Editorial
2 August 2010, Vol. 2, No. 1 AJHPE
Vanessa Burch
Editor
Educating health professionals
to meet Africa’s needs
Vanessa Burch
E-mail: vanessa.burch@uct.ac.za
This edition of the African Journal of Health Professions Education
delves into the educational needs of health sciences training in Africa.
Professor Janet Seggie provides an overview of the process of curric-
ulum revitalisation in South Africa. She follows the sociopolitical and
educational currents that led to change over the past three decades and
describes the modern tenets of education that have guided curriculum
reform across the country. Finally, she closes her paper off with a descrip-
tion of the challenges that we currently face in health sciences education
and the priorities we need to focus on in the coming decade.
Five short reports are written by health professions educators who
have recently completed a fellowship programme in health professions
education, leadership and research offered by the Southern Africa FAIM-
ER Regional Institute (SAFRI). This gives me an ideal opportunity to
introduce our readers to the Foundation for Advancement of International
Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), a USA-based non-profit
organisation aimed at improving the health of communities by advanc-
ing health sciences education and research in developing countries.1,2
FAIMER was founded in 2000, and in 2001 I had the privilege of being
selected as one of 16 international fellows who participated in the first
round of the two-year part-time programme. The organisation focuses
on faculty development by providing interactive on-site contact teaching
sessions, electronic-based distance learning opportunities and an educa-
tion research project which addresses a key need of the home institutions
of participating fellows. A key element of the programme is the focus on
improving education in institutions in developing countries with a strong
emphasis on faculty retention in the developing world. About six years
ago, FAIMER recognised the need to expand the programme by several
fold and set about establishing regional institutes in India, Brazil and
South Africa. To date there are more than 450 FAIMER fellows world-
wide, including fellows from the five regional institutes. The regional
institute established in South Africa initially planned to focus on the edu-
cational needs of southern Africa, hence the name, but it soon became
clear that the demand was great throughout sub-Saharan Africa and we
now have fellows all the way from Sudan to Cape Town! So, as director
of the SAFRI programme, it is with a good measure of pride that I reflect
upon the submissions of our new fellows.
The report by Ezeala and colleagues describes the use of portfolios
in a clinical laboratory sciences training programme in Uganda. The pa-
per expands the educational platform suited to portfolio-based learning.
Ezera highlights the need in Uganda for higher degree programmes in
laboratory-based disciplines such as microbiology. Mkandawire and col-
leagues from Malawi explore the interest and need for an intercalated
laboratory sciences degree in the MB ChB programme offered in Ma-
lawi. This triad of papers speaks of the urgent need for laboratory sci-
ences expertise in Africa. Mkandawire’s paper also highlights the need
for growing local research expertise in Africa, a well-recognised need if
Africa is to develop the answers to research questions relevant to African
priority health issues.
Museene describes the infrastructural and human resource needs re-
quired to roll out a programme of comprehensive nurse training in Ugan-
da. She makes the point that comprehensive training spanning the major
disciplines in nursing is needed. Our colonial silo-based programmes do
not address the greater needs of Africa and this abstract signals attempts
to address this gap in the health workforce cadre on the continent.
The final abstract addresses the need for novel assessment methods
to assess competence in disciplines that require practical procedural com-
petence. It is increasingly recognised that postgraduate specialist training
programmes certify practitioners who have not necessarily objectively
demonstrated competence in procedures germane to the discipline. Dem-
pers and colleagues explore the use of video material to demonstrate
competence in postmortem examination and show that trainees are more
adept than senior colleagues at the use of such modalities. Technology-
based assessment is increasingly becoming part of assessment processes
and educators need to develop skills in the technology required to evalu-
ate material submitted in an electronic format.
Blitz and colleagues explore a fascinating dimension of teaching:
the impact of temperament on teaching. The paper makes the point that
temperament and preferred approaches to teaching and actual teaching
practices are not necessarily aligned and that faculty development may
need to focus on improving the spectrum of teaching modalities of educa-
tors or that teams of teachers with different temperaments may need to
be put in place to provide a range of teaching style preferences to address
student learning needs.
Finally, McMillan’s paper suggests ways in which health professions
might move beyond description to generate explanations of teaching and
learning that can be used to inform ‘best practice’. As with the paper by
Blitz et al., this paper seeks to enhance teaching practices by providing
evidence that seeks to improve teaching.
The papers in this edition speak to educational revitalisation, disci-
pline-specific health workforce needs and teaching practices in Africa. I
think it is fair to say that this Journal is providing a forum for discussing
Africa’s health professions educational needs.
1. Burdick WP, Morahan PS, Norcini JJ. Slowing the brain drain: FAIMER education
programs. Medical Teacher 2006; 28: 631-634.
2. Burdick WP, Morahan PS, Norcini JJ. Capacity building in medical education and
health outcomes in developing countries: the missing link. Education for Health
2007; 20: 3 (http://www.educationfor health.net/).