Outcomes of three different ways to train medical students as ultrasound tutors

Abstract

Background In order to provide faculty-wide undergraduate ultrasound training in times of scarce resources, many medical faculties employ trained peer-student tutors to oversee the hands-on training. However, data to guide the training of ultrasound peer-student tutors are scarce. We conducted a prospective quasi-randomized study to assess the gain in theoretical knowledge and practical scanning skills of peer-student tutors who were trained with a course only, an internship only, or the combination of a course and an internship. Methods A total of 44 peer-student tutors were trained by a one-week course only (C-Group, n = 21), by an internship only (I-Group, n = 10) or by a course and an internship (CI-Group, n = 13). Prior to and after the completion of the training the peer-student tutors completed an MC-test (theoretical knowledge) and an OSCE (practical scanning skills). Results With all three education concepts, the peer-student tutors had significant and comparable gains in theoretical knowledge (C-group + 90%, I-group + 61.5%, CI-group + 114.0%) and practical scanning skills (C-group + 112.0%, I-group + 155.0% and CI-group + 123.5%), all p < 0.001. Conclusion Peer-student tutors, who were trained with a course or an internship or a course and internship improved their theoretical knowledge and their practical scanning skills significantly and to a comparable degree.

Exploring the experience of medical students as peer teachers in clinical ultrasonography: why do they do it and how do they perform?

“…The study demonstrated that SIME tutors trained through a 4-week SSM and a pre-module training performed as well as senior tutors in helping students learn basic ultrasound knowledge and techniques. Our training is consistent with the effective approach highlighted by Celebi et al who described three ways to train peer-tutors: course, internship or both (Celebi et al, 2019).…”

Peer-mentoring na educação em saúde: quais as suas aplicações, limitações e estratégias para o sucesso?

“…Nesse sentido, detectamos um consenso entres os autores: o ambiente de aprendizagem, estabelecido no Peer-Mentoring, visa a criação de espaços agradáveis de aprendizagem onde a transmissão do conhecimento ocorre de forma afetiva (Celebi et al, 2019;Green, 2018;Lockspeiser et al, 2008;Scott et al, 2019). Outro importante fator positivo, relatado por esses autores, foi a fácil acessibilidade aos tutores, gerando uma relação de segurança e auto confiança entre os mentor-mentee.…”

“…Itens como motivação, amplo conhecimento e experiência como professor, monitor ou pesquisador não são suficientes para ser um bom mentor ou estabelecer uma relação de mentoria satisfatória (Loda, Erschens, Nikendei, Giel, et al, 2020;Masterson Creber et al, 2019). Para além disso, faz-se necessário capacitações longitudinais (e não somente iniciais) (Abrahamson et al, 2019;Celebi et al, 2019;Patel et al, 2021;Prunuske et al, 2019;Scott et al, 2019;Smith et al, 2018;Tamachi et al, 2018;Tsuei et al, 2019;Wareing et al, 2018), bem como a coleta de feedbacks para o melhoramento do programa de ensino (Hossain et al, 2021).…”

Ultrasound Curricula of Student Education in Europe: Summary of the Experience

“…An example of such a student tutor training curriculum is the "Young Sonographers" of the Swiss Society of Ultrasound in Medicine (SGUM), which was developed in cooperation with student groups and the Institute of Primary Health Care in Bern [3]. Other initiatives that used students as mentors in ultrasound have proved to be successful [26,33,34], with the students acquiring adequate teaching skills in a relatively short training period, thus suggesting again that peer mentoring can facilitate the large-scale implementation of ultrasound teaching in undergraduate student education.…”