The pediatric nurse manager at the Trauma Center where my nursing students complete their clinical rotations requested that I conduct a Journal Club Workshop. During the initial one hour session, the five staff members in attendance received a copy of the evidence-based practice information pyramid. Samples of various levels of research were distributed and discussed briefly. The journal club plans to meet monthly to cover topics of interest such as women’s health issues and pediatric issues because this nursing unit provides nursing care for both women and pediatric clients. The plan is to monthly select and distribute an article of interest prior to the journal club meeting so that participants have ample time to review the article. The club will meet to discuss the article and use questions to direct the discussion. For this initial session, the issue that was raised is how can the professional nurse better understand the assessment and prevention of and interventions for sports-related shoulder injuries in adolescents? For this initial session an article was selected from an orthopedic journal that addressed these issues. Following the discussion of the article, test questions were completed as a group. The participants plan to apply this information to clinical practice by providing anticipatory guidance to older school-age and adolescent patients and family and by providing information regarding the growing pattern of overuse injuries. The following article was selected for this journal club session.

Kleposki, E., Wells, L., Wilson, M., & Sehgal, K. (2009). Rotator cuff          injuries in skeletally immature patients: Prevention and indications for the orthopedic nurse. Othropaedic  Nursing, 28(3), 134-138.

                This article presents a retrospective review of six adolescent clients who were diagnosed with rotator cuff injuries secondary to participation in a game of sports such as baseball, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastics. The purpose of the article review was to gain a better understanding of shoulder injury pattern, type of sport played, history of trauma, diagnosis, treatment methods and outcomes of this type of injury.

The questions that led the discussion of this journal club session were as follows.

1. Does the title of this article a good description of what is included in the article?
2. Do the authors appear to have sufficient experiences to write on this topic?
3. What type of research is this article?
4. How will you apply this information to clinical practice?
5. What are the factors that predispose a skeletally immature client to a shoulder injury?
6. What types of injuries are seen in these pediatric clients and how are they treated?
7. List some prevention techniques that are discussed in the article.