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Impact of a National Journal Club and Letter Writing Session on Improving Medical Students’ Confidence with Critical Appraisal [Response to Letter]

Authors Gokani SA , Sharma E, Sharma T, Moudhgalya SV, Selvendran SS, Aggarwal N

Received 17 January 2020

Accepted for publication 17 January 2020

Published 23 January 2020 Volume 2020:11 Pages 79—80

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/AMEP.S246428



Shyam Ajay Gokani, 1 Ekta Sharma, 2 Tanisha Sharma, 3 Shyam Venkatesan Moudhgalya, 3 Subothini Sara Selvendran, 4 Nikhil Aggarwal 5

1Research Department of Primary Care & Population Health, University College London (Royal Free Campus), London, UK; 2Academic Section of Vascular Surgery, Division of Surgery, Imperial College London, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK; 3Department of Medicine, St George’s University of London, London, UK; 4Department of Medicine, Southampton University, Southampton, UK; 5Department of Medicine, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

Correspondence: Shyam Ajay Gokani
Research Department of Primary Care and Population Health, University College London (Royal Free Campus), London, UK
Tel +44 20 7679 2000
Fax +44 20 7472 6871
Email [email protected]

We thank the authors for their considered comments and insightful questions. 1
Ng and Yap mention that they would like more information on the training and experience of the tutors. All of the tutors involved in delivering critical appraisal small group lectures had attended a minimum of a one-week teaching skills course. Additionally, they were all academic foundation doctors. In London, this entails competitive selection to a research post after a rigorous interview involving critical appraisal of an abstract, and a proven interest in academic medicine. Approximately half of the additional tutors involved in mentoring were also academic foundation doctors, and most had undergone teaching skills courses as a compulsory part of their medical training.

This is in response to the Letter to the Editor.

Read the original article.

Dear editor

We thank the authors for their considered comments and insightful questions.1

Ng and Yap mention that they would like more information on the training and experience of the tutors. All of the tutors involved in delivering critical appraisal small group lectures had attended a minimum of a one-week teaching skills course. Additionally, they were all academic foundation doctors. In London, this entails competitive selection to a research post after a rigorous interview involving critical appraisal of an abstract, and a proven interest in academic medicine. Approximately half of the additional tutors involved in mentoring were also academic foundation doctors, and most had undergone teaching skills courses as a compulsory part of their medical training.

Please note that 84 students completed the pre-course survey, of which 74 completed the post course survey, indicating a response rate of 88%. There were additional attendees at the conference (n=14) who did not complete the pre-course survey due to last minute attendance and were therefore not eligible for follow-up. We do agree that unsatisfied delegates of the course may be less inclined to complete post course feedback forms, and therefore certificates were indeed provided on completion of the post course survey. However, it is our opinion that part of the reason for loss to follow-up was that post-course emails were directed to participant’s junk mailboxes, since we received many surveys long after the deadline for completion. This is an issue we are hoping to rectify for future courses.

Finally, we agree with the authors regarding additional methods of success. The aim of this study was to assess student confidence and also the feasibility of this teaching method.2 However, we are planning to repeat this course in the future with a longer follow-up duration. We hope to not only capture data on subsequent letters to editor, but also to perform objective assessments of critical appraisal skills before and after the course.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this communication.

References

1. Ng N, Yap NJ. A response to “impact of a national journal club and letter writing session on improving medical students’ confidence with critical appraisal” [Letter]. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2020;11:51–52.

2. Gokani SA, Sharma E, Sharma T, Moudhgalya SV, Selvendran SS, Aggarwal N. Impact of a national journal club and letter writing session on improving medical students’ confidence with critical appraisal. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2019;10:1081–1087. doi:10.2147/AMEP.S235260

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