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Abstract
Background: Germany's first student-run free clinic (SRFC) for medically underserved patients has been established at the medical faculty of the Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Germany. Participating students are educated in a Peer Assisted Learning program (PAL). Little is known about the effectiveness of PAL in SRFCs.
Methods: We conducted a randomized, controlled, prospective study involving 50 participants. Students were either tested before or after receiving PAL. Knowledge and skill level were measured by theoretical and practical tests. In addition, curricular Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) results were compared between the groups.
Results: Students receiving PAL had significantly better results 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.
Conclusion: Improved results of 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 and similar teaching projects could be based on it at other SRFCs.
Acknowledgments
The data for this study was included in a poster presentation at the Society of Student-run Free Clinics Conference in conjunction with the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, January 2015, in Atlanta, GA.
The authors would like to thank the Lernstudio Medizin and Studentische Poliklinik team for their support and help in implementing the elective concept of Studentische Poliklinik, as well as Dr. Petra Tiarks-Jungk (Public Health Authority Frankfurt) for her outstanding commitment and excellent supervision at Studentische Poliklinik. We would also like to thank Miss Joliene Stephan for her support in processing and analyzing the measured data.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest.