Family medicine training in Africa: Views of clinical trainers and trainees

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Family medicine training in Africa: Views of clinical trainers and trainees
 
Creator Jenkins, Louis S. von Pressentin, Klaus
 
Subject Family medicine; health education Family medicine; health education; postgraduate; workplace-based assessment; learning; portfolio
Description Background: This article reports on the findings of a workshop held at the joint 5th World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) Africa and 20th National Family Practitioners Conference in Tshwane, South Africa, in 2017. Postgraduate training for family medicine in Africa takes place in the clinical workspace at the bedside or next to the patient in the clinic, district hospital or regional hospital. Direct supervisor observation, exchange of reflection and feedback, and learning conversations between the supervisor and the registrar are central to learning and assessment processes.Objectives: The aim of the workshop was to understand how family medicine registrars (postgraduate trainees in family medicine) in Africa learn in the workplace.Methods: Thirty-five trainers and registrars from nine African countries, the United Kingdom, United States and Sweden participated. South Africa was represented by the universities of Cape Town, Limpopo, Pretoria, Sefako Makgatho, Stellenbosch, Walter Sisulu and Witwatersrand.Results: Six major themes were identified: (1) context is critical, (2) learning style of the registrar and (teaching style) of the supervisor, (3) learning portfolio is utilised, (4) interactions between registrar and supervisor, (5) giving and receiving feedback and (6) the competence of the supervisor.Conclusion: The training of family physicians across Africa shares many common themes. However, there are also big differences among the various countries and even programmes within countries. The way forward would include exploring the local contextual enablers that influence the learning conversations between trainees and their supervisors. Family medicine training institutions and organisations (such as WONCA Africa and the South African Academy of Family Physicians) have a critical role to play in supporting trainees and trainers towards developing local competencies which facilitate learning in the clinical workplace dominated by service delivery pressures.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor nil
Date 2018-04-12
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — conference report
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v10i1.1638
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 10, No 1 (2018); 4 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1638/2452 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1638/2451 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1638/2453 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1638/2450
 
Coverage Africa 2017 conference report
Rights Copyright (c) 2018 Louis S. Jenkins, Klaus Von Pressentin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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