Students today…educators tomorrow

Abstract

Background: The article describes the use of the mini clinical examination (mini-CEX) in a pilot study to introduce peer assessment in one allied health programme to explore students’ capacity as clinical educators. Preparing today's pre-professional health students to be clinical educators by engaging them in peer teaching, learning and assessment may encourage them to become tomorrow's clinical educators. Context: Peer assessment is common among many undergraduate medical and allied health programmes, and is typically used as a means of providing students with feedback on their clinical skill development. We argue that peer assessment ought to be focused not only on the development of learners’ clinical skills and knowledge, but also on preparing learners for their responsibilities as clinical educators. Innovation: Final-year Australian osteopathy students in our on-campus university clinic undertook, without training, peer assessment and provision of feedback related to clinical performance using a discipline-specific adaptation of the mini-CEX. The current study suggests that students are able to judge another's consultation skills and case management in that they identify what we know are common learning issues for students at this level. Peer assessment ought to be focused on preparing learners for their responsibilities as clinical educators. Implication: Students may be willing to engage in peer assessment if they see the exercise as a way to improve patient care and to develop their skills as educators – potentially encouraging them to become clinical educators in the future.