title: Near-peer teaching in a required third-year clerkship.
abstract: Students who teach less experienced students within the same educational program are known as near-peer teachers. A number of studies have shown that near-peers are effective teachers in preclinical courses such as anatomy and physical examination. We hypothesized that near-peers could also be effective teachers in a clinical clerkship. We report on a pilot study in which near-peers participated in a training session and then taught a brief problem-focused skills curriculum to third-year students during a required ambulatory medicine rotation. The clerkship students assigned high ratings to the near-peer teachers, both on an absolute scale and relative to faculty. The results suggest that including near-peers as teachers in a clinical clerkship may be appropriate and that this concept deserves further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Class of 2014, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Stephanie M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Meller
authors.affiliation: Class of 2014, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Class of 2014, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Ruijun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Associate Director, Teaching and Learning Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Frederick D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Haeseler
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010379:Peer Group; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*
keywords: medical clerkship; near-peer teaching; student facilitator