Student teachers can be as good as associate professors in teaching clinical skills

AIM: The aim of this study is to compare student teachers and clinical associate professors regarding the quality of procedural skills teaching in terms of participants' technical skills, knowledge and satisfaction with the teaching. METHODS: This is an experimental, randomized, controlled study comparing the teaching of student teachers and associate professors regarding participants' learning outcome and satisfaction with the teaching. Two skills are chosen for the experiment, i.v.-access and bladder catheterization. Learning outcome is assessed by a pre- and post testing of the participants' knowledge and skills. Participants evaluate satisfaction with teaching on nine statements immediately after the teaching. RESULTS: In total 59 first year medical students are included as participants in the experiment. The students taught by student teachers perform just as well as the students taught by associate professors and in one skill--catheterization--they perform even better, mean post- minus pre-test scores 65.5 (SD 12.9) vs. 35.0 (SD 23.3), One-way ANOVA, p < 0.0001, effect size 1.62. Student teachers receive significantly more positive evaluations than associate professors on several statements. CONCLUSION: Trained student teachers can be as good as associate professors in teaching clinical skills.