2019 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference (SoTL)
The FMHS had a significant presence at the conference with 18 presentations and 2 posters from different departments within the FMHS. We would like to congratulate all the participants with their outstanding presentations, especially Mariette Volschenk and Madelé Du Plessis awarded a certificate of merit for the best research paper on “The status of portfolios in an undergraduate medical curriculum: Lessons learned from a document review."
Henry Walton Award
We congratulate Ilze Meyer and Elize Archer with the success of their recently published article: Teaching empathy to undergraduate medical students: “One glove does not fit all". This publication was awarded the Medical Educator journal's Henry Walton Prize for the highest average downloads per month from the Really Good Stuff : lessons learned from innovation in medical education section. The official announcement of the reward was done at the ASME Annual Scientific Meeting in Glasgow (3-5 July 2019).
This specific article was based on findings from a research study on the various aspects which followed an intervention with the 3rd year MBChB class of 2018, teaching them about Empathy in the Simulation and Clinical Skills Unit (SCSU). This intervention was achieved through the Teaching and Learning Fellowship funding from the Centre for Teaching and Learning, received by Dr Elize Archer.
Prof Blitz PhD Graduation 2018
Prof Julia Blitz, Vice-Dean Learning and Teaching obtained her PhD at the December graduation ceremony. Congratulations on this outstanding feat!!
Prof Julia Blitz (Left) & Prof Susan van Schalkwyk (Right)
SU Teaching Excellence Award
We are proud to announce that Dr Elize Archer of the CHPE, as well as Dr Eric Decloedt from Clinical Pharmacology, were both awarded a SU Teaching Excellence Award for 2018. A big congratulations to the two of them!!
CHE-HELTASA National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award winner 2018
A prestigious national award was presented to Prof Susan van Schalkwyk for the contribution she has made to the field of teaching and learning in higher education. Van Schalkwyk, who is the director of the Centre for Health Professions Education (CHPE) at Stellenbosch University's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, recently received the National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award presented by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA).
WomenofSU: Teaching bedside manners
The acquisition of communication skills will probably occupy an Increasingly important position in the medical curriculum of Stellenbosch University (SU).
Thanks to an SU teaching fellowship, Dr Elize Archer of the Centre of Health Professions Education (CHPE) at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) will look at ways of incorporating this into the curriculum over the next three years.
Strategic Planning workshop
The CHPE held its annual Strategic Planning workshop on 26 and 27 July. The whole team participated in the discussions and we were joined by the Vice-Dean: Learning and Teaching, Prof Julia Blitz. The format for the workshop followed on inputs from Prof Cecilia Jacobs who joined the CHPE in May this year. Focus area teams were given a template to guide their pre-workshop reflections which provided the basis for the discussions across the two days. Use was made of a practice known as 'fictive scripting' which facilitates the process of planning towards a shared vision. The outcomes of the workshop will inform the CHPE's action plans for the next 3-5 year period.
1 July 2018
Congratulations to Keryn Harmuth, Elize Archer and Tanya vd Berg from the CHPE for winning the 2nd prize for best poster at SAAHE 2018in Durban. What an achievement!
8 June 2018
A varied and stimulating line-up of topics relating to health professions education were presented at the CHPE Research Day held on the 08 June 2018 at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) of Stellenbosch University. Prof Susan Van Schalkwyk, the Director of the Centre for Health Professions Education, welcomed SU staff and students attending the day and introduced Dr Kimesh Naidoo who delivered an inspiring keynote address. As a Paediatrician from KZN, Dr Naidoo shared from his own experience as a Clinician Educator who recently achieved o PhD in HPE by publication. MPhil graduates and staff of FMHS took the opportunity to have some generative conversations about their research, from proposal stage to completed projects. It was also on opportunity to network with colleagues from across the University; the event being attended by scholars of education from various disciplines and deportment. The standard of presentations was of on exceptionally high standard, with several doctoral and postdoctoral students presenting work they are currently busy with. The programme lent itself to a day of fruitful discussion around issues of clinical supervision, use of technology, student selection, distance learning, identity formation and the contextual influences impacting on student success.
The keynote address was delivered by Dr Kimesh Naidoo (Middle), pictured here with Prof Susan van Schalkwyk (Left), Director: CHPE and Dr Lakshini McNamee (Right).
2018 MPhil 1st year students
This is a very diverse group. There is also a husband and wife enrolled. Only one student is a foreigner, the rest are from SA.
2018 MPhil 2nd year students
This is a very enthusiastic group, with 4 SUN students, 2 from our neighbouring university UWC, 3 from Nigeria and the rest from all over the country.
Professor Ian Couper receives Healthcare Leadership Award - 19 April 2018
Congratulations to Prof Ian Couper of the CHPE/UKWANDA who received the Healthcare Leadership Award at the 15th World Rural heath Conference in Delhi last week, with some of his colleagues from Wonca Rural, for his contributions to rural health care development.
Appointment of Prof Paul Worley as extraordinary Professor
During the second semester of 2017, Prof Paul Worley was appointed as Extraordinary Professor in the CHPE. Prof Worley has had a longstanding connection to the FMHS and is an internationally respected, innovative medical educator, thinker and researcher. Under his leadership as dean, the Flinders University School of Medicine, Adelaide, developed into a successful multi-campus School over a spread of 3,500km, in the context of a predominately single-campus university. He extended the concept of decentralised education so that in some sites, such as the Northern Territory, students can complete all four years of medical training without having to go to Adelaide. He was responsible for the introduction of three major new courses in Optometry, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, which have proved successful. He restructured the School of Medicine from thirty-five separate Departments into six inter-professional research driven clusters. He has written 75 international peer-reviewed articles. Previously he has been involved with collaborative research with SU members of staff, and the examination of a PhD candidate, with whom ongoing research is being discussed. One such collaboration resulted in the publication of an article in Medical Education in 2016, one of the highest impact factor journals in the field, with him and an SU academic as first and second authors.
Walter Sisulu University
Recently the CHPE presented a Clinical Teaching workshop at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha. This was funded by SUCCEED (Stellenbosch University Collaborative Capacity Enhancement through Engagement with Districts), and attended by physicians from University, as well as various hospitals in the district. Below are the participants with staff from the CHPE (Dr Elize Archer, Dr Alwyn Louw & Ms Charmaine van der Merwe).
Prof Hoffie Conradie from SUCCEED also joined the workshop on the second day to facilitate a session on the use of patient portfolios for teaching and assessment. Here he and Dr Stuart Poole (from Madwaleni Hospital) demonstrates such a session.