The effect of peer mentoring program on clinical academic progress and psychological characteristics of operating room students: a parallel randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background One of the new educational systems is the mentorship method. This study aimed to investigate the effect of peer mentoring program on clinical academic progress and psychological characteristics of operating room students. Methods This research was a randomized controlled trial that was conducted on undergraduate students in the operating room department of Khomein Faculty of Medical Sciences, Markazi Province in Iran. The number of operating room students were 70 that were divided into intervention and control groups by random allocation using Permuted Block Randomization. Inclusion criteria included all operating room students who were in internship, and exclusion criteria included failure to complete the questionnaires. The data collection tools were the demographic questionnaire, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Situational Motivational Scale. In the control group, clinical training was done in the traditional way. In the intervention group, training was done by peer mentoring method. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, paired t-test, chi-square test, ANCOVA, univariable and multivariable linear regression. Results The study revealed significant differences between the intervention and control groups. Post-intervention, the intervention group demonstrated substantial increases in self-confidence (mean difference = 5.97, p 0.05). Furthermore, the intervention significantly enhanced academic progress in the intervention group compared to the control group (mean difference = 20.31, p