An assessment of a training-of-trainers programme for clinic committees in a South African district : a qualitative exploratory study
Date
2020-11-30
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC (part of Springer Nature)
Abstract
Background: In South Africa (SA), clinics and community health centres are the predominant primary level health
care facilities in the public health sector. As part of legislated health governance requirements, clinic committees
(referring to those for clinics and community health centres) were established to provide management oversight
and bring to bear the perspectives and participation of communities at Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities. Clinic
committees need training in order to better understand their roles. Facilitators in a district of SA were trained
through a designated programme, called the ‘PHC Facility Governance Structures Trainer-of-Facilitator (ToF)
Learning Programme‘, in preparation for the training of clinic committees. This paper explores how the programme
had evolved and was experienced by the trained facilitators, in a district in SA.
Methods: We employed a retrospective qualitative case study design, guided by the Illuminative Evaluation
Framework, with the training programme in the selected district as the case. The study assessed whether the
intended aims of the training programme were clearly conveyed by the trainers, and how participants understood
and subsequently conveyed the training programme intentions to the clinic committees. Key informant interviews
and focus group discussions were conducted with trainers and managers, complemented by a review of relevant
policy and legislative documents, and published literature.
Study participants were purposively selected based on their involvement in the development, facilitation or training
of the programme. Thirteen individuals participated in the study, and 23 (national, provincial and partner)
documents were reviewed.
Results: Despite the different perceptions and understandings of the ToF Learning Programme, its overall aims were
achieved. Trainers’ capacity was strengthened and clinic committees were trained accordingly. The training programme
holds promise for possible national scale-up. The high quality of the interactive posters can be considered equally valuable
as a training tool as the training manuals.
Conclusions: Trainers’ capacity was strengthened and clinic committees were trained accordingly, despite deviations in
implementation of the original training approach and plan.
Description
CITATION: Esau, N., English, R. & Shung-King, M. 2020. An assessment of a training-of-trainers programme for clinic committees in a South African district : a qualitative exploratory study. BMC Health Services Research, 20:1101, doi:10.1186/s12913-020-05921-z.
The original publication is available at https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com
The original publication is available at https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com
Keywords
Clinics -- Management -- South Africa, Management committees -- Training -- South Africa, Occupational training -- South Africa, Primary health care -- South Africa
Citation
Esau, N., English, R. & Shung-King, M. 2020. An assessment of a training-of-trainers programme for clinic committees in a South African district : a qualitative exploratory study. BMC Health Services Research, 20:1101, doi:10.1186/s12913-020-05921-z