Students as anatomy near-peer teachers: a double-edged sword for an ancient skill

BACKGROUND: A near-peer instructors (NPI) program was designed for 1st year medical students who successfully finished the Anatomy course, in order to develop their didactic ability and teaching skills, mostly for cadaver dissection. METHODS: Graduates of the training program were administered a voluntary survey at the end of the program, annually. Best graduates of the training program were offered a NPI position in the next academic year. They were evaluated by the first-year students, at the end of the Anatomy block. RESULTS: In a debriefing questionnaire at the end of the NPI training, on the five-point Likert scale (1 = lowest to 5 = highest), the overall rating ranged from 3.63 in 2013 to 3.71 in 2015. Learning prosection and anatomy demonstration skills scored on average from 4.30 to 4.36, respectively. The NPIs were then evaluated by first-year students at the end of the next year’s Anatomy block. On the Likert scale, the average score of NPIs ranged from 4.10 in 2014 to 4.75 in 2016, on the par with the general satisfaction score for the professional preclinical teachers during the same period (which ranged from 3.80 to 4.26). CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that students as near-peer instructors can make a valuable contribution to the teaching faculty, especially in a new medical school.