectations is:
• Introduction: 5 minutes
• Case Presentation: 10 to 15 minutes
• Discussion of article and relevance to case: 10 to 15 minutes
• Summary and Questions: 5 minutes
However…do not include a slide saying that you’ll be presenting some background, then your case followed by a discussion of your article. This is a given and is not necessary for a Journal Club .
We will give each presenter a Self-Evaluation form to encourage each student to honestly assess his/her own “performance” and reflect on ways of improving.
The week following a student’s presentation, the presenter should meet with Judith to review the presentation, go over the Self-Evaluation form and review the results of the Qualtrics evaluations forms.
*Adapted (with permission) from the guidelines used in the Northwestern Genetic Counseling Program. JTsipis August 2008, Revised by JT Jan.2014
Genetic Counseling Journal Club Schedule
Spring 2015
Jan. 14 / Gayun
Jan. 21
Jan. 28
Feb. 4
Feb. 11
Feb. 18 / Feb. Break
Feb. 25
Mar. 4
Mar. 11
Mar. 18
Mar. 25 / ACMG No JC
Apr. 1
Apr. 8 / Spring Recess
Apr. 15
Apr. 22 / Make Up Date