Improving undergraduate clinical supervision in a South African context
Date
2011-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Health & Medical Publishing Group
Abstract
Objectives: The Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, has
undergraduate programmes for several disciplines; these programmes
need clinical supervisors to teach their students in the clinical settings.
The faculty does not have the resources to present different clinical supervision
courses for each discipline; therefore a short course with an
interprofessional focus was designed.
Design: A qualitative study was done to determine the strengths and
weaknesses of the course in order to re-curriculate as deemed necessary.
Semi-structured individual interviews were held with 10 (n=18)
course participants as well as the tutors involved in the development of
the course. Ethical approval was obtained. Participation was voluntary
and anonymity was guaranteed. The recorded and transcribed data were
analysed. Setting: The health professionals acting as supervisors may be the experts
in their fields, but they do not always have the necessary teaching
skills. The Centre for Health Sciences Education (CHSE) at the faculty
has developed a generic short course in undergraduate clinical supervision
to address the above issue.
Results and conclusion: The data were used to inform restructuring of
the short course for the following year. The impact of this short course
on clinical supervisors was that their interaction with students in the
clinical setting improved. There was unanimous support for extending
the short course to all clinical supervisors. The lecturers involved in developing
the course were positive about the interprofessional cooperation
among colleagues and students. They emphasised that the Faculty
of Health Sciences has an obligation to provide opportunities for clinical
supervisors to improve their skills to supervise students.
Description
The original publication is available at http://www.ajhpe.org.za/
Keywords
Medical education -- South Africa, Supervisors -- Training of -- South Africa
Citation
Archer, E. 2011. Improving undergraduate clinical supervision in a South African context. African Journal of Health Professions Education, 3(2): 6-8.