PHRM 672: Journal Club Assignment

The journal club assignment will be based on a presentation and written critique of published pharmacy and medical literature. The student pharmacists will be asked to select a published pharmacy/medical article.

OBJECTIVES:

1. To learn to critically read journal articles

2. Facilitate the understanding and acquisition of new knowledge in self and in group members

3. Develop an effective assessment process including the skills of problem/hypothesis identification, and critical appraisal of methodological approach, data analysis and results and conclusions which allow for an evaluation of pharmacy and medical literature

Journal club assignment written component:

Students will work individually for the written assignment. The written assignment must assess all of the following components of the research article:

· Citation

· Background

· Objective

· Methods

· Type of trial, inclusion, exclusion criteria, interventions, end-points etc.

· Statistical analysis

· Results

· Conclusion

· Critique

Questions that need to be addressed have been provided to you in the journal club assignment link. Each student will have different questions depending on the type of published article that has been chosen. Journal club written assignments have a 3 page limit, size 11 font.

Journal club assignment oral component:

Students must present their journal club assignments. Students should provide a critique and comment for each section of the presented article (e.g. introduction, methods, results, discussion). Questions addressed in the written component of the assignment should be presented. Students will find it helpful to prepare 5-10 Powerpoint® slides to help focus group discussion.