Skills` training of junior medical students: staff versus peers

Abstract

Introduction: Skills` training at the faculty of medicine of AAU (SUDAN) starts early during the preclinical period. However, the patients` care pressure on trained staff, the limited resources and the difficulty of recruiting part time teachers, forced the administration finding other resources. An effective alternative could be peer-teaching. But can peer-tutors be as effective as staff in teaching skills? Our aim was to establish whether peer-tutors are as effective as trained staff and whether peer-tutees are disadvantaged by PAL and that PAL can help in solving the problem of limited resources. Methods: Senior students were selected and trained to participate in the skills training. Emphasis was on technique of normal examination and focused history. Learners were second-year students learning the cardiovascular module. Groups of eight students were randomly allocated to a staff or a peertutor. Each group attended three sessions. Performance of the learners was assessed by an OSCE at the end of the training. Data were collected in questionnaire using five-point Likert scale and analyzed. Results: Eleven staff and seven peer-tutors participated. Fifty six students were taught by peers and eighty by staff .Response rate to the questionnaire was 86%. Peer-taught students obtained a significant higher scores in the OSCE than staff taught students P=0.002. There were significant differences in six of the ten items investigated in the questionnaire Conclusion: Peer-taught students performed better than staff-taught students. Trained Peer-tutors can be as effective as staff in teaching skills. They can participate effectively in solving the problem of shortage of trained staff. Junior medical students are disadvantaged by peer-tutoring