Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Health Professions Education)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/4778

Browse

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

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    There’s no doubt that one learns through it all : a qualitative exploration of the value surgery trainees assign to master of medicine research
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Moxley, Karis; Blitz, Julia; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Centre for Health Professions Education.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Background: Since 2011 The Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has mandated the completion of a Master of Medicine (MMed) research project for specialist registration. This has introduced several challenges for the training environment and there is concern that institutions do not adequately prepare trainees for their role as scholars. MMed research has therefore received much critical resistance and stakeholders have questioned its value as part of the specialist training curriculum. To gain a deeper understanding of the affordances, enablers, and challenges of MMed research we were interested to hear how trainees construct the meaning of value in relation to their experiences. Aim: To explore the value surgery trainees assign to their MMed research experiences. Methods: This qualitative study adopted a social constructivist epistemological perspective. We purposively sampled 9 participants who had completed their research in a single surgical division at Stellenbosch University. Data were generated via semi-structured interviews with individual participants and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results and discussion: We identified four key themes: 1) resentment, relief, realisation, and prerequisite; 2) the clinician versus clinician-scientist dichotomy; 3) research exposure and leadership, and 4) “there’s no doubt one learns through it all”. MMed research is a source of trainee stress but they can recognise in hindsight research has served an important role in professional development. Through experiential and social learning, trainees develop critical appraisal skills and an improved understanding of the research process and recognise the value of scholarly competencies for evidence-based medicine. Research supervision and leadership represent key enablers in this learning process. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that MMed research offers significant educational value to specialist trainees and therefore warrants continued inclusion in the curriculum. Research supervisors play an important role in managing the research process, initiating MMed candidates into the research community, and making explicit the hidden outcomes of postgraduate research. Therefore, amongst other recommendations for health professions education, we especially recommend that future research and faculty development initiatives should focus on the professional development of MMed research supervisors.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    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.