Near-peer-assisted learning (NPAL) in undergraduate medical students and their perception of having medical interns as their near peer teacher

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

Medical students believes that their near peers can provide useful formative feedback on their clinical skills performance. Clinical skills well acquired from medical interns in a friendly environment and structured learning setting. Students believe near peer formative assessment could be fair. Introducing clinical skills teaching in early medical years is well accepted and appreciated from medical students. Near-peer teacher need to be knowledgeable and prepared to give clinical session.

Table 1. Near-peer clinical teaching practices given by assigned medical interns.

Variable	Category	Frequency	Percent
Number of clinical teaching sessions	1–3	30	25.86
	4–6	71	61.21
	>6	15	12.93
	Total	116	100%
Duration of clinical teaching sessions (min)	≤30 min	23	19.83
	>30–≤60 min	57	49.14
	>60 min	36	31.03
	Total	116	100%

Table 2. Third year medical student’s experience of near peer clinical teaching given by their assigned medical interns.

Near peer clinical teaching practices with positive response	Frequency	Percent
The intern plan well for the each sessions	50	43.1
The intern is competent in providing the session (teaching, feedback, and assessment)	86	74.14
The intern practice communicating skills with us	94	81.03
The intern understand our needs as students	72	62.07
The intern help me to acquire clinical skills	84	72.41

Table 3. The median and percent score of student’s opinion, regarding having near-peer clinical teaching or assessment by interns*.

Opinion questions	Male (n = 89)	Female (n = 100)	Total (n = 189)	% Agree + strongly agree
Clinical teaching sessions given by the intern were satisfactory	4	4	4	58
Formal assessment and feedback by the intern were satisfactory	4	4	4	61
Clinical teaching knowledge given by the intern will enhance my clinical knowledge	4	4	4	64
Clinical teaching skills given by the intern will enhance my clinical skills	4	3.5	4	54
Communication skills practiced by the intern during the sessions will enhance my communication Skills	4	3	4	62
Formal clinical assessment by the intern will be valuable to me	4	4	4	65
Clinical skills will be acquired well from the intern than from the consultant	4	4	4	63

*Opinion questions coded; strongly agree coded 5, agree coded 4, no opinion coded 3, disagree coded 2, and strongly disagree coded 1.

Figure 1. Near-peer associated learning (NPAL) with course achievement grade.

Table 4. Multiple logistic regressions for course achievement score**.

				95% C.I. For (OR)
Variable name	Category	p Value+	Odds ratio (OR)	Lower	Upper
NPLA^	Mentoring only	0.8	1.0	_	_
	Mentoring with clinical teaching		1.54	0.37	6.33
GPA*	≤4	0.005	1.0	_	_
	>4		4.12	1.91	8.87
GENDER#	Male	0.005	1.0	_	_
	Female		0.2	0.09	0.47
NCTSΔ	1–3	0.76	1.0	_	_
	4–6		0.61	0.14	2.56
	>6		0.55	0.10	3.24
DCTSΣ	≤30 min	0.21	1.0	_	_
	30–≤60 min		1.40	0.36	5.48

(**)Outcome variable 0 = grade A + grade B (N = 143), 1 = grade C + grade D (N = 46).

(+)Sig. (2-tailed) t-test.

(^)Near–peer-assisted learning: mentoring only = 0, mentoring with clinical teaching = 1.

(*)Grade point average ≤4 = 0, >4 = 1.

(#)Male = 0, Female = 1.

(Δ)Number of clinical teaching sessions.

(Σ)Duration of clinical teaching sessions in minutes.