Use of an electronic journal club to increase access to and acceptance of palliative care literature across general pediatricians and pediatric subspecialties

Context: Implementation of pediatric palliative care as a primary practice relevant for all pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists requires a grounding, shared knowledge. This study reports on the innovative application of a monthly Palliative Care E-Journal Club (Pal Care Club) to foster shared palliative care knowledge hospital wide. Objectives: To explore the impact of a monthly electronic journal club to increase the number of palliative care-relevant articles read and discussed and to enhance provider comfort with the integration and introduction of palliative care. Methods: A single cohort, predesign-post-design was utilized to explore the impact of a monthly palliative care electronic journal club. Results: Preintervention barriers to reading pediatric palliative care literature were primarily access and time. The mean of paired differences (post-pre) for the number of full-text articles read per month was 2.56 (SD = 1.25). The journal club intervention increased participant personal comfort with integrating palliative care principles at the bedside (p < 0.0001) and introducing pediatric palliative care to patients and families (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: An electronic journal club is a feasible and acceptable means of increasing number of palliative care articles read and discussed across an institution as well as enhancing pediatric palliative care knowledge across subspecialist and general pediatric services.