Can near-peer medical students effectively teach a new curriculum in physical examination?

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Hannes Blankenfeld¹  Antonius Schneider¹  Wolfgang A Blank¹  Klaus Linde¹  Roger Vogelmann² 

[1] Institute of General Practice, Technische Universität München, Orleansstr. 47, 81667, Munich, Germany;Medizinische Klink II, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany;Medizinische Klinik II, Universitätsklinikum Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany;

关键词: Objective Structure Clinical Examination;    Examination Skill;    Bedside Teaching;    Physical Examination Skill;    Objective Structure Clinical Examination Station;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6920-13-165

 received in 2012-09-27, accepted in 2013-12-04,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundStudents in German medical schools frequently complain that the subject ‘clinical examination’ is not taught in a satisfying manner due to time constraints and lack of personnel resources. While the effectiveness and efficiency of practice-oriented teaching in small groups using near-peer teaching has been shown, it is rarely used in German medical schools. We investigated whether adding a new near-peer teaching course developed with student input plus patient examination under supervision in small groups improves basic clinical examination skills in third year medical students compared to a traditional clinical examination course alone.MethodsThird year medical students registered for the mandatory curricular clinical examination course at the medical faculty of the Technische Universität München were invited to participate in a randomised trial with blinded outcome assessment. Students were randomised to the control group participating in the established curricular physical examination course or to the intervention group, which received additional near-peer teaching for the same content. The learning success was verified by a voluntary objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).ResultsA total of 84 students were randomised and 53 (63%) participated in the final OSCE. Students in the control group scored a median of 57% (25th percentile 47%, 75th percentile 61%) of the maximum possible total points of the OSCE compared to 77% (73%, 80%; p < 0.001) for students in the intervention group. Only two students in the intervention group received a lower score than the best student in the control group.ConclusionAdding a near-peer teaching course to the routine course significantly improved the clinical examination skills of medical students in an efficient manner in the context of a resource-constrained setting.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Blank et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013