Impact of Junior Doctor-Led Near-Peer Teaching on Medical Student Confidence in Paediatric Prescribing: A Prospective Pre-post Study.
5 affiliations
- 1Hospital Medicine, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, London, GBR.
- 2Pharmacy, Kenton Bridge Medical Centre, London, GBR.
- 3Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, GBR.
- 4Interventional Radiology, New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, GBR.
- 5General Practice and Family Medicine, Preston Royal Infirmary, Preston, GBR.
Abstract
Background Paediatric prescribing is a clinical skill that medical students frequently report as an area of low confidence. Near-peer teaching (NPT), facilitated by junior doctors, has demonstrated effectiveness across clinical education settings, but its specific impact on paediatric prescribing confidence has not been previously evaluated in the literature. This study evaluated whether a junior doctor-led NPT programme was associated with improvements in self-reported confidence in paediatric prescribing among Imperial College London medical students. Methods A prospective pre-post study was conducted across 12 teaching sessions. Fifty-one students participated, of whom 49 completed both pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. A nine-item, five-point Likert scale instrument assessed four paired domains (prescribing confidence, dose calculation, guideline use, and drug chart preparedness) and five post-only domains (knowledge gain, skill improvement, relevance, near-peer effectiveness, and recommendation). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare paired pre- and post-intervention scores. Results Statistically significant improvements were observed across all four paired domains (all p < 0.001). Median scores rose from 2.0 (IQR 2-3) pre-intervention to 4.0 (IQR 4-5) post-intervention across all items. Between 95.9% and 100% of students reported improvement in individual items. Post-only items demonstrated strong endorsement: 91.8% of students agreed or strongly agreed that junior doctors were effective and approachable educators, and 83.7% would recommend the sessions to peers. Conclusion This study demonstrates that junior doctor-led NPT was associated with substantial improvements in medical students' self-reported confidence in paediatric prescribing. The findings support the wider integration of structured near-peer programmes into undergraduate paediatric teaching as a scalable, low-cost intervention with meaningful educational impact.
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BibTeX
@article{borhani2026impact,
title = {{Impact of Junior Doctor-Led Near-Peer Teaching on Medical Student Confidence in Paediatric Prescribing: A Prospective Pre-post Study.}},
author = {Safiollah Borhani and Fariha Borhani and Beheshta Borhani and Mehrab Durrani and Zeeshan Ali},
journal = {Cureus},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.7759/cureus.116852},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42927113},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Impact of Junior Doctor-Led Near-Peer Teaching on Medical Student Confidence in Paediatric Prescribing: A Prospective Pre-post Study.
AU - Safiollah Borhani
AU - Fariha Borhani
AU - Beheshta Borhani
AU - Mehrab Durrani
AU - Zeeshan Ali
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
JO - Cureus
DO - 10.7759/cureus.116852
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42927113
AB - Background Paediatric prescribing is a clinical skill that medical students frequently report as an area of low confidence. Near-peer teaching (NPT), facilitated by junior doctors, has demonstrated effectiveness across clinical education settings, but its specific impact on paediatric prescribing confidence has not been previously evaluated in the literature. This study evaluated whether a junior doctor-led NPT programme was associated with improvements in self-reported confidence in paediatric prescribing among Imperial College London medical students. Methods A prospective pre-post study was conducted across 12 teaching sessions. Fifty-one students participated, of whom 49 completed both pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. A nine-item, five-point Likert scale instrument assessed four paired domains (prescribing confidence, dose calculation, guideline use, and drug chart preparedness) and five post-only domains (knowledge gain, skill improvement, relevance, near-peer effectiveness, and recommendation). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare paired pre- and post-intervention scores. Results Statistically significant improvements were observed across all four paired domains (all p < 0.001). Median scores rose from 2.0 (IQR 2-3) pre-intervention to 4.0 (IQR 4-5) post-intervention across all items. Between 95.9% and 100% of students reported improvement in individual items. Post-only items demonstrated strong endorsement: 91.8% of students agreed or strongly agreed that junior doctors were effective and approachable educators, and 83.7% would recommend the sessions to peers. Conclusion This study demonstrates that junior doctor-led NPT was associated with substantial improvements in medical students' self-reported confidence in paediatric prescribing. The findings support the wider integration of structured near-peer programmes into undergraduate paediatric teaching as a scalable, low-cost intervention with meaningful educational impact.
SN - 2168-8184
ER -