Near-Peer Teaching in Human Anatomy from a Tutors' Perspective: An Eighteen-Year-Old Experience at the University of Bologna.

Ester Orsini,Anna Maria Billi,Lucia Manzoli,Lucio Cocco,Marilisa Quaranta,Sara Mongiorgi,Giulia Adalgisa Mariani,Stefano Ratti

doi:10.3390/ijerph19010398

Abstract

The University of Bologna School of Medicine in 2003 adopted a near-peer teaching (NPT) program with senior medical students teaching and assisting younger students in human anatomy laboratories. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and outcomes of this program—unique on the Italian academic panorama—from the tutors’ perspective. An anonymous online survey was administered to all those who acted as peer tutors in the period from 2003 to 2021; it evaluated tutors’ perceptions regarding the influence of the tutoring experience on their skillset gains, academic performance, and professional career. Furthermore, tutors were asked to express their views on the value of cadaver dissection in medical education and professional development. The overall perception of the NPT program was overwhelmingly positive and the main reported benefits were improved long-term knowledge retention and academic performance, improved communication, team-working and time management skills, and enhanced self-confidence and motivation. Most tutors strongly believed that cadaver dissection was an invaluable learning tool in medical education, helped them to develop professionalism and human values, and positively influenced the caring of their future patients. Nearly all the participants highlighted the importance of voluntary body donation for medical education and research. The present results supported the thesis that tutors themselves benefited from the act of teaching peers; this impactful experience equipped them with a wide range of transferable skills that they could draw on as future educators and healthcare professionals.

Highlights

In the 1970s, in Italy, the number of students enrolled in the Schools of Medicine increased so much that it became impossible to organize and perform cadaver dissection activities, and, this practice was dismissed
It was assumed that participants who did not respond were mostly tutors from past academic years who had already completed their medical education at the time of data collection and whose contact details had in the meantime changed
The high level of motivation shown deep emotional connection built with faculty staff throughout the undergraduate years by peer-tutors and the deep emotional connection built with faculty staff throughout the facilitated the information collection, even from some of those tutors who had already undergraduate years facilitated the information collection, even from some of those tutors graduated at the time of survey administration, and, the return rate was 82.5%

Summary

Introduction

In the 1970s, in Italy, the number of students enrolled in the Schools of Medicine increased so much that it became impossible to organize and perform cadaver dissection activities, and, this practice was dismissed. After the national reform of the university admission system in the 1990s (law 264/1999), a limited enrollment to the degree course in Medicine and Surgery was introduced and the University of Bologna was again able to honor the Latin motto “Hic mors gaudet succurrere vitae’ (i.e., in this place death is pleased to help life). In 2003, Professor Giovanni Mazzotti informally launched a near-peer teaching (NPT) program, beginning with the class of 2001. The School of Medicine at the University of Bologna offers a six-year undergraduate program that has a formal teaching of human anatomy in the second semester of the first year (Anatomy I), one in the first semester of the second year (Anatomy II), and a third one.

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Discussion

Conclusion