Empowering, sharing, learning, shaping: using Journal Club to increase consumer engagement in research

Session: 

Oral session: Education and training

Date: 

Tuesday 18 September 2018 - 12:00 to 12:20

Location: 

Ochil 1

All authors in correct order:

Plachcinski R1, Gyte G1
1 NCT, UK
Presenting author and contact person

Presenting author:

Rachel Plachcinski

Contact person:

Rachel Plachcinski
Abstract text
Background: Journal Club is widely used in medical education and CPD, but little has been written about its application to consumer groups. NCT, a UK charity committed to supporting parents and providing evidence-based information about birth and parenting, has been involved with the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) since 1994. Journal Clubs for NCT members have run at face-to-face meetings, by teleconference and through social media.

Objectives:
- To support consumers seeking a better understanding of research quality, interpretation and terms.
- To increase consumers’ participation in contributing to research.

Methods: NCT Journal Club has run in three formats.
1) Face-to-face events at annual conferences and training days that were evaluated as part of the event feedback form sent to all attendees.
2) Monthly Journal Club evening teleconferences open to all NCT members started in 2005. These were publicised via a mailing list and facilitated by members with a research background and/or CASP training. Periodic surveys were sent to attendees asking about knowledge and skills they gained as a result of the sessions.
3) An NCT Journal Club page was set up on Facebook in August 2017. Four volunteers took on a moderator role, committing to starting a new discussion every week. Group members are encouraged to share papers of interest to them, and once a month a paper is chosen for a more in-depth evaluation using CASP questions. The development of evaluation tools for this format is ongoing.

Results: Over 80% of respondents stated they enjoyed taking part in the face-to-face and teleconference Journal Clubs, and that they gained new skills and knowledge. However, attendance was relatively low with NCT members reporting that family commitments stopped them from engaging more regularly. The Facebook page was set up to increase opportunities for all consumers to engage at a time that was convenient to them. To date it has attracted nearly 200 members.

Conclusions: Participation in Journal Club sessions is beneficial for both consumers and facilitators. The timing and organisation of events needs careful planning to maximise participation. Further development of the Facebook group is planned.

Healthcare consumer involvement: Consumers set up and facilitated the majority of the sessions and chose the papers to be discussed.

Relevance to patients and consumers: 

This work was set up by National Childbirth Trust (NCT) members with a research background with the aim of empowering members to better understand research. Running Journal Club for consumers enables: a) greater consumer understanding of different aspects of research and critical appraisal; b) a more meaningful consumer contribution to research, including setting the research agenda and shaping Cochrane reviews. It also gives researchers a more in depth understanding of consumer contribution to and priorities for research.