The Current State of Journal Clubs in Psychiatry Residency Programs: Results from a National Survey of Program Directors

Objective: This study aimed to investigate journal club prevalence, implementation, and perceived effectiveness among psychiatry residency program directors in order to highlight best practices. Methods: The authors distributed a 44-item thoughtfully designed and peer-reviewed questionnaire electronically via Qualtrics to 235 accredited U.S. psychiatry residency program directors identified using the American Medical Association database. Results: Eighty-nine programs (38%) responded. Of these, 83 (93%) had a journal club. Journal clubs were mandatory in 80 programs (96%), met biweekly or monthly in 62 programs (75%), and lasted 46–60 min in 66 programs (80%). Twenty-three programs (28%) offered a list of articles to choose from, and 22 programs (27%) provided a critical appraisal tool. Only 7 programs (8%) measured learner outcomes from journal clubs. Respondents believed that promoting lifelong learning and practicing evidence-based psychiatry were the most relevant educational goals of journal club (2.57 and 2.51 on a Likert scale of 0 to 3). Journal club’s effectiveness in achieving those goals was believed to be lower (2.16 and 2.09). Conclusions: Journal clubs are common in U.S. psychiatry residency programs and tend to follow a traditional format. In order to boost journal club’s effectiveness in achieving the desired educational goals, more programs might elect to infuse elements known to augment learning.