The Impact of Journal Clubs on Postgraduate Medical Education in China

Abstract

Abstract Purpose Journal club plays an essential role in medical education. Studies have revealed its contribution in many countries except China. Chinese medical postgraduates are divided into academic and clinical types. This study aims to investigate their participation, performance, and gains in journal clubs and how student type and study phase influence these aspects. Method The authors distributed a survey involving demographic information, participation, performance, and improvements to postgraduates at Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and 232 questionaries were included in further analysis. Mann-Whitney U and Gamma tests were adopted for respective data, and a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The total participation and performance resemble worldwide studies. As for student type, academic postgraduates displayed superior participation and research assistance than clinical postgraduates, while their performances were at the same level. After introducing the study phase, academic-related downward trend and clinical-related upward trend in attendance rate and listening attitude along the senior phase, as well as time-promoting presentation comments, progress after presentation and research assistance were observed. Conclusions In this study, the authors revealed academic postgraduates’ fatigue, clinical postgraduates’ enthusiasm, and academic-superior research assistance. We recommend encouraging and supporting scientific research training for clinical postgraduates, helping academic postgraduates establish better time management and less irrelevant work, and promoting critical appraisal skill education.