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Report highlights challenges in health education
Author: FMHS Marketing & Communication / FGGW Bemarking & Kommunikasie
Published: 15/06/2018

A comprehensive report detailing the challenges faced in the training of health professionals was recently released.

Prof Jimmy Volmink, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) at Stellenbosch University led the 10-member study panel who compiled the report on behalf of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

“South Africa's quadruple burden of disease, shortage of trained health personnel, particularly in under-resourced and rural areas, and the ongoing higher education crisis places unique challenges on the health sciences education sector," said Volmink, who presented the findings in Pretoria.

Titled Reconceptualising Health Professions Education in South Africa, the report aims to address the full value chain in health sciences education from student selection, through pedagogical developments, unpacking of the current bottlenecks in the system and looking at how the future health sciences education system can be financed and regulated.

The study panel made a set of 16 recommendations that give a consensus view on transformative efforts needed in the education and training of healthcare professionals in South Africa to consolidate current efforts, and enhance new efforts to address the severe quantitative and qualitative shortfall in the health workforce and thereby improve the health of the nation.

The recommendations were aimed at a wide-ranging audience, including policymakers and educators, and include the following:

  • There is a need to reconceptualise student selection with the aim of evaluating a broader set of criteria than those currently in use.

  • Selection and training should be orientated towards addressing inequity and meeting the needs of the most underserved, through supporting a primary care focus and increasing the supply of healthcare professionals to rural areas.

  • Public sector academic institutions need to be strengthened to scale up the production of healthcare professionals.

  • Universities should take responsibility for education and professional development from undergraduate years through to internship and community service.

  • To enable inter-professional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) to become sustainably embedded in health professional education in South Africa, a multi-stakeholder, national working group should be formed to develop and guide the implementation of a strategic plan for IPECP.

  • There is a need to take urgent action to improve governance of health sciences funding by strengthening the capacity and accelerating the momentum of the Joint Health Science Education Committee.

  • Improve human resource planning, resource allocation and budgeting.​

The full report is available on www.assaf.org.za

Caption: Prof Jimmy Volmink led the 10-member study panel that compiled the report on behalf of ASSAf.

Banner photo by Sam Reinders.