Practice Report / Bericht aus der Praxis: An exploration of peer tutor roles and recruitment at German medical schools.

BACKGROUND: Almost all medical faculties in Germany actively employ peer tutors. However, little is known about the roles these tutors play from a faculty point of view. Also, there are only few descriptions of the tutor recruitment and selection processes.

METHODS: 32 of the medical faculties in Germany, where tutors are used in the training of medical students, were asked to provide information on the role and recruitment of tutors by means of a partially standardized questionnaire.

RESULTS: At the surveyed faculties (return rate 28%), tutors are mostly employed for the purpose of teaching staff support. Even though desired in individual cases, tutors rarely play an active role in curriculum- or faculty development. The way tutor recruitment is handled strongly depends on the capabilities of the individual faculties and the way tutors are utilized. In many cases this process is structured, consisting of written and oral application phases, in other cases recruitment takes place without formal application procedures. The selection criteria, however, were found to be very similar at most faculties.

CONCLUSION: The role of tutors from the faculties' point of view depends strongly on the respective nature of the tutorials, which are just as diverse as the approaches to tutor recruitment.