title: Impact of offering continuing respiratory care education credit hours on staff participation in a respiratory care journal club.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Journal clubs are employed by education and healthcare institutions to facilitate learning about study design, to teach critical reading of the literature, and to help trainees and practitioners keep abreast in their fields. Our respiratory care department initiated a journal club that was open to all respiratory therapists in the community. The articles were selected by the journal club coordinator and posted on the club's web site. However, attendance remained poor despite changes in venue, time, and day of the week. In Washington State, respiratory therapists are required to obtain continuing respiratory care education credits (CRCEs), so we hypothesized that offering American Association for Respiratory Care CRCEs for journal club attendance would increase participation.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured journal club attendance during the 8 months preceding and the 8 months following introduction of CRCE credit for journal club attendance. The journal club meetings were held during same time frame, on the same day of the week, and in the same geographic region during the pre-CRCE and CRCE periods. Advertising for the journal club was the same during both periods as well.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pre-CRCE attendance ranged from 5 to 8 persons per meeting (mean ± SD 6 ± 1 persons), and CRCE-period attendance ranged from 7 to 10 persons (mean ± SD 8 ± 1) (P = .01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Providing CRCE credits for attendance was associated with increased participation in our departmental journal club.
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Care Department, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. gooddog@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Carl R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Hinkson
authors.forename: Nirpalinder
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Sipes
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Pierson
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003406:Credentialing; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011932:Reading; D012138:Respiratory Therapy / Q000193:education*