Abstract
Community-based primary healthcare training for health science students is based on the tenets of primary healthcare. The approach seeks to provide clinical education and training for health science students in previously disenfranchised communities. Some South African universities train their physiotherapy students through a community-based primary healthcare approach to undergraduate training. However, there is currently a lack of an integrated model guiding clinical education for physiotherapy clinical education in the country. The aim of this paper was to explore the perceptions of physiotherapy academics about a novel, community-based primary healthcare approach to clinical education for students at a university in South Africa. This study sought to inform the roll-out of an evidence-based model for physiotherapy education. A qualitative explorative approach, using semi-structured interviews with physiotherapy academics at the institution, was used to explore their perceptions of the community-based primary healthcare training platform. Data was analysed using conventional content analysis and was classified into themes and sub-themes. Four overarching themes emerged, namely: curriculum review, constraints to decentralised learning, benefits of community-based clinical education and recommendations for the learning platform. Participating academics believed that community-based primary healthcare training is an approach that influences students to be socially responsive, while providing access to healthcare services, such as rehabilitation, in resource-poor communities in South Africa.
Highlights
In KwaZulu-Natal, an eastern coastal province in South Africa, many people live in previously disenfranchised rural and resource-poor communities, with poor access to healthcare
This paper aimed at exploring the perceptions of the academic staff about the community-based primary healthcare training approach adopted by the discipline of physiotherapy, in order to inform the overarching model of clinical education for health science students at a South African university (Govender et al, 2018)
Given the novelty of this approach, an exploration of real-life experiences of academics involved in the clinical education of undergraduate physiotherapy students in a resource-limited, higher education context was deemed suitable for this study (Creswell & Poth, 2017)
Summary
In KwaZulu-Natal, an eastern coastal province in South Africa, many people live in previously disenfranchised rural and resource-poor communities, with poor access to healthcare. Healthcare professionals in South Africa should be prepared to offer care to people living in such conditions. A core goal of any healthcare system is to offer seamless care to improve health outcomes through the adequate provision of clinical and public health services (Panda & Thakur, 2016). In South Africa, the public healthcare sector suffers from a lack of resources; while the private healthcare sector is comparatively over-serviced. The South African government is attempting to address these disparities through the adoption of National Health Insurance (NHI), which seeks to improve access to healthcare through a primary healthcare approach, ensuring care within, and closer to, communities that were previously marginalised (South African Government, 2015)
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