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

INTRODUCTION: A near-peer-assisted learning term (NPAL) is "a trainee one or more years senior to another trainee". The current study is aiming to determine the pattern of NPAL activities, to compare its effect on student's course achievement score and to determine the perception of students regarding having near-peer clinical teaching from their fellow medical interns. METHODS: A total of 189 third year medical students participated in the study. The study questionnaire contains three sections. The first is the focus group section, self-administered questions and lastly quality control section. Trained staff helped in conducting the data collection. RESULTS: Clinical teaching with mentoring was experienced by 116 students (61.4%) from their assigned interns in the early clinical experience course. The results of the study showed higher course achievement grades for students who experienced mentoring with clinical teaching compared to those students who experienced mentoring only, but it did not reach statistical significance. The study also found that most medical students acknowledged and agree that their near peers medical interns could provide unique input in helping them mastering clinical and communication skills competencies, the average percent for the seven opinion questions of the response agree combined with strongly agree was 62%. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, third year medical students recognize the unique and important role of near peer teaching in under graduate medical education and its importance for their professional development. NPAL strategy should be encouraged and used in other medical schools. The benefits of NPAL to peer teacher and in late clinical medical years needed to be investigated in future studies.