Health Sciences Education Symposium
Presentation Format
Poster
Type of Activity
Research
Original Presentation Date
2024
Date of Submission
October 2025
Abstract/Short Description
Purpose/Background/Objectives: Peer-teaching is a rapidly expanding field of education where students step into the role of instructors to aid their peers in learning. Currently, peer-teaching is widely used in K-12 education and universities, and is making headway in medical schools. In addition to the impact on learners, peer-teaching has been shown to benefit the growth of medical students as teachers, providing more self-efficacy, motivation, maturity, and professional development. Within the field of medical education, research focusing on the impact of peer-teaching demonstrates the largest foundation in procedural skills, showcasing benefits for both peer-teachers and learners. However, there are uncertainties in current literature regarding medical student outcomes when comparing students taught by peers with those taught by faculty in the area of clinical skills. This study therefore aims to further evaluate the importance and impact of peer-teaching specifically on the clinical skills and professional development of peer-teachers and peer-learners.
Methods: Twenty first-year medical students (M1) and eight second-year medical students (M2) at the Virginia Commonwealth University SOM volunteered to participate in a clinical teaching workshop. M2 students instructed M1 students on cardiovascular and pulmonary physical examinations and blood pressure measurements. Participants were anonymously surveyed before the start of the workshop (pre-survey) and after its completion (post-survey). The pre-survey included questions regarding prior experience with peer-teaching or learning in a medical and non-medical context, confidence in their ability to perform or teach these skills, opinion on the value of peer-teaching or learning in clinical skill and professional improvement, likelihood of seeking out peer-teaching or learning in the future, and interest in pursuing a career in academic medicine. The post-surveys included the same set of questions to analyze changes in response after the completion of the workshop. Participants were asked to rate their answers on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” A Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was performed to analyze the change in students’ response.
Results: Among M1 students, 20% had prior experience receiving tutoring in these clinical skills. There was a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-survey answers in the confidence level performing the pulmonary exam (p=0.00008088), cardiovascular exam (p=0.0003139), and blood pressure measurement (p=0.004706). However, there was no statistically significant difference in the perceived importance of peer-to-peer teaching, value in learning from near peers in clinical skills, likelihood of seeking future peer tutoring, interest in teaching clinical skills to other students, or interest in a career in academic medicine. Among M2 students, 100% had prior peer-teaching experience and 12.5% had prior peer-teaching experience in a medical context. There was a statistically significant difference in the confidence level between pre- and post-survey answers in teaching the pulmonary (p=0.01788) and cardiovascular exams (p=0.01991). There was no statistically significant difference in the perceived importance of teaching clinical skills to improve one's own clinical skills, importance of teaching for one's own professional development, likelihood of seeking future teaching opportunities, or interest in academic medicine.
Conclusions/Reflective Critique: This study demonstrates that peer-teaching may have a significant impact in medical students’ confidence in performing and teaching clinical skills. Study strengths include quantitative measures, clinical skill focus, and utilization of matched pairs while ensuring participant anonymity. However, the study included survey questions with high pre-survey responses on the Likert scale, limiting the ability for measurement of a significant difference. Other limitations include the relatively small sample size, incomplete survey responses from all attendees, and removal of data without a matched pair which can potentially introduce dropout bias. Further research may be of benefit to determine the importance of peer-teaching in a medical curriculum.
References
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Benè, K. L., & Bergus, G. (2014). When learners become teachers: a review of peer teaching in medical student education. Family medicine, 46(10), 783–787.
Rees, E. L., Quinn, P. J., Davies, B., & Fotheringham, V. (2016). How does peer teaching compare to faculty teaching? A systematic review and meta-analysis (.). Medical teacher, 38(8), 829–837. DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2015.1112888
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Rights
© The Author(s)
Is Part Of
VCU Medical Education Symposium
First Author Information
Lindsay Irwin, BS, VCU School of Medicine