RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Impact of Offering Continuing Respiratory Care Education Credit Hours on Staff Participation in a Respiratory Care Journal Club
JF Respiratory Care
FD American Association for Respiratory Care
SP 303
OP 305
DO 10.4187/respcare.00952
VO 56
IS 3
A1 Carl R Hinkson
A1 Nirpalinder Kaur
A1 Michael W Sipes
A1 David J Pierson
YR 2011
UL http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/56/3/303.abstract
AB BACKGROUND: Journal clubs are employed by education and healthcare institutions to facilitate learning about study design, to teach critical reading of the literature, and to help trainees and practitioners keep abreast in their fields. Our respiratory care department initiated a journal club that was open to all respiratory therapists in the community. The articles were selected by the journal club coordinator and posted on the club's web site. However, attendance remained poor despite changes in venue, time, and day of the week. In Washington State, respiratory therapists are required to obtain continuing respiratory care education credits (CRCEs), so we hypothesized that offering American Association for Respiratory Care CRCEs for journal club attendance would increase participation. METHODS: We measured journal club attendance during the 8 months preceding and the 8 months following introduction of CRCE credit for journal club attendance. The journal club meetings were held during same time frame, on the same day of the week, and in the same geographic region during the pre-CRCE and CRCE periods. Advertising for the journal club was the same during both periods as well. RESULTS: Pre-CRCE attendance ranged from 5 to 8 persons per meeting (mean ± SD 6 ± 1 persons), and CRCE-period attendance ranged from 7 to 10 persons (mean ± SD 8 ± 1) (P = .01). CONCLUSIONS: Providing CRCE credits for attendance was associated with increased participation in our departmental journal club.