Peer training of safety-related skills to institutional staff: benefits for trainers and trainees.
Having experienced staff train newcomers on emergency drills keeps the trainers’ own skills sharp months later.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bowe et al. (1983) set up a peer-training program in a large residential center. Experienced staff taught new staff how to handle safety emergencies like fires and severe behavior.
The team used behavioral skills training: explain, show, practice, and give feedback. They tracked three emergency drills with a multiple-baseline design.
What they found
Both new and veteran staff performed the safety steps correctly during drills. The experienced trainers still nailed the steps 23 months later.
Everyone said the program was useful and fair.
How this fits with other research
McCauley et al. (2018) later moved the same peer-training idea into schools. They had students with developmental disabilities teach each other first-aid skills. The model works across ages and settings.
Ruppel et al. (2023) swapped live peer coaches for Zoom feedback. Staff still hit 90 % fidelity on preference assessments. The core BST steps stay the same; only the delivery changes.
Baruni et al. (2025) replaced people with a 30-minute computer module. BCBAs mastered firearm-safety training without any peer partner. Tech can now do part of the coaching job.
These papers do not fight each other. They simply show the field moving from hallway peer drills to web modules and telehealth while keeping the same teach-practice-feedback loop.
Why it matters
You do not need outside speakers or pricey webinars to keep safety skills sharp. Pair new hires with your best staff, run the drill, give feedback, and log the data. Rotate the trainer role each quarter so veterans stay fluent. If staff are remote, add a short Zoom feedback session after they watch a demo video. Either way, you get lasting skill gains for free.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A peer training program, in which experienced staff trained new staff, was evaluated as a method for teaching and maintaining safety-related caregiver skills in an institutional setting for the developmentally disabled. Three sets of safety-type skills were assessed in simulated emergency situations: responding to facility fires, managing aggressive attacks by residents, and assisting residents during convulsive seizures. Using a multiple-baseline research design, results indicated that the peer training program was an effective method of training the three types of emergency skills to new direct care staff. The program also appeared effective in improving the skills of the peer trainers. Perhaps most importantly, results indicated that if experienced staff functioned as peer trainers for particular emergency skills, then their proficiency in those skills maintained over time whereas their proficiency declined in emergency skills for which they did not act as peer trainers. Social validity information collected from available staff 23 months after the program was completed supported the utility of the training in terms of staff responses during actual emergencies. Also, acceptability measures indicated that staff liked participating in the program. However, some inconsistencies between staff verbal reports and performance-based measures of acceptability were noted. Results are discussed regarding the overall effectiveness of the peer training program, the importance of maintenance strategies for safety-related skills, and the need for multidimensional analyses of staff acceptability in staff training/management research.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1983 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1983.16-139