Efficacy of Near-Assisted Learning (NAL) in Improving Students' Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Grades

Peer Group Clinical Trial

— SRMC  

Official title:

Efficacy of Near-Assisted Learning (NAL) in Improving Students' OSCE Grades: A Single-Blinded RCT

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04177979
• Other study ID #: SRMCOSCE
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 6, 2019
• Est. completion date: April 30, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: November 2019
• Source: Sulaiman AlRajhi Colleges
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study aims to evaluate the impact of near-assisted learning (NAL) on first-year medical students' objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) grades in a problem-based learning (PBL) environment.

Description:

In this randomized controlled trial, 1st year medical students were recruited in the study along with selected highly-performing, trained peer-instructors. The participants were randomly allocated to two groups, an intervention group supervised by the instructors and the control group that had to practice independently. They would attend OSCE sessions and had their performance evaluated, later on, in an exam. In addition to comparing their performance with each other, scores of the previous batch were considered in the comparison.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 48
• Est. completion date: April 30, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: April 30, 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Male
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• 1st year medical students.

• Medical students of Sulaiman Alrajhi Colleges.

• Males.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Students of other academic levels.

• 1st year medical students of other universities.

• Females.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Cost
• Peer Group
• Problem-based Learning

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Near-assisted learning through trained peers
Students randomly allocated to this group were overseen during sessions by trained peer instructors.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Saudi Arabia	Sulaiman AlRajhi Colleges	Al Bukairiyah	Qassim

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Sulaiman AlRajhi Colleges

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Saudi Arabia, 

References & Publications (13)

Blank WA, Blankenfeld H, Vogelmann R, Linde K, Schneider A. Can near-peer medical students effectively teach a new curriculum in physical examination? BMC Med Educ. 2013 Dec 11;13:165. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-13-165. — View Citation

Burke J, Fayaz S, Graham K, Matthew R, Field M. Peer-assisted learning in the acquisition of clinical skills: a supplementary approach to musculoskeletal system training. Med Teach. 2007 Sep;29(6):577-82. — View Citation

Cole JD, Ruble MJ, Donnelly J, Groves B. Peer-assisted Learning: Clinical Skills Training for Pharmacy Students. Am J Pharm Educ. 2018 Aug;82(6):6511. doi: 10.5688/ajpe6511. — View Citation

Field M, Burke JM, McAllister D, Lloyd DM. Peer-assisted learning: a novel approach to clinical skills learning for medical students. Med Educ. 2007 Apr;41(4):411-8. — View Citation

Haist SA, Wilson JF, Brigham NL, Fosson SE, Blue AV. Comparing fourth-year medical students with faculty in the teaching of physical examination skills to first-year students. Acad Med. 1998 Feb;73(2):198-200. — View Citation

Khaw C, Raw L. The outcomes and acceptability of near-peer teaching among medical students in clinical skills. Int J Med Educ. 2016 Jun 12;7:188-94. doi: 10.5116/ijme.5749.7b8b. — View Citation

Liew SC, Sow CF, Sidhu J, Nadarajah VD. The near-peer tutoring programme: embracing the 'doctors-to-teach' philosophy--a comparison of the effects of participation between the senior and junior near-peer tutors. Med Educ Online. 2015 Sep 8;20:27959. doi: — View Citation

Riaz I. Peer assisted versus expert assisted learning: a comparison of effectiveness in terms of academic scores. J Coll Physicians Surg Pak. 2014 Nov;24(11):825-9. doi: 11.2014/JCPSP.825829. — View Citation

Shah I, Mahboob U, Shah S. Effectiveness Of Horizontal Peer-Assisted Learning In Physical Examination Performance. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. 2017 Oct-Dec;29(4):559-565. — View Citation

Silbert BI, Lake FR. Peer-assisted learning in teaching clinical examination to junior medical students. Med Teach. 2012;34(5):392-7. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2012.668240. Epub 2012 Apr 3. — View Citation

Tai J, Molloy E, Haines T, Canny B. Same-level peer-assisted learning in medical clinical placements: a narrative systematic review. Med Educ. 2016 Apr;50(4):469-84. doi: 10.1111/medu.12898. Review. — View Citation

Tai JH, Canny BJ, Haines TP, Molloy EK. The role of peer-assisted learning in building evaluative judgement: opportunities in clinical medical education. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 2016 Aug;21(3):659-76. doi: 10.1007/s10459-015-9659-0. Epub 2015 De — View Citation

Tolsgaard MG, Gustafsson A, Rasmussen MB, Høiby P, Müller CG, Ringsted C. Student teachers can be as good as associate professors in teaching clinical skills. Med Teach. 2007 Sep;29(6):553-7. — View Citation

* Note: There are 13 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) Score	After the sessions, the study sample participated in the final osce exam. Their scores were compared. The minimum value was 0 while the maximum value was 100. The higher the score the better students had performed	Less than a month

External Links

•   A non-pubmed indexed paper named: Improving Medical Student Confidence in Clinical Skills through a Peer-Facilitated Workshop