Departmental academic review

Clinical Teaching Platform
As chair of the Clinical Teaching Platform Committee, Prof Reid has been responsible for assisting the Faculty with interrogating the needs and development of the clinical teaching platform, together with Frank Molteno.

The above diagram illustrates the current platform (at the top of the diagram) and the planned expansion (at the bottom of the diagram). The implementation of this has been delayed by the Multi-Lateral Agreement (MLA) process with the Provincial Government Department of Health.

The following key questions were raised in 2013 and continue to be grappled with:

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  What is the right balance in teaching capacity at different levels of care?
  
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  What teaching & learning activities are currently happening at each level/site?
  
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  What should the size and shape of teaching at the level/site ideally be?
  
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  What are the next steps to facilitate the establishment? Of the ideal learning site, and how could this be funded and sustained?
  
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  Does the clinical teaching platform at community, district, secondary and tertiary level need to expand, stay the same, or decrease?
  
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  If it does need to change, in which departments and by how much?
  

A number of iterations of a business plan have been put forward for the development of a campus in the George “complex” in the Eden district which includes Mossel Bay, Knysna, Oudtshoorn and Beaufort-West district hospitals. These include the placement of final year medical students in a longitudinal integrated curriculum for the whole year in the complex, which requires changes to the MBChB curriculum in order for the experience to be equivalent to that offered in Cape Town. The components of the plan are illustrated in the diagram below.

Rural Health
The available evidence indicates that the current curriculum does not adequate equip students for rural practice. The international literature shows that students regard rural placements more highly than urban ones in terms of educational benefit due to the number of patients they see; the wider range of experiences; continuity of care; and the scope provided by rural practice. Rural medicine is more multi-disciplinary, community based and more likely to involve participants in a wide range of community organizations. Rural-origin students are helped to connect with their own values and communities, and attitudes are shown to change irrespective of origin.
A portion of a Faculty R1.2m Atlantic Philanthropies 3-year grant dispersed to the PHCD in 2009 was utilized to encourage the recruitment of health sciences students from rural and underserved areas, support them to develop leadership skills, better prepare medical students for rural practice, and contribute overall to health equity. The PHCD appointed a Rural Recruitment Officer who assisted with raising the profile of rural health amongst the students and Faculty; expose an increasing number of students to rural situations via the subsidy provided for 5^th year rural electives; raise awareness amongst rural learners about health careers and processes to be followed to become health professionals in future; and expose students to leadership through workshops and practice whilst leading their student societies. As a result of the Recruitment Officer’s work in rural high schools around the country, the number of rural origin students who registered for 1^st year in the faculty in 2013 was double that of previous years, around 17% of the total number.