Igniting Inquiry: Development and Implementation of a Novel Journal Club Curriculum in an Emergency Medicine Residency

Background: The journal club is a long-standing pillar of medical education and medical practice, although its components and format are quite variable. In addition, selecting literature for discussion must strike a delicate balance between reviewing seminal and durable articles with that of emerging evidence, all while complementing a residency curriculum. Although the critical appraisal of literature is a fundamental skill of the practicing physician, a universal curriculum has not yet been optimized to facilitate journal club. Objective: We sought to design and implement a comprehensive, complementary, and evidence-based journal club curriculum that was modular in design, reproducible, and effective at generating participation. Methods: Our novel curricular design incorporates many evidence-based components, including optimizing the learning environment, providing ease of access to resources, and using educational methodology that immerses learners in the experience in a structured manner. In addition, the curriculum complements, but does not duplicate, the core residency curriculum. In 2020, we analyzed our data, using descriptive and comparative statistical methods. Results: We demonstrated significant improvement in common metrics used to analyze the efficacy of the journal club, including attendance and participation. Significant improvements were seen in both resident and attending participation. Conclusions: Our design methods used resources easily available to our residency program and commonly available to others, with minimal time and resource cost. Further study is required to measure long-term educational outcomes. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.