Advanced resuscitation skills training is an important and
enjoyable part of medical training, but requires small group
instruction to ensure active participation of all students.
Increases in student numbers have made this increasingly
difficult to achieve. A single-blind randomised controlled trial
of peer-led vs. expert-led resuscitation training was performed
using a group of sixth-year medical students as peer
instructors. The expert instructors were a senior and a middle
grade doctor, and a nurse who is an Advanced Life Support (ALS)
Instructor. A power calculation showed that the trial would have
a greater than 90% chance of rejecting the null hypothesis (that
expert-led groups performed 20% better than peer-led groups) if
that were the true situation. Secondary outcome measures were
the proportion of High Pass grades in each groups and safety
incidents. The peer instructors designed and delivered their own
course material. To ensure safety, the peer-led groups used
modified defibrillators that could d