Clinical differentiation: Achievment of planned peer-assistant education for nursing students

Context: Different types of peer education have been used in nursing. There is not a formal peer education in Iranian nursing curriculum. Aim: The present study was conducted to identify and contextualize nursing students’ perception of clinical training by planned peer assistant education. Setting and Design: This study was conducted using conventional qualitative content analysis by a descriptive explorative method in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: Participants included 24 trainees who received intensive care unit training by eight peer assistant. Data saturation was achieved through semi-structured in-depth individual interviews with 14 students and three focus group sessions. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis with MaxQData. Results: Participants’ experiences were categorized into two main themes including (1) “Clinical differentiation” with three subthemes of clinical independence, courage, and sincere clinical experience, and (2) “facilitating interactive directed clinical learning” with two subthemes of facilitating clinical learning, and interactive directed learning were extracted from the qualitative content analysis of data. Conclusions: Students participating in planned peer-assistant education had a positive perception of the program and considered “clinical differentiation” as its most important achievement.