Student tutors are able to teach basic sonographic anatomy effectively - a prospective randomized controlled trial.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Diagnostic Imaging
• Ultrasound Technology

Background:

• Ultrasound is a crucial diagnostic tool in medicine.
• Medical schools increasingly use ultrasound teaching to meet demand.
• Student tutor-led sessions are a feasible and accepted teaching method.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of student tutors in teaching sonographic abdominal anatomy.
• To compare the efficacy of student tutors versus faculty staff sonographers.
• To assess the impact of peer-led instruction on ultrasound diagnostic skills.

Main Methods:

• A pre/post-test design was used with 46 medical students randomly assigned to student tutor (ST) or faculty sonographer (FS) groups.
• Students identified and labeled 15 abdominal structures on printed ultrasound images.
• Performance was evaluated by blinded faculty staff sonographers based on correctly identified structures.

Main Results:

• Both ST and FS groups significantly improved their identification of abdominal structures from pre-test to post-test (p < .0001).
• The improvement in correctly identified structures was equivalent between the student tutor group (6.2 ± 2.8) and the faculty sonographer group (6.9 ± 3.2) (p < .05 for equivalence).

Conclusions:

• Student tutors are effective in teaching basic abdominal sonographic anatomy.
• Peer-led ultrasound education can achieve comparable results to faculty-led instruction.
• This supports the integration of student tutors in medical ultrasound training programs.