Episode 29: The Impact of Peer Pressure on Medical and Nursing Students

The Impact of Peer Pressure on Medical and Nursing Students’ Clinical Skills Performance in a Simulated Interprofessional Education Environment

In this episode Alyshah Kaba, a resident PhD candidate in the Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary who specializes in medical education, shares the results of her national award winning doctoral research on group conformity. Alyshah is part of a research team led by Tanya Beran, in collaboration with Kevin McLaughlin, Undergraduate Medical Education; Deb White, Faculty of Nursing, and Jeff Caird, W21C, all from the University of Calgary. Alyshah’s study is part of this team’s ongoing research to examine how students in the health professions, at every stage in their education, conform to information they believe to be incorrect.

Having observed that medical clerks were likely to perform a knee aspiration incorrectly if they believed other students had performed it in the same incorrect way, the team next examined whether students in other health professions such as psychology would report incorrect information in an online environment upon hearing the same incorrect information form their peers. Both studies found that students are likely to follow behaviours demonstrated by their peers even when they know these behaviours are contrary to what they have been taught. Alyshah’s study further explores whether this phenomenon of conformity occurs when medical and nursing students interact with one another. In the podcast she briefly provides an overview of her study aims, methods and design, and then presents some of her results. Following this, Alyshah discusses the implications of her study for patient safety and interprofessional education.

After listening to this episode listeners will be able to:
1.  Define group conformity and share examples of how it may occur in healthcare
2.  Describe empirical evidence that demonstrates group conformity amongst interprofessional students
3.  Consider potential implications of group conformity for patient safety and education

Alyshah Kaba
Alyshah Kaba is a Resident PhD(c) in the Department of Medical Education. Alyshah has been working with the Health Care Human Factors Team at the W21C on her doctoral study titled: Conformity to the Majority: Peer Impact of Medical and Nursing Students’ Clinical Performance in an Interprofessional Simulated Training Environment. The study aims to look at how interprofessional team decision-making may impact patient safety and medical errors. Alyshah has recently been awarded the prestigious 2013 CIHR Vanier Canadian Scholarship aimed at retaining world-class clinicians and doctoral students and to establish Canada as a global centre of excellence in research. In addition to her experienced clinical background in Obstetrics, Alyshah has a strong interest in understanding the impact of teaching and learning in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, on collaborative health service delivery and the quality of patient care. In her current role as Medical Education Research Associate for W21C, she will be working with the Education Team in supporting researchers with integrating educational interventions into mix method research designs, as well as strengthening the educational capacity of the W21C team through the development of competency frameworks and research skills building workshops.

References:

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• Kaba, A., Beran, TN., Caird, J., McLaughlin. The good and bad of group conformity: a call for a new programme of research in medical education. Med Ed 2014 (accepted for publication April 14, 2014)
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