Settings & Audiences for Peer Education

Clinics the world over face the challenge of patient wait time. In some cases, the challenge is how to reduce the time that patient spend waiting to be seen by a clinician. Where severe staffing shortages make wait time reduction a non-option however, as in much of sub-Saharan Africa, the challenge becomes how to make the most efficient use of clinic wait time. Peer education presents an opportunity to address this issue, while supplementing the clinical encounter.

Trained clinic-based peer educators are well positioned to facilitate both a series of sessions on a variety of topics to patients in the waiting room, and to provide one-on-one support to patients. In the latter function, they can help patients engage with the information received during their clinical encounter and help them think through how to follow instructions and/or integrate preventive health measures into their lives.

Youth-focused peer education in the clinic setting may help to enhance youth-friendliness of existing facilities, and may hold the potential of increasing utilization of clinic services by young people.

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