113 - Medical Student Perspectives on Peer-to-Peer Academic Support in First-Year Anatomy Education

Poster Board Number: 113
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Abstract Body : Introduction:
Much work has been published in the literature attempting to assess the utility of peer-to-peer tutoring in medical education. Such work has included both subjective and attempts at objective measures of program success. Objective studies of peer-to-peer teaching across medical professions have shown that anatomy exam scores tended to be higher with the intervention of peer-to-peer teaching at multiple institutions. However, many studies have reported mixed results in both student objective performance and perceptions of peer-to-peer tutoring in medical education, leaving the question of its efficacy unanswered. The Peer Academic Facilitator (PAF) program at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine (LKSOM) offers group peer tutoring sessions with practice questions and detailed answer explanations, one-on-one tutoring on course material, and sessions on study strategy development. To assess the student perspectives of this program, a student survey was developed to determine if LKSOM students found academic support services helpful.

Methods:
Seventy-five medical students at LKSOM who agreed to answer post-course questionnaires for this study were surveyed at the end of their 1st year anatomy course about their experience with peer-to-peer tutoring. Data was collected using a Likert scale style questionnaire with responses of 1 – 6 corresponding to a range of reactions spanning Strongly Agree (6) to Strongly Disagree (1). Survey responses were collected at the end of a first-year medical school course: “Fundamentals of Clinical Anatomy and Imaging”. The survey asked questions such as: “I found PAF support services helpful during this course.”, “I am prepared for the upcoming final exam.”, and “At this time I am having a hard time managing my academic work.”

Results:
Of the 75 students surveyed, 80% found peer-to-peer support services helpful, responding to the survey question with a 4, 5, or 6. The median and mode for this question was 4 (40% of responses). Another 20% responded with a 5 and yet another 20% with a 6. About 51% of students felt prepared for their anatomy final exam in the weeks before hand, with a median and mode reply of 4 (36%) for this question. Approximately, 26% of students responded that they were having a hard time managing their academic work.


Conclusions:
Medical students largely felt that peer-to-peer tutoring services were helpful in their anatomy education experience. Students varied in their feelings of preparedness for their final anatomy exam, but a significant portion of the students (26%) felt that they were having trouble managing their academic work. These peer-to-peer academic support services are certainly still needed, as a great portion of students are not confident in their ability to manage the academic load of medical school. This study, like others published on this topic, supports the positive student perspective on peer-to-peer tutoring programs, as well as the student’s subjective viewpoint that there are gaps in their academic preparedness.

Significance:
Approximately one-third of US based medical schools do not offer peer-to-peer tutoring programs, and even more have programs that are not well developed or communicated to the student body. These results indicate that medical students value what peer tutors can offer in anatomy education and those who have yet to adopt these methods should consider the benefits such programs provide.