Effectiveness of journal clubs in translating knowledge into practice: A literature review

Abstract

Background and objective: Hamad Medical Corporation nurse leaders established nursing journal clubs in 2014 as an important strategy to involve nurses in translating research into practice and as an effort to provide patients with the highest possible standards of care. Since the implementation of journal clubs in Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), evaluative research within HMC has not been conducted to examine the effectiveness of this strategy. The aim of this review was to increase decision makers’ knowledge about the effectiveness of journal clubs in translating knowledge into clinical practice and to provide a framework to guide the development of a survey tool that would aide in the evaluation of nursing journal clubs’ effectiveness at Hamad Medical Corporation. A literature search was conducted as an initial step top guide the development of this tool.

Methods: A literature search was conducted yielded 13 studies that evaluated the effectiveness of journal clubs after removing all duplicates and applying the inclusion criteria. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool-version 2011 was used to evaluate the quality of the included articles. Data was analyzed and extracted from each study and assembled into a summary table.

Results: Four themes related to journal clubs’ effectiveness that are important in translating knowledge into practice: encouraging discussion among healthcare professionals, enhancing critical appraisal skills, promoting evidence-based practice knowledge, and impacting clinical practice.

Conclusions: This literature review provides information about the four main interrelated themes that contribute to journal clubs’ effectiveness in translating knowledge into practice. This information would be useful to nurse educators at Hamad Medical Corporation and further utilized as a backdrop to the development of a tool to evaluate Hamad Medical Corporation nurses’ perceptions of journal clubs’ effectiveness.