Methods
There is however some limited evidence that such interventions may not be acceptable to all . For example , if the benefits are deemed to be unilateral , tensions may emerge leading to mutually negative perceptions such that participants report the experience as a waste of time ( Barnsteiner et al , 2007 ; Harden , 2015 ). Moreover , for the experience to be successful , the educational content must be clinically relevant and revolve around the participants ’ professional roles ( Fernandes et al , 2015 ; Thistlethwaite , 2015 ).
In summary , learning together is an academic effort aimed at enhancing teamwork between different professionals working in a coordinated manner towards the common goal of improving the health of patients . There is ample evidence of its benefits in the context of gross anatomy with respect to improvement in communication and teamwork as well as attitudes of health care students towards each other , and a smaller body of evidence that it improves pre / post test scores of anatomy knowledge when organised and overseen by faculty . However , there have been no previously published studies of such interventions by students for students that explore both knowledge and attitudinal scores . The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of peer-to-peer teaching and learning between medical and physiotherapy students in terms of both pre / post test scores of anatomy knowledge as well as in attitudes , communication and teamwork attributes .
Methods
STUDY DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS
This small scale , prospective , mixed-methods , interrupted time-series pilot study was set up as a prelude to investing in further sessions with larger student groups across more university courses . The study was approved by the University Research Ethics Committee ( UREC ). An open letter of invitation was sent by email to all MD and PT students at the University of Malta . There were no exclusion criteria .
The extra-curricular review anatomy dissection sessions were planned by Year 2 MD students according to the progression in the Year 1 PT students ’ upper limb anatomy syllabus , to preserve consistency and to maximize the learning that the PT students could gain from the sessions . All Year 2 “ student teachers ” had themselves successfully completed the musculoskeletal anatomy syllabus in Year 1 . In the dissection lab , MD students set up three stations to tackle bones and joints ; muscles and nerves ; and common clinical conditions and their aetiology separately . PT students in Years 1 to 3 rotated across stations in groups of three . Communication was encouraged by the peer teachers , and questions were answered in discussion format as much as possible .
DATA COLLECTION
Two quantitative tools were circulated via a web link to participating PT students to be completed before and after each session : ( i ) the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale ( RIPLS ), and ( ii ) a knowledge-based written anatomy test . Finally , anonymous feedback was collected regarding the perceived usefulness of the dissection sessions at the end of the programme .
THE QUESTIONNAIRE
When McFadyen et al . ( 2005 ) amended the original RIPLS questionnaire , two of the four proposed subscales were called into question . It was argued that the Negative Professional Identity subscale had an unacceptable internal consistency because it was deemed to be inappropriate when used with those who were at an early stage in their careers . Likewise , the concepts captured by the Roles and Responsibilities subscale may not be entirely clear to inexperienced undergraduate students so early in their career , and hence its validity was also disputed . Given the above limitations , and in order to obtain a higher response rate , we used only two of the subscales ( Teamwork and Collaboration and Positive Professional Identity ) used in McFadyen ’ s RIPLS .
Each item on the questionnaire could be answered on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “ strongly disagree ” to “ strongly agree ”. The mean responses of PT students to the questionnaire before and after the dissection session were collated .
A 15-minute test consisting of 20 best-of-five Multiple Choice Questions ( MCQ ) was administered to all students under examination conditions just before and right after the dissection sessions took place . Answers were not negatively marked .
At the end of the study , an online tool was set up to collect anonymous feedback regarding the