Acquiring Medical Knowledge and Clinical Skills Through Same-Level Peer Learning in Student-Run Free Clinics

• In Event: 54.038 - Learning Through Same-Level Peers in Clinical Education

Abstract

Background: Same-level peer learning (PAL) has increasingly become more important in the clinical education of medical students, since PAL not only increases students’ confidence in clinical skills training 15 but also has proven to be as effective as faculty-led training in teaching technical procedures. 16 At the same time, student-run free clinics (SRFC) have made a contribution in improving the healthcare of the underserved and also represent a valuable teaching instrument, particularly in “psychosocial basics” and “system-based learning”. 17 Little is known about the possible influence that PAL in SRFC exerts on acquiring basic medical skills. This presentation will discuss a study involving volunteering medical students at XXX.
Methods: XX’s PAL curriculum includes training of participating students before they provide patient care in the XX later on. Experienced student tutors use problem-based learning to teach medical knowledge and clinical skills in our facility's skills-lab. Student participants then volunteer as juniors in the clinic with supervision from senior students and physicians. In a randomized, controlled, prospective study involving 50 participants, we tested students either before or after receiving XX’s PAL. We measured knowledge and skill level using theoretical and practical tests, and we compared curricular Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) results between groups.
Results: Students receiving PAL performed significantly better in theoretical (p<0.001) and practical (p<0.001) tests, as well as in the OSCE (p<0.01). A control test showed no significant difference (p=0.205) indicating similar prerequisites between the groups.

Discussion: Improvements in the study group indicate an increase in the clinical knowledge and skills. PAL appears to be suitable for the training of basic medical skills and family medicine-related knowledge. Considering its high effectiveness and low costs, PAL should be used more frequently in the clinical education of medical students. XX’s PAL curriculum could represent an exemplar for establishing similar teaching projects.

Author

• Lukas Seifert