The Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health care and health through enhanced primary care. Participate by conducting a journal club. We encourage diverse participants to think critically about important issues affecting primary care and act on those discussions.1
HOW IT WORKS
In each issue, the Annals selects an article and provides discussion tips and questions. Post a summary of your conversation in our online discussion. (Open the article and click on the eLetters tab, and submit a comment.) Discussion questions and information are online at: https://www.AnnFamMed.org/content/AJC.
CURRENT SELECTION
Article for Discussion
Discussion Tips
Qualitative research offers an opportunity to gain a richer understanding of why things are happening.
As clinicians, we have pondered similar questions the researchers asked family physicians and pharmacists about antibiotic allergies. Consider how you deal with patient-reported allergies as a physician. How granular are your system’s reporting mechanisms? Is your electronic medical record connected to the pharmacist’s medical record?
Discussion Questions
What question is asked by this study and why does it matter?
How does this study advance beyond previous research and clinical practice on this topic?
What is a focus group? How strong is this study design for answering the question? What are weaknesses of this type of study?
○ What is saturation?
What methods did the authors use to minimize bias in the conduct and analysis of the study?
To what degree can the findings be accounted for by:
How participants were selected or excluded?
How the findings were interpreted?
What are the main study findings?
○ How did you feel about the grouping of quotes into 3 main categories?
○ Did the highlighted quotes support the analysis? Did you identify with any of the quotes?
○ What is a fish-bone diagram? Does it help you understand what is going on here?
How comparable is the study sample to your location? What is your judgment about the transportability of the findings?
○ Do you relate to the focus group participants?
What contextual factors are important for interpreting the findings?
○ What is an allergy registration?
How might this study change your practice? Policy? Education? Research?
What challenges do you see with trying to improve the reporting of antibiotic allergies?
What are the next steps in interpreting or applying the findings?
What researchable questions remain?
- © 2020 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.