​​​​​​​​​​​Centre for Health Professions Education

Staff

Director

Professor Susan van Schalkwyk, M Phil, PhD., is Professor in Health Professions Education and Director of the Centre for Health Professions Education in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences where she is involved in the supervision of Master's and PhD students, and faculty development. Her research interests include teaching and learning in the health professions, with a specific focus on postgraduate studies and academic writing. She is active in health professions education, both nationally and internationally, and is currently a member of the AMEE (Association of Medical Educationalists) Research Committee, on the editorial board of MedEdPublish, and an associate editor for The Clinical Teacher. She is a founding member of the Bellagio Global Health Education Initiative, an interdisciplinary, multinational effort to advance global health education worldwide and serves on the AMEE Aspire to Excellence international board. She is a C-rated NRF researcher and has authored or co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and books chapters.​

Tel:  +27 21 938 9874
Fax: +27 21 938 9046
Email: scvs@sun.ac.za

Director: Centre for Rural Health

Professor Ian Couper is Director of the Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health and Professor of Rural Health in the Centre for Health Professions Education. This follows more than thirteen years at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, where he was director of the Wits Centre for Rural Health, and Head: Clinical Unit (rural/family medicine) in the North West Provincial Department of Health. He served an extended term as academic head of the Wits Department of Family Medicine (2009-2015).

 He was a member of the national task team to develop the clinical associate (ClinA) programme in South Africa (physician assistants), and led the development of ClinA training at Wits. He has been involved in supporting medical education initiatives in a number of African countries, particularly at universities in Malawi and Mozambique, and served as a consultant for Capacity Plus to the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) in Africa, in the field of community-based education, 2012-2015.

 He has held visiting appointments at Monash and Flinders Universities in Australia and the University of Washington in the USA. 

Tel:  +27 21 938 9186 
Fax: +27 21 938 9046 
Email: icouper@sun.ac.za

Senior Secretary: CHPE

 Mrs Edwardene Marais is the Senior Secretary for the CHPE and provides administrative support to the Director and other senior personnel of the CHPE. She is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Centre as well as organising various workshops and seminars.

Tel:  +27 21 938 9054 
Fax: +27 21 938 9046 
Email: marais5678@sun.ac.za 

Administrative Coordinator: MPhil and PhD in Health Sciences Education

Mrs Lorraine Louw has a Medical Secretarial Certificate from Tygerberg Technical College and is the Administrative co-ordinator of the MPhil in HPE. She provides administrative and secretarial support to the MPhil and PhD students in HPE.

Tel:  +27 21 938 9047
Fax: +27 21 938 9046
Email: lhl@sun.ac.za

Dr Alwyn Louw (PhD) completed the MEd in Educational Leadership and Didactics (Stellenbosch University) in 1991, and his PhD in Agriculture Education (Stellenbosch University) in 2005. After being a lecturer in agriculture for eleven years took up the current position of Senior lecturer and Coordinator of the Extended Degree programmes at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences – based in the Centre for Health Professions Education. He developed a keen interest in Health Sciences Education since his appointment in 2007. He was the first Stellenbosch University fellow to complete the Sub-Sahara FAIMER Regional Institute (SAFRI) fellowship since its establishment in 2008.

Except for being coordinator of the Extended Degree Programme, he also acts as chair of one of the first year modules in the  Interprofessional Phase (1ste semester of the 1st year), and is also a module chair and lecturer in the MPhil programme of the Centre for Health Professions Education. He is also the head of the residence of Nkosi Johnson House - a residence for senior students.

Tel:  +27 21 938 9389 
Fax: +27 21 938 9046 
Email: ajnlouw@sun.ac.za

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Educational advisor

Dr Lakshini McNamee relocated from Durban to join CHPE as an Educational Advisor in September 2016. Her husband is of Italian-Irish decent, hence the Irish surname 'McNamee', and they came to live in South Africa during the late 1980s. She began her career in Medical Biochemistry and was first employed at a Clinical Chemistry Laboratory in Harare, Zimbabwe. She then joined Forensic Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where she subsequently developed a keen interest in Health Professions Education, through her active involvement in curriculum design, facilitation of small group PBL tutorials with undergraduate medical students, and conducting medical education research. She discovered a passion for growing 'good doctors' and completed a MEd (Higher Education) cum laude in 2008. Lakshini is a FAIMER-SAFRI Fellow of 2009; she has served as SAFRI Faculty since 2014 and been a member of the Board of Directors since 2013. She holds a PhD in Higher Education; her thesis consists of a narrative study, focusing on the learning processes and the identity construction of newly qualified doctors. It is her express goal to disseminate insight generated by this study in the form of some interesting scholarly articles in the near future.

Tel:  +27 21 938 9495
Fax: +27 21 938 9046 
Email: mcnameel@sun.ac.za

Educational advisor

Ms Mariette Volschenk joined the CHPE in April 2015 as an educational advisor. Her key focus areas include providing educational support for the implementation of the FMHS graduate attributes within programmes and facilitating the development of a longitudinal portfolio to promote the integration of the graduate attributes in the MB, ChB programme. She also teaches in the MPhil in Health Professions Education programme. Mariette is a registered professional nurse with postgraduate qualifications in Neonatal Nursing Science and Nursing Education. She was the first candidate to complete the MPhil in HPE programme at SU (2009, Cum Laude). She was previously employed as a clinical facilitator in the private sector, where she was responsible for clinical teaching and accompaniment of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students, as well as programme development.

Email:  mvolschenk@sun.ac.za

Learning Technologies Technician 

Instructional Designer​

Ms Kanita Brits graduated from North-West University (BSc Consumer Science) and UNISA (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) and is currently studying PGDip in Educational Technology at the University of Cape Town. She is involved in Instructional design for the purpose of assisting lecturers with developing SCORM packages and instructional content with the aim to better facilitate teaching and learning within the faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

Mrs Justine Geiger joined the CHPE in June 2018 as a part-time educational advisor. Her key focus areas are supporting the MB, ChB and assessment review processes. She is a registered professional nurse, midwife, nurse educator and community health nurse. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (UCT), Postgraduate Certificate in Community Nursing Science (UCT), Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing Education (SU) and a Master’s Degree in Health Professions Education (SU). She is also a qualified lactation consultant and quality improvement advisor. Her clinical and teaching experience is wide ranging, having worked in university, hospital, community, public and private health and non-governmental organisation settings. 

Tel:  +27 21 938 9061   

Fax: +27 21 938 9046

Email: jdgeiger@sun.ac.za​​

Senior Researcher

Mrs Ilse Meyer i​s a registered Physiotherapist who graduated from Stellenbosch University (BSc in Physiotherapy and MPhil in HPE). She worked as a clinician in various government and private hospitals as well as in private practice. She continued her career as lecturer, clinical supervisor and clinical coordinator at the Physiotherapy division and joined the CHPE as a senior research assistant in 2017. ​

Tel:  +27 21 938 9944
Fax: +27 21 938 9046
Email: imeyer@sun.ac.za​

Associate Professor

​Professor Cecilia Jacobs has worked in Higher Education for the past 28 years. She is currently an Associate Professor in Higher Education at the Centre for Health Professions Education at the University of Stellenbosch. Prior to that she was the director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Stellenbosch. She is an NRF-rated researcher and her research interests are in disciplinary literacies and how disciplinary knowledge is communicated through discipline-specific language. This was the focus of her doctoral research, and ensuing publications focused on the teaching of disciplinary literacies within disciplinary domains and its implications for academic developers and disciplinary specialists in higher education. Current research focuses on the question of knowledge and the importance of its centrality in debates on higher education teaching and learning.

Tel:  +27 21 938 9452
Fax: +27 21 938 9046
Email: ​jacobsc@sun.ac.za​

Simulation and Clinical Skills Unit (SCSU)

Head of SCSU

Dr. Elize Archer is a Critical Care Nurse by training. She graduated from the University of the Free State (BSocSc Nursing) and Stellenbosch University (BSocSc Hons in Critical Care Nursing) and previously worked in private and government hospitals where she was largely responsible for bedside teaching of Critical Care or critical care nursing students. Elize completed her Masters in Higher Education (2008) and subsequently her PhD in Health Professions Education (2016). The focus of her PhD research was the teaching and learning of patient-centeredness in undergraduate medical students.  

Since Elize joined the University of Stellenbosch in 2005 she is the manager of the Clinical Skills Centre, and from January 2015 she holds a senior lecturer post. She heads a team of four registered nurses who presents a formalized clinical skills curriculum to the undergraduate MB, ChB curriculum. 

She was awarded a fellowship from the Center for Teaching and Learning at Stellenbosch University in 2017. This is a 3-year fellowship and enables her to spend dedicated time on the design and implementation of initiatives focused on the development of patient-centered communication skills.

Tel:  +27 21 938 9647
Fax: +27 21 938 9858
Email: elize@sun.ac.za

Clinical Facilitator

Sr Bronwen Espen, a registered Critical Care nurse, joined the clinical skills centre in 2009. She is responsible for late clinical rotation teaching in the MB, ChB programme and the Introduction to Emergency Medicine in 4th year. Her main interests are using simulation scenarios for teaching communication skills and teamwork. She is currently registered as an MPhil inHPE student at SU.

Tel:  +27 21 938 9935
Fax: +27 21 938 9858
Email: bespen@sun.ac.za

Clinical Facilitator

Ms Keryn Harmuth joined Stellenbosch University as a Clinical Facilitator in October 2017.  Her responsibilities include clinical teaching and training of students in the faculty, assisting with the development of study material and supportive learning resources and assisting with planning, preparation and imple​mentation of clinical skills sessions in the Simulation and Clinical Skills Unit.

 Keryn began her career in nursing as a BCur student at the University of Stellenbosch, where she later earned her Bachelor's Degree in Nursing, a Post Graduate Honours Degree in Critical Care Nursing (Cum Laude), a Post Graduate Diploma in Nursing Education and a Post Graduate Diploma in Nursing Management at the University.  She now aims to complete her MNurs in 2018 

Tel:  +27 21 938 9830
Fax: +27 21 938 9858 ​
Email: kharmuth@sun.ac.za​​

Administrative Officer

Laboratory Assistant

Ms Anna Skotz is a Laboratory assistant in the Clinical Skills Centre.

Tel:  +27 21 938 9633 
Fax: +27 21 938 9858 
Email: askotz@sun.ac.za

Clinical Communication Language Facilitator

Ms Fezeka Dyubeni is an isiXhosa clinical communication language facilitator. She graduated from Stellenbosch University (BA.Hons) in isiXhosa. She is currently completing her (MA) specialising in syllabus design for dietetics and health professionals in isiXhosa clinical communication at Stellenbosch University. Previously, she has been an isiXhosa second additional language teacher at primary and high schools as well as isiXhosa home language Tutor at UWC. In 2007, Fezeka’s passion for isiXhosa and promotion of multilingualism prompted Minister of Education Mr Cameron Dugmore, to approach her to be part of the team that had to design isiXhosa second additional language syllabus for primary and junior secondary schools of the WCED. This made her instrumental in introducing, promoting multilingualism and to add substance to government policy in Western Cape schools. Consequently, the WCED recommended her to assist in initiating the implementation of FMHS isiXhosa teaching in 2011-2012.

Clinical Communication Language Facilitator 

Ms Nontsikelelo Masiba (Ntsiki) is a language facilitator in Clinical Skills Communication (IsiXhosa). She has previously worked as an educator and has been teaching IsiXhosa as Second Additional Language (SAL) for about 10 years. She has graduated from Stellenbosch University (Bed Hons).Her experience includes e-Learning facilitation with the Western Cape Department of education (WCED).

Clinical Communication Language Facilitator  

​Ms Linda Mhlabeni is an isiXhosa clinical communication language facilitator. Ever since she arrived at Stellenbosch University in 2012 she has been an anchor of the complementary isiXhosa Clinical Communication (XCC) and Afrikaans Clinical Communication (ACC) courses e-Lessons she developed and designed under the auspices of Speech-Language and Hearing Therapy and the Language Centre. She continues this role and co-ordinates these language learning on-line interventions at CHPE.  Linda’s e-Learning-focused role has since extended to ad hoc teaching of XCC. She graduated from the University of Namibia (UNAM), Windhoek (BEd. Hons) with specialisation in Curriculum Studies. Previously, she taught Afrikaans to adult learners and she was involved in training teachers in requisite areas identified by Namibian Department of Education using the skills she acquired as a qualified trainer. Primarily, she taught English First Additional Language (FAL) and Second Additional Language (SAL) at two secondary schools in Windhoek, Namibia and at a TVET College in Cape Town. Linda has first language proficiency in 3 languages, isiXhosa, Afrikaans and English. She is in the process of submitting her MEd (Applied Linguistics) at UCT. Her areas of interest and research focus are language acquisition and learning as well as the implementation of technology during teaching and learning.

Tel: +27 21 938 9672
Email: lmhlabeni@sun.ac.za