Nursing

From the desk of Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, September 30, 2011

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Editor's note: This feature is written by nursing professional development expert Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN. Each week, Adrianne writes about an important issue in the area of professional development or answers reader questions. If you have a question for Adrianne, e-mail her at adrianne1@comcast.net.

Using virtual journal clubs as a teaching tool

Learners demand education that is easy to access at times and places convenient to them. One strategy that meets these criteria is that of virtual journal clubs. Not only are individual hospitals and health systems implementing such clubs, but so are various professional journals.

Journal clubs are used to teach appraisal of research articles, describe innovations in diagnosis and treatment, and explain the basics of translating research into clinical practice. They also offer opportunities for discussions among participants. The Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing and the Oncology Nursing Forum, for example, include a journal club article with discussion questions in every issue. Investigate whether journals you, your colleagues, and your organizations subscribe to use virtual journal clubs. Encouraging staff to utilize their own journal subscriptions as journal club resources is a good way to spark interest and to develop your own virtual journal club within your organization.

A recent article in the May/June issue of the Journal for Nurses in Staff Development describes the implementation of a virtual journal club (Berger, Hardin, & Topp, 2011). The authors suggest the following steps in development:

  • Collaborate with your organization's information systems Web developers to identify the best way to launch a virtual journal club on the organization's intranet site.
  • Identify an area of clinical interest with input from staff nurses. A good source of suggestions and collaboration is your organization's Education Council or Research Council.
  • Develop a template for critiquing the article. This template can be used for all future journal club articles.
  • Develop discussion questions.
  • Post the article.
  • Make sure the virtual journal club is password-protected and available only to employees.
  • Send out an e-mail or text announcing the posting of new articles.
  • Review comments, help enhance virtual discussions, and solicit ideas for new articles.


If you are interested in starting your own virtual club I recommend reading the article referenced below. It will help you to understand the process of establishing this type of learning tool.

Reference
Berger, J., Hardin, H. K., & Topp, R. (2011). Implementing a virtual journal club in a clinical nursing setting. Journal for Nurses in Staff Development, 27(3), 116-120.



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