Research Participant Information Statement

Study Title:

Spread of a structured Journal Club format into clinical services using WE-TREAT “Web-based Expert system” for “Tailoring Research Evidence And Theory”): A knowledge translation approach

What is the study about?

• The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing WE-TREAT, a web-based expert system (via the www.treatjournalclubs.com website) for spreading structured TREAT Journal Clubs to health professionals to promote evidence-based practice.
• The TREAT Journal Club format was developed in 2015 to enhance conventional journal club formats in the healthcare setting. Previous studies have shown improvements to clinician’s evidence-based practice skills and confidence using this format and potential improvements in evidence-uptake in patient care.
• This project will explore how we can now spread this journal club format more widely using a web-based system and evaluate its effects.

Who is carrying out the study?

The research is being conducted by Dr Rachel Wenke from Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, Australia, in collaboration with researchers from Bond University and Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.

What does my participation involve?

As part of this project you will be invited to participate in up to ten journal clubs that will be held monthly over a 10-month period within your workplace. The journal clubs will be implemented using resources from the treatjournalclubs.com website. To assist with you conducting the journal clubs, you will be asked to register details about yourself and your journal club and then complete a “Journal Club implementation helper” tool. Further details are as follows:

1. Registration: You will be asked to provide information about your name, email address and area of work in order to register your journal club and so that you can be contacted with additional information about the research and journal club implementation.
2. “Journal club implementation helper”: You will be asked a series of multiple choice questions about your journal club including its size, experience, your journal club’s culture and any perceived barriers you may expect to running the journal club.

Based on your responses as part the “Journal club implementation helper” tool, you will be emailed a journal club implementation plan with a list of tailored strategies to help you implement your journal club in your local context. If you decide to run the journal club, you have the option to take part in an evaluation of your journal club and access additional resources on the website to further assist with implementing your journal club. Additional information regarding this evaluation will be provided to you, including information on how to share with other members of your journal club so they also can take part in the evaluation. How much time will the study take?

The registration and Journal Club implementation helper will take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete.

Confidentiality:

• Responses to the registration questions and Journal Club implementation helper will be stored in a secure server, only accessible by the research team.
• Your email address may be used to contact you to participate in an optional follow up interview regarding the research after your initial participation and correspondence regarding this research project. Your email address will not be used for any other purposes or shared with anyone outside the research team.
• In all research reports and publications, your data will only be included in aggregated means in a de-identified manner and will not in any way be linked to your identity.

Benefits:
As a participant you will have the opportunity to:

• Reflect on your current evidence-based practice knowledge and attitudes.
• Receive numerous online resources to help with facilitation of your local journal clubs.
• Contribute towards the refinement of a journal club format which has potential to improve evidence-based practice in healthcare.

Ethics:
This project has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Gold Coast Health Hospital and Health Service and will be carried out in accordance with the The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (updated 2018). If you would like to speak to an officer not involved in the study, please contact the Human Research Ethics Committee Coordinator on +6175687 3879. [email protected]. HREC reference number is: HREC/2021/QGC/72968

Contacting the investigators:

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact Dr Rachel Wenke by emailing [email protected] or  [email protected]