Integrated clinical case discussions - a fully student-organized peer-teaching program on internal medicine

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Cognitive Science in Medicine

Background:

• Undergraduate medical students developed voluntary peer-moderated clinical case discussions.
• Initiated due to poor student ratings of emergency remote lectures in internal medicine.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a student-led initiative for peer-moderated clinical case discussions.
• To train cognitive clinical skills in first and second-year medical students.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Kern Cycle didactic concept, aligning cognitive learning theory with the German Medical Training Framework.
• Administered a 50-item survey post-tutorial to assess educational environment, cognitive congruence, and learning outcomes.
• Employed pre-post-self-reports for a single-institution study.

Main Results:

• 19 tutors conducted 48 tutorials over two semesters with 794 attendances.
• The didactic concept successfully met all learning objectives.
• Students rated the educational environment, cognitive congruence, and tutorials significantly higher than lectures, reporting a 70% increase in positive feelings towards peer tutoring.

Conclusions:

• Peer-assisted learning enhances student satisfaction and clinical reasoning skills.
• Student-led curriculum development can be highly effective.
• This model offers a successful approach to improving medical education.