Creating a journal club competition improves paediatric nurses' participation and engagement.

BACKGROUND To improve journal club participation, innovative approaches are required but few have been described. It was unknown if adding an element of competition, to an established journal club, would increase nurses' participation. OBJECTIVE To explore the impact on attendance and participation in a hospital-wide nursing journal club through the introduction of an element of competition. DESIGN A descriptive exploratory study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS An Australian specialist tertiary paediatric hospital with over 1600 nurses. METHODS In 2013, 12 hospital wards/departments were randomly assigned a month each to present journal club. Nurses were supported to evaluate an article according to a published framework. A predetermined rubric guided marking. Post competition, all hospital nurses received an anonymous online survey invitation. Demographic, Likert scale and qualitative data were collected. Questions elicited attitudes and perceived barriers or facilitators to participation in the journal club. RESULTS Compared to 2012, there was a statistically significant increase in journal club attendance (2013 median=20.5 [IQR=18.2, 27.7] vs. 2012 median=9 [IQR=6.5, 12.5], Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.01). Full online survey responses were received from 289/1674 (response rate 17.3%) of sent invitations (Non-Attendees n=224, Attendees n=65 (including 18 presenters). Overall, Attendees reported journal club had a positive impact on their professional engagement. Presenters rated the journal club format highly as it developed skills and increased their confidence in journal club presentation. Emergent themes were time and location, engagement, topics and content. CONCLUSION A competition format can increase nurses' journal club attendance and participation. Further work is required to establish applicability of this format to other settings.