File
R. SendhilKumar1, C. Srikesavan2, P. Nirmala3, K.V Haribabu4
1National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Physiotherapy Center, Bengaluru, India, 2University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Sciences, Oxford, United Kingdom, 3Ann Physiocare, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 4PP Savani University, School of Physiotherapy, Surat, India
Background: Journal clubs provide an innovative venue for health professionals to enhance critical thinking and communication skills, and learn concepts of evidence-based practice (EBP). A 2021 systematic review highlighted by PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database) found language as a frequently reported barrier to EBP education in developing countries.
Purpose: We reflect on running a virtual journal club for Tamil speaking physiotherapists and how we overcame the language barrier in learning EBP knowledge and skills.
Methods: We are a small group of physiotherapists (n=40) trained from an under-graduate academic institution in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, South India. We started a monthly virtual journal club in October 2020 when online meetings became the ‘new normal’ during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The purposes of our Alumni journal club are to impart EBP knowledge and skills and contribute to voluntary activities such as translation of patient materials of evidence-based interventions evaluated in large clinical trials for use in the Tamil speaking population. Our members were government or private practitioners, teachers and researchers working in different parts of the world.
Our monthly topics focus on Cochrane systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines to inform our practice and research. The sessions include a 30-45 minute keynote presentation by a clinician or researcher followed by 30-45 minute question and group discussion time. The sessions are facilitated by a senior researcher in the United Kingdom and an academic member and researcher from India. All sessions were conducted via Google video meet on an agreed Indian standard time on Sunday evenings to encourage regular participation. The average duration was 90 minutes.
The purposes of our Alumni journal club are to impart EBP knowledge and skills and contribute to voluntary activities such as translation of patient materials of evidence-based interventions evaluated in large clinical trials for use in the Tamil speaking population. Our members were government or private practitioners, teachers and researchers working in different parts of the world.
Our monthly topics focus on Cochrane systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines to inform our practice and research. The sessions include a 30-45 minute keynote presentation by a clinician or researcher followed by 30-45 minute question and group discussion time. The sessions are facilitated by a senior researcher in the United Kingdom and an academic member and researcher from India. All sessions were conducted via Google video meet on an agreed Indian standard time on Sunday evenings to encourage regular participation. The average duration was 90 minutes.
Results: One of the main barriers to our learning was the English language as our members had diverse background levels of English proficiency. We identified this challenge earlier and started implementing a few simple strategies. First of all, we conducted our initial sessions mainly in Tamil. Our presentation slides were in English but the talk was delivered in Tamil. Our members found this easy to learn and understand about sections of a research article, health research ethics and randomised controlled trials and clarify their doubts. Moving to further complex concepts such as Forest plots, we produced simple instructional videos in Tamil to explain how to interpret findings of systematic reviews and apply them in practice. This was shared via our official YouTube channel and WhatsApp group. We also invited speakers from other parts of India where the first language is not Tamil, and researchers from other countries such as the United Kingdom, Nepal and Nigeria. This further allowed learners to interact with different speakers, ask questions and confidently take part in discussions in English. After two years, we have now gradually moved to a flexible approach by comfortably using English and Tamil. Verbal feedback from our members indicated that their self-confidence in English speaking has greatly improved since participating in the journal club.
Conclusions: We overcame the language barrier by successfully implementing simple strategies in our journal club sessions.
Implications: Virtual journal clubs are useful to support EBP learning and research education in physiotherapy.
Funding acknowledgements: This work received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Keywords:
Evidence-based practice
Language
Journal club
Evidence-based practice
Language
Journal club
Topics:
Education
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Education: continuing professional development
Education
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Education: continuing professional development
Did this work require ethics approval? No
Reason: This work is about our experiences of running an online journal club and not a research project.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
