School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
Melbourne Medical School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
BMC Med Educ. 2022 Apr 20;22(1):300. doi: 10.1186/s12909-022-03368-w.
Students may be the first to recognise and respond to psychological distress in other students. Peer support could overcome medical student reluctance to seek help despite their high rates of mental ill-health. Yet, despite the adoption of peer support programs, there is little evidence of impact on students. Peer support programs may assume that medical students accept and view peer support positively. We explored these assumptions by asking students about their experiences and views on peer support.
Qualitative semi-structured interviews exploring peer support experiences and views on peer support were conducted with ten medical students at two contrasting medical schools. Informed by a constructivist stance, interview transcripts underwent thematic analysis.
Three groups of themes were identified: participants' experiences of peer support encounters, concerns about providing support, and views on students' roles in peer support. Participants readily recalled signs of peer distress. Encounters were ad hoc, informal, and occurred within relationships based on friendship or by being co-located in the same classes or placements. Concerns about initiating and offering support included lack of expertise, maintaining confidentiality, stigma from a mental health diagnosis, and unclear role boundaries, with implications for acceptance of student roles in peer support.
Our study emphasised the centrality of social relationships in enabling or discouraging peer support. Relationships developed during medical studies may anticipate the collegial relationships between medical professionals. Nevertheless, only some students are willing to undertake peer support roles. We suggest different strategies for promoting informal peer support that can be offered by any student, to those promoting formal support roles for selected students. Future research focusing on the impact for both the students who receive, and on the students who provide peer support is called for.
学生可能是最先识别和回应其他学生心理困扰的人。同伴支持可以克服医学生尽管心理健康问题高发但不愿寻求帮助的问题。然而，尽管采用了同伴支持计划，但几乎没有证据表明这些计划对学生有影响。同伴支持计划可能假设医学生接受并对同伴支持持积极态度。我们通过询问学生对同伴支持的经验和看法来探讨这些假设。
在两所不同的医学院，对十名医学生进行了定性半结构式访谈，探讨他们对同伴支持的经验和看法。根据建构主义立场，对访谈记录进行了主题分析。
确定了三组主题：参与者对同伴支持遭遇的体验、对提供支持的担忧以及对学生在同伴支持中的角色的看法。参与者很容易回忆起同伴痛苦的迹象。这些遭遇是偶然的、非正式的，发生在基于友谊的关系中，或者是在同一班级或实习中共同存在的关系中。关于发起和提供支持的担忧包括缺乏专业知识、维护保密性、心理健康诊断带来的耻辱感以及角色边界不清晰，这些都对接受学生在同伴支持中的角色产生了影响。
我们的研究强调了社会关系在促进或阻碍同伴支持方面的核心作用。在医学学习期间发展的关系可能预示着医疗专业人员之间的同事关系。然而，只有一些学生愿意承担同伴支持角色。我们建议采取不同的策略来促进任何学生都可以提供的非正式同伴支持，以及为选定的学生促进正式支持角色。需要进一步研究关注接受同伴支持的学生和提供同伴支持的学生的影响。
