Delivering an exploratory near-peer teaching pilot in general practice: a qualitative study of the experiences of GP speciality trainees and medical students

Significant challenges exist for ensuring adequate clinical placement capacity for medical students within healthcare. Innovative solutions are needed to address these. Near-peer teaching (NPT) may provide educational benefits which extend to both the learners and the peer tutors involved. We designed and implemented a pilot scheme whereby General Practice Speciality Trainees (GPSTs) in the United Kingdom supervised first year graduate entry medical students across six visits to general practice. To explore the experiences of the GPSTs and the medical students within the pilot study to gain insight into their perceptions of NPT and its delivery within this scheme. A qualitative design using focus groups was chosen to explore the participant’s experiences. The focus groups took a semi-structured format based around questions designed to answer the research aims. Seven out of seven (100%) GPSTs and six out of seven (86%) medical students that participated in the pilot scheme took part in focus groups. Data analysis generated three main themes: near-peer supervision benefits GPSTs and students, reciprocal relationships are significant to the educational experience and the organisation of the project and placements is key to success. The experiences of GPSTs and medical students were positive, highlighting particular benefit of a longitudinally developed near-peer relationship. If similar findings were replicated on a larger scale and across institutions, this would add confidence for the role of GPSTs in teaching medical students during clinical placements, which could in turn improve training capacity.