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Online peer consulting for health professionals
Author(s) -
Bientzle Martina,
Lechner Christine,
Cress Ulrike,
Kimmerle Joachim
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the clinical teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.354
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1743-498X
pISSN - 1743-4971
DOI - 10.1111/tct.12950
Subject(s) - upload , medical education , health professionals , the internet , health care , peer review , psychology , peer feedback , medicine , computer science , world wide web , political science , law , economics , economic growth
Summary Background Many health care professionals specialise in particular medical fields. Nevertheless, they often encounter patients with other indications for which they have only limited experience. In such situations it is helpful to consult colleagues who have specialised in the respective areas. The Internet provides the opportunity to connect with other specialists that can be used for peer consulting. We argue that health professionals should learn to make use of online peer consulting during vocational training. Methods We used an open‐source platform that provided the opportunity to chat and upload documents. We recruited 45 first‐year physiotherapy students as participants. The training for online peer consulting was integrated into courses where students were taught basic principles of gait analysis and learned how to document the findings of their examinations. Subsequently, the students evaluated the course and the online collaboration. Findings Students were highly motivated to use the online platform and perceived the online peer consulting and the atmosphere of collaboration on the platform to be very positive. In addition, students had a significant increase in content knowledge and were more confident in their own knowledge than they were before the online peer consulting. Discussion It seems appropriate to provide training for giving and gathering online peer feedback. This opportunity, provided at an early stage of training, could help prepare students for continuing co‐operative exchange in their professional lives. Health care professionals should learn how to gather information from colleagues and how to provide adequate feedback