Near Peer Medical Teaching (NPMT) Central Coast is a teaching program for medical students run by junior doctors in the Central Coast Local Health District. We deliver supplementary teaching sessions to medical students in their clinical years, focusing on core clinical concepts and practical knowledge to help students transition from medical student into junior doctors.

Our website contains our catalogue of teaching resources which are available to both teachers and students. Through a Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAME) model, we provide junior doctors with accessible resources to plan and deliver teaching sessions.

Near-peer definitions differ depending on the source consulted but generally reflect a gap in training of between 1-5 years. The magnitude of this gap is significant as one of the pivotal identified features that make’s near-peer teaching unique and beneficial is the concept of cognitive congruence. The idea that the close alignment in knowledge framework, experience and language. This is perceived to create an atmosphere of discussion where students are more comfortable to explore the gaps in their knowledge.

Near-Peer teaching is a relatively new concept in clinical teaching research but reflects an age-old mentoring process whereby advice and teaching is informally handed over to the next generation.

Despite multiple published articles attesting to both the success and widespread nature of both formal and informal near-peer teaching it faces a number of challenges:

-       Time to revise information and topics taught
-       Time to perform lesson planning
-       Time to prepare resources and presentation aids
-       Standardisation of teaching
-       Senior clinician oversight of content

Our website seeks to address these challenges and by doing so empower the next generation of clinical teachers.

The Near-Peer program originated in 2016 as STITCCH (Surgical Trainee Initiated Teaching at Central Coast Hospitals), a program of 10 fundamental modules delivered to students on surgical rotations at Gosford Hospital. This program focussed on orientating students to the hospital system, teaching them core surgical concepts and clinical skills, and introducing them to the roles and responsibilities of a junior doctor. STITCCH spawned several offshoot programs, including Bedside teaching, Skills teaching workshops, research collaboration initiatives and teacher training workshops.

In 2019, then STITCCH chair Nicholas Hewett joined these programs together under the banner of Near Peer Medical Teaching (NPMT) Central Coast. There are 3 main arms of the program: Tutorials, Skills Teaching and Bedside Teaching. The NPMT website was also launched in 2019. Our teaching resources are freely available on the website, and aim to provide an accessible resource for junior doctors to conduct teaching sessions – both formal and ad hoc.

In 2020. with the COVID-19 Pandemic and its impacts of hospital life and medical education we have made the temporary switch to video conference teaching.

2021, we are now back to face to face teaching and have expanded the number of bedside tutorials, skills and teaching sessions with students. We have also recruited more writers and hope to keep expanding our website content.

Director Teaching and Research Unit

Amanda Dawson
Dr Dawson is a Specialist Academic General Surgeon on the Central Coast of NSW, an Associate Professor to the University of Newcastle and the Clinical Dean and Director of Education and Research at the Central Coast. She has been a foundational pillar and ongoing source of support to the NPMT program since its inception in 2015. Her work provides key experience in education and a grounding in educational research which facilitates evidence-based teaching to flourish on the Central Coast.

2025 team

Chair

Yoshua Selvadurai

bedside chairs

Erin Lin & Sandeep Pushparaj

Medicine Chairs

Gabby Stevenson, Kate Grunseit & Amy Hoang

Surgery chairs

Andrew Li, Borty Oung & Olivia Freeman

Radiology Chair

Selina Chung

Teaching and Research chairs

Harneet Singh & Alexander Crawford

skills and critical care Chairs

Danny Zn, Daniel Peter & Elyse McCahill

PRINT (pre-internship)

Jemma Harbison & Jodie Baxter

Interprofessional Learning

Niall Brown & Sam Wilson

Media and communciations

Sai Janani Sakthivel

Founding team:

Junior Medical Officers

• Richard Arnold

• Jeremy Webb

• Ben Reardon

• Natalie Nicholas

• Sarah Wong

• Shiram Swaminathan

Senior Medical Officers and Institutional Support

• Amanda Dawson

• Martin Veysey

Awards

2023: David Medcvesky Chair NPMT UON Teaching Award 

2020: Ben Reardon Registrar of the Year Award WSLHD for implementation of NPMT at Westmead Clinical School (USyd)

2017: Ben Reardon and Richard Arnold (STITCCH) were awarded the inaugural 2017 Teaching Excellence Awards from the University of Newcastle Academy of Clinical Educators; this awards seeks to recognise innovation in clinical teaching. 

Presentations

2025

• Collaborative Learning in ALS for future healthcare teams: A Near-Peer led simulation workshop. Daniel Heidegger, Mahli Kumarasinhe, Hemal Patel, Natalie Govind

• International clinical skills conference – Long term benefits of Near Peer teaching on tutors and institutions Upuli Pahalawatta, Benjamin Reardon, Amanda Dawson, Koshila Kumar

• 2024

• The Importance of Near Peer Teaching in Surgery: A Systematic Review. Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, McGee R, Van Leeuwestyn A. AMEE Abstract Basel Switzerland

• 2023

• Murugananthan K, Chia D, Mitchell A, Dawson A, 'Near Peer Medical Teaching Program', (2023) RASC ASC Surgical Education Sharktank Adelaide

• Alicia Mitchell  Paper Title: Near-Peer Medical Teaching (NPMT) on NSW’s Central Coast Prevocational Medical Education Forum to be held on 12-15 November at the Rendezvous Hotel Scarborough, Perth.

• Transitioning to clinical practice: the impact of medical student radiology teaching. Upuli Pahalawatta, Rajiv Rattan, Amanda Dawson, Svetlana King, Mark Fiorentino Ninth International Clinical Skills Conference 

• 2021

• Bourke M, Pahalawatta U, Lun E, Fiorentino M, Rattan R, Bourke B, et al., 'The Future of Post Graduate Anatomy Education', Online

• Lobo L, Zhang L, Dawson A, 'Increasing Rational Pathology Ordering in Junior Medical Officers through Targeted Teaching', Virtual

• ANZHAPE (The Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators, 2021 virtual The Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators) M Bourke, U Pahalawatta, E Lun, M Fiorentino, R Rattan, B Bourke, A Dawson, C Dayas. The future of Post-graduate Anatomy Education

• Creating Clinician Researchers through Junior Doctor Education – Be Research Active and Networking at Central Coast Hospitals (BRANCCHes). Lisha LOBO, Lucy ZHANG, Amanda DAWSON, Australian and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Virtual Forum (ANZPMEF) 

• Rapid Development of Near-Peer Teaching Readiness in Junior Medical Officers Through a Single Education Session. Lisha LOBO, Lucy ZHANG, Amanda DAWSON, Australian and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Virtual Forum (ANZPMEF)

• The future of Post-graduate Anatomy Education M Bourke, U Pahalawatta, E Lun, M Fiorentino, R Rattan, B Bourke, A Dawson, C Dayas ANZHAPE 2021

• Increasing Rational Pathology Ordering in Junior Medical Officers through Targeted Teaching Lisha LOBO, Lucy ZHANG, Amanda DAWSON, Australian and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Virtual Forum  POSTER (ANZPMEF)

• SECTRA: Embracing the Future of Anatomy Education Lun E  Bourke M, Pahalawatta U, Bourke B, Katib N, Fiorentino M, Rattan R, Dawson A, Dayas C. Poster presentation, Australian and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Virtual Forum (ANZPMEF) 

• SECTRA: The Future of Radiology Anatomy Education RANZCR ASM in September 2021 Lun E  Bourke M, Pahalawatta U, Bourke B, Katib N, Fiorentino M, Rattan R, Dawson A, Dayas C

• 2020

• ANZHAPE (The Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators, Melbourne, 12 Jul 2020-15 Jul 2020. The Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators)

• Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Freeman S, Kerrison-Watkin G, Parkinson A, 'Teaching Procedural Skills: Why isn t there ever enough time? Accepted Poster', Melbourne

• Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Hewett N, Ryall M, 'Near Peer Teaching: What s actually Around? A Literature Review Accepted poster', Melbourne

• 2019

• World Association for Emergency and Disaster Medicine (WADEM) Congress 2019. Brisbane Dawson AC, Pahalawatta U, 'BEACCHES - Beginning Education at Central Coast Hospitals’

• 8th International Clinical Skills Conference. Prato,Italy Pahalawatta U, Dawson AC, 'A novel method for improving Procedural Skills among Medical Students and improving procedural skill teaching capacity of JMOs’

• 2019 Research And Innovation Symposium Book of Proceedings. Gosford: CCLHD Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Freeman S, Kerrison-Watkin G, Parkinson A, 'Development of a comprehensive resource package for Procecural Skills Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Students', Gosford (2019)

• Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) Conference. Vienna Austria: Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) Conference, Vienna Austria Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Short B, Lambeth L, David M, Ryall M, Hood C, 'Facilitating a successful transition from academic to clinical education for medical Students', Vienna Austria (2019)

• The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists 70th Annual Scientific meeting.: Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists, Auckland, New Zealand. Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Rattan R, Teh S, Ong D, 'Development of a near peer radiology education program for undergraduate medical students', Auckland (2019)

• Australia New Zealand Prevocation Medical Education Foundation (ANZPMEF). Canberra

• Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Turnbull S, Newlands J, Buckland R, Willcocks J, Short B, 'Creating an Effective Hospital Culture: Collaboration between Education, Workforce and JMOs. Workshop', Canberra (2019)

• Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Kerrison-Watkin G, Maloney J, Parkinson A, Freeman S, 'Creating video skills resources for procedural skills teaching', Canberra (2019)

• Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Hu W, Cho K, 'Motivations for Teaching and Research', Canberra (2019)

• Dawson A, Hewett N, Pahalawatta U, 'Development of a FOAM website dedicated to near peer education and teaching', Canberra (2019)

• Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, 'Development of a single education session for development of JMO teaching skills', Canberra (2019)

• Dawson A, Pahalawatta U, Drane A, 'Creating and Implementing Collaborative Research Protocols', Canberra 2019)

• 2018

• Veysey M, Jayagopal V, Hepburn D, Brown J, Dawson A, 'How to Run a Successful Clinical School Workshop', Basel Switzerland

• 23rd Australia and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Forum 2018. Melbourne: 23rd Australia and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Forum 2018.

• Dawson AC, Pahalawatta U, 'Improving Junior Doctor Research Education Skills - A perspective from a Regional Medical School', Melbourne (2018)

• Dawson AC, 'Empowering and Managing Junior Doctor led Pre-vocational Teaching and Research Progams at a Regional Centre - How to set up Trainee Led Programs', 23rd Australia and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Forum 2018, Melbourne (2018

• Dawson AC, Pahalawatta U, 'A novel method for improving Procedural Skills among Medical Students and improving procedural skill teaching capacity of JMOs.', Melbourne (2018)

• Research Quality and Innovation Symposium. Central Coast: Central Coast Research Innovation and Quality Symposium. Lambeth L, David M, Short B, Ryall M, Hood C, Dawson AC, 'Training the Central Coasts Future Doctors at BEACCHES', Central Coast (2018)

• Joint Academic Meeting - Section of Academic Surgery and Surgical Research Socieity Meeting. Sydney: Royal Australasian College of Surgeons

• Dawson AC, 'Creating Institutional Change Through Academic Excellence - the Regional Perspective', Sydney

• 2017

• Prevocational Medical Education Forum. brisbane: Australian and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Forum. Reardon B, Arnold R, Nicholas N, Webb J, Dawson AC, 'Open-source Curriculum in Promoting Teaching by Junior Doctors', Brisbane 

• Dawson AC, Arnold R, Reardon B, Webb J, Nicholas N, 'Engaging Junior Doctors in Teaching through open-source curriculum packs', Adelaide, South Australia 

• Dawson AC, Pearlman R, Lin A, 'Team co-ordination and job efficiency: improving patient safety through technology.', ANZ Journal of Surgery. DOI 10.1111/ans.13570

Grants

Ben Reardon - $500 HETI scholarship to present at ANZPMEF

Upuli Pahalawatta - $2000 travel grant obtained to facilitate overseas international conference presentations listed above.