Power of Peer-Assisted Learning: An Interdisciplinary Mobility Laboratory Experience

The benefits of early patient mobility in the hospital environment has been well established. This article highlights an interactive peer-assisted learning (PAL) mobility laboratory. Physical therapy (PT) students taught patient mobility skills to nursing students, with the goal of enhancing mobility knowledge and improved understanding of the two disciplines' roles and responsibilities.

The students were divided into 10 groups, with six nursing and three PT students in each group; each group rotated through the 10 mobility stations every 20 minutes. After completing all stations, the nursing students reviewed a case scenario requiring application of the recently learned knowledge and skills.

Analysis revealed that the nursing students demonstrated significant improvement in overall knowledge of safe patient mobility, as well as improved confidence in the instruction of safe patient mobility.

Both groups reported that the PAL strategy was successful in achieving the intended goals of improved interprofessional understanding.