Content area
Full text
Pressure on clinical educators to provide best practice education to growing student numbers is driving innovations in clinical education. Placing multiple students with a single clinical educator may increase capacity; however, little is known about the role and impact of peer-assisted learning (PAL) in these models. A systematic review of the literature from 1985 to 2014 was done to investigate the effectiveness of PAL amongst allied health professional students in clinical settings. Secondary aims were to investigate how PAL is defined and measured in this practice setting. Twenty-eight articles representing five allied health professions met the inclusion criteria. The risk of bias in the articles was generally high, limiting confidence in findings. Nine studies measured the effects of PAL on students, with inconsistent results across domains of satisfaction, perceived learning, and performance outcomes. Only four studies described how PAL was facilitated. Evidence supporting PAL is nonspecific and lacks comparative rigour. More robust research is needed to quantify the potential benefits of PAL. J Allied Health 2017; 46(1):26-35.
WORKFORCE SHORTAGES across allied health are a growing concern worldwide,1-3 and the increasing demand for healthcare workers is challenging current education systems.4,5 In response to this demand, higher education providers have increased intake numbers,6 resulting in increased pressure on the current workforce to provide quality clinical education to growing numbers of students.
Moving from the 1:1 student:clinical educator model to assigning multiple students to a clinical educator is one strategy that may offer an immediate increase in capacity. The growing popularity of such models is in part a response to student capacity demands, but may also be due to the potential educational benefits of peerassisted learning (PAL) that may occur between students. More learning opportunities,7-9 improved problem-solving, self-reflection, and feedback skills,10,11 and optimal student confidence12-14 are some of the proposed benefits.
PAL has been defined as the acquisition of knowledge and skills through a process whereby students, of similar level, work together collaboratively.15 The most common opportunity for PAL in current approaches to allied health clinical education occurs in multiple student:clinical educator models between students of the same level in their clinical progression; therefore, this review focussed on these models. Student:clinical educator ratios most frequently associated with PAL are 2:18,12,16-18 and 3:1.14,19-22 Group supervision conducted with four...