Just a friendly reminder that reviewing research does not have to look the same way for everyone and reading some research is better than reading no research. However you consume research in your occupational therapy life, tracking and being reflective about what you read, helps with meeting that evidence-based practice gold standard, allowing you to provide the best intervention to your clients.
The Occupational Therapy Journal Club Review Form and Occupational Therapy Journal Club Spreadsheet are being provided as free resources to track the research you review either on your own or as part of a team. These forms are very simple to use, allows for reflection with how you will implement this research in your practice, and a method of tracking your progress with research goals.
Downloads can be accessed here:
Occupational Therapy Journal Club Review Form
Occupational Therapy Journal Club Spreadsheet
These forms are specifically made to be simple. Research does not have to be complicated. You find an article that speaks to your practice, you read it, and you determine the takeaways that you can use in your practice setting. You must start somewhere and keep at it to make a positive impact with providing your client the best intervention and to keep up to date on the latest research in the occupational therapy field. You can modify these forms to meet your research needs because reviewing research does not have to look the same way for everyone!
Some notes:
Occupational Therapy Journal Club Review Form is the more reflective of the two forms, including OTPF-4 terminology and allows you to also track your goals. Again, you determine your goals with no pressure for the goals to look a certain way. You may have a goal of reading 1 article per month or a goal to implement at least 1 method learned from the article you read or reading a certain type of research (randomized control, systematic reviews, case studies, etc.). You design your connection with the research and goals.
Occupational Therapy Journal Club Spreadsheet allows for a quick 1-2 lines of information related to the research article. It can function as a summary of the amount of articles you read to see how you are progressing with your goals or a mechanism to track research for a paper or literature review. A citation column is also provided to keep track of your citations if you are completing a literature review or if just want to have a quick link to the DOI.
Read Open Access Journals and Resources for Occupational Therapy Research for how to obtain open access articles. You can also access articles for free from your alma mater’s library if you maintain your college email following graduation. For many schools, library access after graduation is an alumni perk!
Read Tips for reading a research article when you have limited time to learn how to review an article when you have limited time.
Enjoy the knowledge!
OT Research Corner 