Reviewing academic coordination on the rural distributed training platform in South Africa.
Introduction: Distributed training of students from a variety of health professions is increasing in South Africa because of the type of learning it offers and that it caters for the increasing number of students being accepted into health sciences programs. Challenges and facilitators to distribute...
| Publicado en: | Rural & Remote Health Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 60 - 75 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
James Cook University, Rural Health Research Unit
2023
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=171906186&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 171906186 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 14456354 1D30 jtl: Rural & Remote Health issn: 14456354 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2023 vid: 23 iid: 3 pid: 69464 pub: James Cook University, Rural Health Research Unit artinfo: ui: 171906186 171906186 171906186 10.22605/RRH7671 171906186 ppf: 60 ppct: 15 formats: tig: atl: Reviewing academic coordination on the rural distributed training platform in South Africa. aug: au: Vera Muller, Jana van Niekerk, Jenni Donald, Hananja du Plessis, Elmarize affil: Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health, Department of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa sug: subj: Academic Advisement Evaluation Rural Areas Health Occupations Health Education South Africa Human Funding Source South Africa Qualitative Studies Semi-Structured Interview Focus Groups Clinical Supervision ab: Introduction: Distributed training of students from a variety of health professions is increasing in South Africa because of the type of learning it offers and that it caters for the increasing number of students being accepted into health sciences programs. Challenges and facilitators to distributed training are well documented in the literature, and include increased distance from the academic home, human resources for health challenges, student access to support systems, and identifying learning environments to match learning outcomes. In the case of the Rural Clinical School in the Western Cape, South Africa, 'academic coordinators' were employed on site to fulfil the role of coordinating and supervising student learning and community engagement. This article explores their experiences. Methods: A large-scale qualitative study was conducted in 2017 exploring the history and development of the Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health and the Rural Clinical School. Part of this study included semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with consenting academic coordinators exploring their experiences of developing and working on a rural distributed training platform in South Africa. Data were inductively analysed. Ethical approval and institutional permission were obtained for this study, and all participants provided consent. Results: In addition to previously published challenges that clinical supervisors who are employed by the health system face, the academic coordinators reported facing challenges related to professional isolation, boundary blurring between providing student support versus acting as clinical educator, juggling multiple line managers and administrative responsibilities, navigating the new field of academia, and not having the potential for career progression. Conclusion: Reflecting on the needs of academic coordinators expressed in this article, we identified four conditions that may promote sustained and continuous academic coordination at rural or remote distributed training sites. These conditions are (1) living and working local; (2) having a dual role in academia and the health system; (3) having access to academic support; and (4) regular engagement with the academic home, the value of which is detailed in this article. These recommendations can be adopted to optimise and sustain academic engagement on the distributed training platform, especially in light of the current expansion of health professions training and subsequent need to attract and retain clinician--academics in remote locations. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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