ABSTRACT
AimsAt the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional and widely-accepted teaching modalities did not meet social distancing requirements and, as a result, many events and educational sessions were cancelled or adjourned. Conventional journal clubs were destined to be one such casualty. Recognising the unique benefits of an active journal club in teaching fundamental critical appraisal skills, facilitating exchange of clinical insight and enabling social interaction, ‘Donuts et al.’ was established. Delivered over an online video platform, on a monthly basis, Donuts et al. is a regional journal club involving paediatric trainees and consultants from all paediatric units across Northern Ireland.MethodsDonuts et al. is delivered using ‘Zoom’ as the digital platform. At the initial and final session of the 2020- 2021 academic year, we utilised the embedded ‘poll’ feature to gather quantitative data, with the aim of mapping the impact of our journal club on our attendees. Collected poll information included: attendance at previous journal clubs, confidence with critical appraisal and the influence Donuts et al. had made on attendees critical appraisal skills and everyday clinical practice.ResultsDuring the initial poll, all paediatric trainees reported having attended a previous journal club, however, almost 50% of respondents did not feel confident in their critical appraisal ability. In comparison, a poll from the final session of the 2020-2021 academic year showed that 93.4% of trainees agreed or strongly agreed the regional journal club had increased their confidence critically appraising a paper and 80% agreed or strongly agreed it had influenced their clinical practice.ConclusionWithin the first year of its introduction, Donuts et al. has been incredibly popular amongst trainees and consultants alike. Junior and senior paediatricians from across the country have displayed an extremely high calibre of presentation and critical appraisal ability. We have witnessed a fantastic level of attendance and engaging clinical discussions between various members of the paediatric multidisciplinary team. As highlighted in the results section, there has been a significant increase in trainees confidence with critical appraisal following the introduction of this educational activity. Building upon our success to date, we have introduced a ‘Statistics topic of the month’ infographic that is presented at the start of each session, with the hopes of enhancing the academic learning potential from each session. More recently, our journal club has been featured in the education section of the Northern Ireland Paediatric Education, Audit and Research (NI PEAR) network website, showcasing the impressive reach and substantial impact we have achieved to date.