Undergraduate peer education : a means to promote inter-professional understanding?

Introduction: Peer education was introduced in the occupational therapy (OT) and physiotherapy (PT) programmes to promote students’ communication, facilitation and education skills. It involves peer-led collaborative facilitation of learning, supervised by an academic. It was initially conceptualised in the eighteenth century by Bell (Topping 1988); it has recently been used in clinical settings (Priharjo and Hoy 2011) and in health education (Lipton et al 2006). Method: Third year students facilitated first years in their own profession (intraprofessional peer education). Third year OTs and PTs also facilitated skills sessions for each other (interprofessional peer education). The results of both intraprofessional and interprofessional experiences were evaluated using questionnaires and analysing comments. The total number of third year participants were 32 OT and 23 PT. Results: The most helpful aspects were: preparation of sessions (OT 70% PT 100%); facilitation itself (OT 88% PT 80%); reflection on the session (OT 100% PT 72%) and learning from peers (OT 78% PT 100%). OT students found it helpful to understand what PT students knew about OT: PTs had little understanding of the role of OT, particularly in mental health and learning disability. Likewise OTs had limited understanding of PT roles. It helped both groups to understand the link between the two professions. Discussion: Students were very positive about peer education. It was anticipated that it would enhance communication and facilitation skills but the outcome that it enhanced their knowledge and respect for each other’s professions was striking. Could peer education be introduced more widely as a core strategy to enhance interprofessional working