BackgroundCritical appraisal is an important skill for clinicians of the future which medical students often have limited opportunities to develop. This study aimed to evaluate whether a national journal club session could improve medical students’ confidence with critical appraisal.Methods98 medical students attended a critical appraisal lecture and supervised journal article discussions. Junior doctor mentors supported students to submit discussion points as a letter-to-the-editor. An online cross-sectional survey was administered before and after the conference.Results74 students responded, reporting increased confidence with critically appraising research articles (median score 2 vs 4, p<0.01) and increased understanding of why critical appraisal was important to their careers (median score 3 vs 5, p<0.01).DiscussionThis is the first study to demonstrate that a single national journal club session can significantly improve UK medical students’ confidence with the critical appraisal process. These opportunities are valued by medical students.

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