Cross-year Peer Tutoring in Healthcare and Dental Education: A Review of the Literature

Cross-year peer tutoring (CYPT) programs show promise of potential benefits not only to the tutees and tutors, but also to the entire dental education field. A critical review of the literature was performed to determine the characteristics of studies assessing CYPT programs in the healthcare field, to see if there are adequate resources in the literature to aid dental institutions in making evidence-based decisions about their curriculum. A PubMed literature search was conducted to identify pertinent research. Only those articles that demonstrated programs that paired junior and senior students were included. A total of twenty articles were identified and analyzed for the characteristics of the CYPT program, the study groups compared, and the outcomes assessed. In the few studies that examined qualitative outcomes, many found success measured in positive outcomes for the tutors. However, there are too few studies that examine the qualitative outcomes of tutor interest in careers in dental education. With more contributions to literature in the dental field that specifically target preclinical dental education and tutor interest in careers in education, published within the context of the curriculum, dental education institutions can begin making more evidence-based decisions on the incorporation of CYPT programs into their curricula.