PEER PERFORMANCE IN BASIC SURGICAL SKILLS WITH UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT TUTORS ameralqadi2002@yahoo.com

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PEER PERFORMANCE IN BASIC SURGICAL SKILLS WITH UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT TUTORS

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United Arab Emirates

Oral or Poster

The development of medical students’ teaching skills is an essential part of medical curriculum.Despite the awareness of its importance in teaching medical students,the number of studies addressing the attempts to improve this topic is limited.Medical students regularly participate in study groups during courses and prior to examinations,thus assuming informal teaching roles.They also teach in other settings,as they become sources of health information for family,friends,&,during their clerkship,for patients.Student’s ability to acquire enough surgical skills to perform routine technical procedures at a level suitable to a fresh medical graduate is another important skill to acquire.

We conducted basic surgical skills sessions to assess the impact of peer tutoring versus instructor-led training.A total of 100 students participated, with 50 trained by certified instructors and 50 by peer tutors

Performance was evaluated across four tasks.For threading 10 loops, 2.9% of instructor-trained students succeeded vs.7.1% of peer-taught students(p = 0.649).In stacking five cubes, success was 50% for instructors vs. 48.9% for peers (p = 0.031).Both groups excelled at picking 10 peas (97.2% vs. 97.6%, p = 0.713).For laparoscopic knots, success rates were 28.2% (peers) vs. 25% (instructors, p = 0.181). Cutting a circle of tissue showed 72.2% success for instructors vs. 24.4% for peers (p = 0.002).Results indicate varying effectiveness between peer tutoring and instructor-led training. While peer tutors can enhance learning, instructor-led sessions are crucial for mastering complex skills.

This study supports the value of both teaching methods in medical education, suggesting future research into hybrid models to optimize surgical training.