Evaluation of a peer mentoring program for a mature cohort of first-year undergraduate paramedic students

The Efficacy of Near-Peer Teaching in Paramedicine Education: a Literature Review

The transition of paramedic practice to paramedicine benchmarked by higher education programs has identified practical skills acquisition difficulty. Pedagogical interventions for health-related education programs advocate for strategies such as near-peer teaching as a viable solution to address these challenges. However, there remains a paucity of published literature on paramedicine-specific near-peer programs. This systematic review aimed to identify research that described or documented paramedicine-specific near-peer teaching programs and categorize the outcomes to better understand the perceived benefit of NPT in paramedicine education.

A combination of active learning strategies improves student academic outcomes in first-year paramedic bioscience

Bioscience is a foundational unit (subject) of undergraduate allied health degree programs, providing students the scientific basis underpinning their clinical practice. However, despite its significance, bioscience is a difficult academic hurdle for many students to master. The introduction of active learning strategies, including small team-based guided-inquiry learning approaches, has been shown to significantly reduce this hurdle and improve assessment outcomes for the learner. Guided team-based activities can aid in this approach by also building broader skills and capabilities, like teamwork and communication, as well as subject-specific knowledge and skills, thereby positively influencing student assessment outcomes. This paper details the redesign and evaluation of two first-year Bioscience for Paramedics units with the introduction of guided-inquiry learning, as well as other active learning strategies, and assesses their impact on student performance. Results indicate that active learning used within a classroom and in the large lecture theater setting improved students' grades with positive student perception of their learning experience.

Undergraduate Medical Students Using Facebook as a Peer-Mentoring Platform: A Mixed-Methods Study

BACKGROUND

Peer mentoring is a powerful pedagogical approach for supporting undergraduate medical students in their learning environment. However, it remains unclear what exactly peer mentoring is and whether and how undergraduate medical students use social media for peer-mentoring activities.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed at describing and exploring the Facebook use of undergraduate medical students during their first 2 years at a German medical school. The data should help medical educators to effectively integrate social media in formal mentoring programs for medical students.

METHODS

We developed a coding scheme for peer mentoring and conducted a mixed-methods study in order to explore Facebook groups of undergraduate medical students from a peer-mentoring perspective.

RESULTS

All major peer-mentoring categories were identified in Facebook groups of medical students. The relevance of these Facebook groups was confirmed through triangulation with focus groups and descriptive statistics. Medical students made extensive use of Facebook and wrote a total of 11,853 posts and comments in the respective Facebook groups (n=2362 total group members). Posting peaks were identified at the beginning of semesters and before exam periods, reflecting the formal curriculum milestones.

CONCLUSIONS

Peer mentoring is present in Facebook groups formed by undergraduate medical students who extensively use these groups to seek advice from peers on study-related issues and, in particular, exam preparation. These groups also seem to be effective in supporting responsive and large-scale peer-mentoring structures; formal mentoring programs might benefit from integrating social media into their activity portfolio.

Peer mentoring program in an interprofessional and interdisciplinary curriculum in Brazil

The Federal University of São Paulo, Baixada Santista Campus was founded in 2006 with five degree-granting programs in physical education, physiotherapy, nutrition, psychology, and occupational therapy. The guiding principle behind the programs' educational mission was centered on the development of health care professionals capable of working in interdisciplinary teams with an emphasis on holistic patient care. This pedagogical structure required peer-mentoring programs in order to integrate different areas of knowledge and to improve learning strategies among new generations of students. The authors' objective in the present report is to discuss the strategies and activities of the peer-mentoring program in histophysiology and gross anatomy in an interdisciplinary and interprofessional curriculum. Evaluations by students, mentors and professors are presented, along with a statistical analysis of variance comparing student performance in the module assessments according to their participation in the peer-mentoring activities. The results demonstrated that students who participated in peer-mentoring activities enjoyed a higher rate of academic success than those who did not participate. In addition, student and mentor evaluations of the peer mentoring program were highly positive. The program enabled mentors to gain a deeper knowledge of the subjects addressed in the learning modules, as well as to develop intrinsic teaching skills during their time as mentors. In short, the authors believe that the peer-mentoring program has been validated for its effectiveness in raising student academic performance.