Effectivity of Hands-on Near-peer teaching in Scientific Writing for Indian Medical Students

Abstract

Purpose: This study focuses on assessing the effectiveness of near-peer teaching, small group discussions, and hands-on assignments in enhancing the scientific writing knowledge & skill of a cohort of Indian medical students.Method: 175 medical students were randomly selected from a 516 membered FORLER (Fundamentals of Research Learning and Educational Reform) interest cohort for hands-on near-peer training in medical scientific writing. The participants attended weekly near-peer lectures and participated in biweekly in-group discussions over 5 weeks focused on Narrative Reviews, Original Articles, Case Reports, Short Communications, & Systematic Reviews. Participants were regularly evaluated following Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluating training.Results: N=135 medical students aged 20 ± 1.3 yrs (17-23 yrs); 56.29% females completed all the assignments in FORLER. Amotivation decreased & attitude towards research improved significantly (p<0.05) after the workshop. The theoretical understanding of the students of all 5 forms of scientific writing improved significantly. A significant (p=0.047) moderate direct (P=0.639) correlation was also observed between the increase in confidence and overall increase in test scores. Post-FORLER manuscripts were scored significantly (p<0.05) higher (by expert double-blind reviewers) than pre-FORLER manuscripts in all forms of scientific writing except Case reports.Conclusion: A combination of near-peer teaching, small group discussions, and manuscript writing exercises lead to a statistically significant increase in scientific writing knowledge and skills. Higher confidence levels were reported after the training initiative. A decrease in amotivation was also observed with participants favoring integration of similar initiatives into the undergraduate training framework.