The Current State of Journal Clubs in Psychiatry Residency Programs: Results from a National Survey of Program Directors

Objective This study aimed to investigate journal club prevalence, implementation, and perceived effectiveness among psychiatry residency program directors in order to highlight best practices. Methods The authors distributed a 44-item thoughtfully designed and peer-reviewed questionnaire electronically via Qualtrics to 235 accredited U.S. psychiatry residency program directors identified using the American Medical Association database. Results Eighty-nine programs (38%) responded. Of these, 83 (93%) had a journal club. Journal clubs were mandatory in 80 programs (96%), met biweekly or monthly in 62 programs (75%), and lasted 46-60 min in 66 programs (80%). Twenty-three programs (28%) offered a list of articles to choose from, and 22 programs (27%) provided a critical appraisal tool. Only 7 programs (8%) measured learner outcomes from journal clubs. Respondents believed that promoting lifelong learning and practicing evidence-based psychiatry were the most relevant educational goals of journal club (2.57 and 2.51 on a Likert scale of 0 to 3). Journal club's effectiveness in achieving those goals was believed to be lower (2.16 and 2.09). Conclusions Journal clubs are common in U.S. psychiatry residency programs and tend to follow a traditional format. In order to boost journal club's effectiveness in achieving the desired educational goals, more programs might elect to infuse elements known to augment learning.