The Implementation and Role of Peer Mentor Group in Advancing Clinical Skills in Inpatient Neurorehabilitation

Research Objectives: To measure the effectiveness of a peer mentor group in improving clinical knowledge and application for novice occupational therapists on an adult inpatient rehabilitation unit.

Design: Current mentorship models were evaluated using a staff survey and available literature. Based on results, peer mentor group was established and pre/post measures were taken for each group session to evaluate effectiveness.

Setting: 48 bed adult inpatient neurorehabilitation unit in an academic teaching hospital in New York City

Participants: Novice occupational therapists with 0-3 years experience working with the brain injury population in inpatient rehabilitation

Interventions: Peer mentor group provides novice occupational therapists working with the brain injury population a safe environment to share challenges related to specific topics and administration of interventions. Each session, senior level therapists facilitate guided clinical discussions regarding specific topics/interventions and work to promote a knowledge sharing environment to support education of when interventions are clinically indicated and techniques for administration of each specific intervention.

Main Outcome Measures: Pre and post peer mentor group surveys are administered to staff therapists prior to each peer mentor group and the same question set is administered immediately following. This tool uses a Likert scale to measure knowledge of when interventions are clinically indicated, confidence level in administering interventions, and confidence in knowing where to locate resources.

Results: Results demonstrate improvements for staff therapists in knowledge of when specific interventions are clinically indicated as well as knowledge in administration of specific interventions following participation in the peer mentor group.

Conclusions: Improved scores on post-surveys following participation in a peer mentor group indicate participation is beneficial for novice staff therapists as a supplement to advance clinical skills in working with patients with acquired brain injury, specifically knowledge of when interventions are clinically indicated and individual confidence levels in administering interventions. Further investigation is warranted to develop a standard protocol for facilitators of each peer mentor group to determine the optimal structure of the group in order to maximize outcomes and increase efficacy of the program.

Author(s) Disclosures: None