Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Health Professions Education)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Health Professions Education) by Subject "Blended learning -- South Africa"

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    The value of an e-learning bundle in the acquisition of a clinical skill : exploring the perceptions of third-year medical students at Stellenbosch University, South Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Van der Walt, Lizanne; De Villiers, Marietjie R.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Centre for Health Professions Education.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Introduction: The influence of e-learning and blended learning approaches (such as flipped classrooms) on the assimilation of theoretical knowledge has been studied extensively. However, health professions education requires not only the acquisition of theoretical knowledge but also the ability to integrate theoretical knowledge with clinical psychomotor skills to graduate as a clinically competent healthcare practitioner. While it is challenging to teach clinical psychomotor skills online, the cognitive component as well as practical demonstrations can be addressed in a flipped classroom scenario. This study aimed to determine how valuable students found an e-learning bundle on the administration of injections in preparation for a face-to-face contact session on the same topic. Materials and methods: Forty-one of 133 third-year medical students undergoing the Internal Medicine rotation participated in the study. They had to have completed the e-learning bundle on injections, attended the face-to-face contact session and completed an online medical e-learning evaluation questionnaire within 72 hours thereafter. Results: The students indicated that they had found the e-learning bundle to be extremely valuable in their preparation for the contact session, with a mean score of 9 out of a possible 10. The students also reported positively on the content, the relevance for their level of training and their overall enjoyment of the bundle. The students identified some barriers, namely not having enough time for preparation within a very full curriculum and experiencing technical difficulties such as slow loading and incompatible video formats. Discussion: Using an e-learning bundle in preparation for a contact session seems to be beneficial before actually practising the skills. By creating protected time for the students to complete the online learning related to clinical skills, the face-to-face contact sessions can be more focused on the actual psychomotor component, resulting in more time for deliberate practice in the Simulation and Clinical Skills Unit (SCSU). The latter has been proven to improve performance in clinical skills in real-life scenarios.