Kootenai | Kootenai Health | Issue 1, 2018

Each year, more than 2.5 million articles on the latest developments in medicine, science and technology are published in approximately 28,000 journals. For those in the medical field, trying to stay on top of this mountain of new information can feel like a constant uphill climb. “It’s difficult for the average clinician to keep pace with the rapid speed at which things progress in the medical field,” said Weston Vik, DTP, physical therapist at Kootenai Health Rehabilita- tion Services. “We do our best to keep up with the latest guidelines, techniques and best practices, but it can be challenging to wade through all of the knowledge that’s out there to figure out what’s most relevant to us and our patients.” Keeping current Weston is working to make the masses of new medical literature a little less daunt- ing for his fellow providers. Shortly after joining Kootenai Health two years ago, he began a journal club to help keep his physical therapist peers up-to-date on the lat- est trends and best practices in the field. The journal club meets monthly to critically evaluate preselected journal articles, exchange thoughts on the topics, and share ideas and strategies on how to apply the research to the care of their patients. “It’s one thing to read the research, but meeting as a group to discuss and synthe- size the article helps bring the topic to life. It makes it a more readily available tool that we can use in the care of our patients,” Weston said. A primary goal of the journal club, Weston explained, is to encourage consistent use of evidence- based practices across the physical therapy team. In the Know Journal club helps physical therapists keep pace with new research and best practices By Stacie Jones 18