Browsing by Author "Esterhuyse, Wilhelmina Jacoba"

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    Die persepsies van nuut-gekwalifiseerde professionele gesondheidswerkers oor hulle verpligte gemeenskapsdiens in ‘n landelike gemeenskap in die Wes-Kaap
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Esterhuyse, Wilhelmina Jacoba; Archer, Elize; Keiller, Lianne; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Centre for Health professions education.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Every person is entitled to basic health care, but access to health services is a global problem. Many rural communities have no basic health services available, with health professionals concentrated in and around urban areas and in private practice. Registration of health professionals with the Health Professionals Council of South Africa is only possible when the one year of community service has been completed. Compulsory community service commenced in 1998 and was expanded to include all the health professions by 2016. The goals of compulsory community service are to take health services to rural communities, to foster continued education, and to stimulate retention of health workers in rural communities through improved social accountability. This, however, is not always the goal of the health professionals performing this community service. Various studies regarding the perceptions of health practitioners on compulsory community service have been done. This study was intended to explore the perceptions of the health practitioners on their compulsory service in a rural district in the Western Cape. Nine newly qualified professionals who had completed their community service in the Matzikama Sub-District between 2006 and 2012, participated in the qualitative study. The Matzikama district services are delivered at the local provincial hospital, as well as at the 17 clinics that are spread over the entire district. Three participants worked at the hospital and did not attend to any clinics in the district, while six were allocated to the clinics, but not to the hospital. Internal and External factors were identified as themes of the semi-structured interviews held with the study participants as those which influenced their experience of community service in the Matzikama Sub-District. The perceptions of health professionals in this area highlighted a lack of support for newly qualified professionals, as well as a need for management and leadership skills to be better incorporated in their pre-qualification training. Final recommendations to the Department of Health include better orientation and planning regarding the allocation of professionals to rural areas as a mechanism for providing a better experience for the newly-graduated health professional.