gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: The annual Klinikfest Maribor, two-day clinical skills training event, allows medical students from their fourth year to practice and improve their clinical skills under the supervision of clinical mentors, using models and simulators. This research aims to compare the performance of students who have a peer tutoring system to those who do not, and to assess the impact of such educational events on knowledge acquisition.

Methods: Fifty-five medical students from both Slovenian Faculties of Medicine participated in Klinikfest. The participants took an entrance and an exit exam to evaluate their learning. Each consisted of ten theoretical questions that tested practical skills covered in the event. The students were divided into two groups: one that received clinical peer tutoring and one that did not. The possible impact of students’ year of study and performance on the entrance and exit exams for both groups were analysed.

Results: The students who received peer tutoring as part of their studies (N=32) performed better on the entrance exams (p<0.001). We also found an improvement in performance on the exit exam compared to the entrance exam for both groups (p<0.001). There was no difference in performance between individual years of study (p=0.084).

Conclusion: The group with peer tutoring system performed better on the entrance exam. However, both groups showed improvement on the exit exam, likely due to the success of the event. Our findings suggest that integrating a peer tutoring system may be beneficial, particularly when transitioning to a clinical setting.