Understanding the Modern Surgical Journal Club

Objective: We sought to perform a comprehensive review of how journal club (JC) is utilized in surgical residencies, including the goals, structure and outcomes of the educational activity, and any changes made since the 2003 implementation of the 80-hour weekly resident duty hour limit. Design: A random, representative cohort of 75 of the 266 US general surgery residency programs was identified, and Program Directors were asked to complete an 18-question electronic survey about to the ways in which their program utilizes JC. Setting: General surgery residency programs of all types, sizes, and in all geographies. Participants: Seventy-five general surgery Program Directors were contacted, 42 of whom (56%) completed the survey. Results: Most programs hold JC monthly (60.6%). University programs were more likely than others to hold JC during the evening or other nonprotected time (p = 0.04) and estimated the lowest proportion of residents in attendance (58.3%, p = 0.03). Twenty-one percent of programs indicated changes to JC related to the 80-hour work per week including making meetings less frequent and also optional. While 71.4% of respondents indicated that teaching biostatistics is a goal of JC, over half (57.1%) stated it is slightly or not at all effective at doing so. Conclusions: JC is prevalent and, despite being 1 of its main goals, is not effective at teaching residents about biostatistics in its current form. Developing realistic, targeted curricula about biostatistics as adjuncts to current JC activities may help programs achieve these goals more readily.