Student-led Student Reports

Nelson et al describe implementing a near-peer led “student reports” for pre-clerkship students with the goal of facilitating transition into clinical clerkships and building clinical reasoning skills. While student reports and the use of near-peers in medical education are not novel, implementing student reports in the pre-clinical years with near-peers as preceptors has not been widely described. Based on a survey of 44 students, authors conclude that near-peer led student reports significantly improved pre-clerkship students’ self-perceived clinical reasoning skills, and that students preferred near-peer to faculty preceptors and provided helpful advice and role modeling. Whether this actually eases their transition to the clinical clerkships is not demonstrated in this study, but given the positive impact of near-peer teaching in many other areas of medical education, this innovation seems worth trying out.–Sarang Kim, MD

Nelson CA, Frosch Z, Lapin J, Kogan JR. Facilitating the clerkship transition through near-peer-led ‘student reports’. Med Educ. 2014 May;48(5):532-3.

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