The role of the journal club in surgical residency programs: a survey of APDS program directors.

PURPOSE: To determine the role, organization, and importance of journal clubs in surgical education.Program directors of all general surgical residencies were asked to respond by mail to a structured survey containing questions about their journal club in the following general categories: Setting, Format, Content, and Purpose.With over 80% of the 278 program directors responding, the typical journal club was found to be one that meets once per month to discuss 3 to 6 articles. It is held on site in the early evening hours and requires the attendance of residents. Over half of the directors indicated that their journal club was important or very important to their training program, with learning literature review skills and providing training in research education as the top 2 purposes cited. Few programs reported performing any systematic or formal evaluation of their journal club.Although journal clubs are active in over 65% of general surgery residency programs, little data exist on the purposes served by this aspect of resident training. The data provided by program directors in response to this survey will ideally serve as a starting point for discussion of how to maximize the benefits that residents receive from this part of their curriculum. Adoption of more formalized approaches to evaluating outcomes would assist in this process.