26isls14 10.3205/26isls14 urn:nbn:de:0183-26isls147 Meeting Abstract Hrženjak Hrženjak Eva E

University of Maribor, Faculty of Medicine, Maribor, Slovenia

eva.hrzenjak@student.um.si author Denša Denša Lejla L

University of Maribor, Faculty of Medicine, Maribor, Slovenia

author Hozjan Hozjan Mia M

University of Maribor, Faculty of Medicine, Maribor, Slovenia

author Bevc Bevc Sebastjan S

University of Maribor, Faculty of Medicine, Maribor, Slovenia University Medical Centre Maribor, Clinic for Internal Medicine, Maribor, Slovenia

author German Medical Science GMS Publishing House

Düsseldorf

610 tutoring learning methods peer teaching 20260507 engl This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Dieser Artikel ist ein Open-Access-Artikel und steht unter den Lizenzbedingungen der Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (Namensnennung). M0648 14 20. Internationales SkillsLab Symposium 2026 Posters 2: Ready to Grow – Innovative Impulse Mannheim 20260312 20260314 26isls14 TextIntroduction: Peer tutoring combines skill demonstration with supervised practice and feedback, but students may prefer a specific learning method. This study aimed to examine whether students’ preferred learning methods differ according to the perceived difficulty of a clinical skill.Methods: We surveyed 69 third-year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, during the academic year 2025/2026. Students rated the perceived difficulty of six clinical skills (palpation of the radial pulse, palpation of axillary lymph nodes, measurement of central venous pressure, cardiac auscultation, percussion to determine the liver border, and the Lasègue test) using a five-point scale (1-2 low, 3 moderate, 4-5 high difficulty). Perceived difficulty ratings were based on students’ self-assessment and were not evaluated by independent experts. Participants then selected one preferred learning method for each skill (reading about the skill, tutor demonstration, tutor feedback after performing the skill, viewing instructional videos or images, or serving as a model). Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests.Results: Mean perceived difficulty ranged from 1.3 for the Lasègue test to 3.3 for percussion to determine the liver border. No statistically significant differences in learning method preferences were found for palpation of the radial pulse (p=0.260), palpation of axillary lymph nodes (p=0.218), measurement of central venous pressure (p=0.870), cardiac auscultation (p=0.105), or the Lasègue test (p=0.463). A statistically significant difference was observed for percussion to determine the liver border (p=0.021), with 55% of students preferring tutor feedback after performing the skill and 38% preferring tutor demonstration.Conclusion: For most skills, perceived difficulty was not associated with differences in learning preferences. Only percussion to determine the liver border, rated most difficult, showed significant variation. As none of the skills were rated highly difficult, the impact of task difficulty may be underestimated. Additional limitations include self-reported difficulty, selection of a single preferred method, and lack of objective performance measures. Future studies should include a broader range of task difficulties and independent expert ratings to better assess how perceived and objective difficulty influence learning preferences.Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. 0 0 0 0