Curriculum Innovations: Near-Peer Learning in Neurology Residency Training on Cerebrovascular Disease in a Teaching Hospital in China

Abstract

Traditional faculty-led training is teacher-centric and requires substantial investments in teaching faculty and resources. Near-peer learning (NPL) is a teaching strategy in which senior residents instruct juniors who are only 1 or 2 years earlier in their training. NPL promotes student engagement and may enhance teaching competency of participants. We implemented an NPL instructional design for a course on cerebrovascular disease for residents in China.Tutors and tutees will be able to (1) demonstrate knowledge of cerebrovascular anatomy, (2) understand cerebrovascular physiology, and (3) use neuroimaging and physiology to evaluate cerebrovascular pathology.From December 2019 to March 2022, NPL was implemented in a neurology residency training program in China. A series of NPL lectures was conducted in addition to traditional faculty-led lectures. The NPL intervention consisted of senior resident tutors who designed and led lectures on foundational topics in cerebrovascular neurology (e.g., anatomy and imaging of cerebral blood vessels, clinical and imaging features of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke) under the guidance of faculty instructors. Tutees were junior residents in the same program. Precourse/postcourse examinations and feedbacks through online questionnaires were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the NPL intervention on knowledge acquisition and teaching competency.Over 3 academic years, 57 total residents participated, including 18, 18, and 21, respectively. All participated in the NPL intervention, with some attending more than once. Participants could be assigned as tutor or tutee in different years. Eighteen lectures were delivered by 15 tutors. The rest were tutees. Postcourse examination scores improved significantly compared with precourse scores (64.22 ± 12.11 vs 59.80 ± 15.88,p= 0.003), with the most remarkable improvements seen for the first-year residents and first-time participants. One hundred sixty-two postsession feedbacks from participants (both tutors and tutees) and 15 postprogram feedbacks from tutors were collected. Respondents thought highly of NPL, reporting gain in knowledge and teaching opportunities.NPL enabled residents to acquire foundational knowledge of cerebrovascular diseases and provided senior residents with teaching opportunities.