Near-peer teaching of laparoscopic skills among medical students: a randomised feasibility study

Laparoscopic surgery is integral to modern surgical practice. However, many medical students graduate with limited exposure to essential skills. Near-peer teaching is a promising, student-led approach to address this gap, though its objective impact remains under-evaluated. The aims of this study were to develop a novel objective assessment tool, assess changes in students’ confidence and objective performance in laparoscopic tasks following near-peer versus self-directed training, and explore factors associated with performance. This single-blinded, randomised feasibility study enrolled 42 medical students without prior laparoscopic experience. Participants were randomly assigned to near-peer (Group 1) or self-taught group (Group 2) and completed six weekly sessions across four laparoscopic stations: Ball Transfer, Circle Cutting, Peg Transfer, and String. Performance was scored using a novel objective assessment tool developed through a Modified Delphi Method. Two blinded surgical trainees assessed all performances. No significant differences were observed in pre-intervention objective performance between groups, except for the “Peg Transfer” station. Post-intervention, both groups improved significantly across all tasks (p < 0.001). Their confidence also improved (p < 0.001). The peer-taught group outperformed the self-directed group in “Circle Cutting” (p = 0.02), “String” (p = 0.01), and “Peg Transfer” station (p = 0.04). There was no relationship between age, gender, or video game experience and performance. This is the first study to demonstrate that near-peer teaching of laparoscopic skills improved laparoscopic performance among medical students compared with a control group. These findings support the integration of near-peer laparoscopic teaching into undergraduate surgical education. The novel assessment tool demonstrated sensitivity to change in performance pre- and post-intervention.