Implementing an Innovative Journal Club in the Workplace: A Beginners' Guide.

Journal clubs are an established method of reviewing literature for many different health care professionals. The purpose of this article is to provide practical advice on how to start a journal club for frontline medical radiation technologists (MRTs) working in a clinical environment, how to adapt that basic design to meet departmental needs, and how to determine if the journal club is successful. Because of a lack of MRT-specific information, these recommendations have been supported by evidence from other health care professions. Initially, journal club design considerations should include the identification of journal club goals and the desired professional and cultural mix. For a traditional journal club format, a single research article is distributed and then reviewed during a group meeting. Adapting the journal club format to your department's needs could include the addition of a critical review checklist to structure the critique, theory lectures to increase the educational component, or comparisons to current techniques to develop evidence-based clinical practice. It is important to measure the success of your journal club, using either participant satisfaction or the fulfillment of departmental goals. This article has provided some practical advice for those interested in implementing a journal club for frontline MRTs working in a clinical environment. The authors hope that this article assists and encourages MRTs to initiate a journal club, in whatever format is most useful to them.