The teaching, learning and assessment of health advocacy in a South African College of Health Sciences
Abstract
Health advocacy is a core competency identified by Health Professions Council of South Africa to be acquired by health professional graduates. There is a lack of information on how health advocacy (HA) is taught and assessed in health science programmes. The aim of the study was to explore the teaching, learning and assessment of HA in undergraduate health science programmes at a South African university.
Methods: Curriculum mapping of eight programmes and a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with eleven key informants were conducted using a sequential mixed methods approach. Content analysis was used to analyse Curriculum Mapping data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the FGD data. Results from both data sets were triangulated.
Results: Six themes emerged: Perceived importance of HA role for health practitioners; Implicit HA content in curricula; HA as an implicit learning outcome; Teaching HA in a spiral curriculum approach; Authentic Assessment of HA, and Perceived barriers to incorporation of HA into curricula.
Conclusion and Recommendations: HA is perceived as an important role for health professionals but it is not explicitly taught and assessed in undergraduate health sciences programmes. Barriers to its teaching and assessment can be addressed through capacity development of academics.
References
Basu, G., R. J. Pels, R. L. Stark, P. Jain, D. H. Bor, and D. McCormick. 2017. Training internal medicine residents in social medicine and research-based health advocacy: A novel in-depth curriculum. Academic Medicine, XX (X). doi 10.1097/ACM0000000000001580.
Belkowitz, J., L. M. Saunders, C. Zhang, G. Agarwal, D. Lichtstein, A. J. Mechaber, and E. K. Chung. 2014. “Teaching health advocacy to medical students: A comparison study.” Journal of Public Health Management Practice 20(6): E10-9. Doi 10.1097/PPH.000000000000031.
Creswell, J. W. 2014. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. 4th Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dilshad, R. and M. Latif. 2013. “Focus Group Interview as a Tool For Qualitative Research: An Analysis.” Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences 33(1): 191–198.
Douglas, A., D. Mak, C. Bulsara, D. Macey, and I. Samarawickrema. 2018. “The teaching and learning of health advocacy in an Australian medical school.” International Journal of Medical Education 9: 26–34. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5a4b.6a15.
Eaton, M., M. deValpine, J. Sanford, J. Lee, L. Trull, and K. Smith. 2017. “Be the Change.” Nurse Educator 42(5): 226–230. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000382.
Frank, J. R., L. S. Snell, O. Ten Cate, E. S. Holmboe, C. Carraccio, S. R. Swing, ..., and K. A. Harris. 2010. “Competency-based medical education: Theory to practice.” Medical Teacher 32(8): 638–645. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2010.501190.
Friel, S. and M. G. Marmot. 2011. “Action on the Social Determinants of Health and Health Inequities Goes Global.” Annual Review of Public Health 32(1): 225–236. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031210-101220.
Health Professions Council of South Africa. 2014. Core competencies for undergraduate students in clinical assocaite, dentistry and medical teaching and learning programmes in South Africa. Pretoria: Health Professions Council of South Africa.
Hearne, S. A. 2008. “Practice-based teaching for health policy action and advocacy.” Public Health Reports 123: 65–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/00333549081230s209.
HPCSA see Health Professions Council of South Africa.
Hubinette, M., S. Dobson, I. Scott, and J. Sherbino. 2017. “Health advocacy*.” Medical Teacher 39(2): 128–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2017.1245853.
Iucu, R. B. and E. Martin. 2014. “Authentic learning in adult education.” Procedia-Social & Behavioral Sciences142: 410‒415.
Knight, S., A. Ross, and O. Mahomed. 2017. “Developing primary health care and public health competencies in undergraduate medical students.” South African Family Practice 59(3): 103–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/20786190.2016.1272229.
Langins, M. and L. Borgermans. 2016. “Strengthening a competent health workforce for the provision of coordinated/ integrated health services.” International Journal of Integrated Care 16(6): 231. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.2779.
Lombardi, B. M. 2007. “Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: An Overview.” In Educause Learning Initiative (Vol. 1). http://alicechristie.org/classes/530/EduCause.pdf.
Medical and Dental Professions Board of the HPCSA. 2014. “Core competencies for undergraduate students in clinical associate, dentistry and medical teaching and learning programmes in South Africa.” http://www.hpcsa.co.za/uploads/editor/UserFiles/downloads/medical_dental/MDB Core Competencies ‒ ENGLISH ‒ FINAL 2014.pdf.
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Canada. 2005. “The CANMeds 2005 Physician Competency Framework.” https://www.royalcollege.ca/rcsite/canmeds/canmeds-framework-e. (Accessed 27 October 2022).
Tappe, M. K. and R. A. Galer-Unti. 2001. “Health educators’ role in promoting health literacy and advocacy for the 21st century.” Journal of School Health 71(10): 477–482. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2001.tb07284.x.
Van Heerden, B. B. 2012. “Effectively addressing the health needs of South Africa’s population: The role of health professions education in the 21st century.” South African Medical Journal 103(1): 21. https://doi.org/10.7196/SAMJ.6463.
Wong, L. P. 2008. “Focus group discussion: A tool for health and medical research.” Singapore Medical Journal 49: 256–261.
Copyright (c) 2021 Diane van Staden
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
