Evidence-based practice is the integration of clinical expertise, patient values and the best research evidence into the decision making process for patient care. Clinical expertise refers to the clinician's accumulated experience, education and clinical skills. The patient brings to the encounter their own personal and unique concerns, expectations, and values. The best evidence is usually found in clinically relevant research that has been conducted using sound methodology (Sackett D, 2002).
There are many different uses of Journal club to enhance evidence-based practice. One way to use it is to answer a clinical question by way of appraising and applying all relevant evidence on a subject matter (needs-driven). Another use is to learn EBM skills of searching and appraising different kinds of studies (skills-driven). Yet another use is to learn about recent advances that could change our practice (evidence-driven).
Each junior and senior resident leads one Journal Club every year. We use these 16 Journal clubs to critically appraise recent high profile journal articles that can have an impact on our practice. We believe that this is an important skill of lifelong learning that we need as practicing professionals.