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Web site spotlight: Journal clubs can support evidence-based nursing

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, April 3, 2008

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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.

Below are some 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.

Editor's note: This excerpt was taken from the Evidence-Based Resource Center. Click here to read the entire article, found at www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com!  

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