A road less travelled: Undergraduate midwifery students’ experiences of a decentralised clinical training platform

Abstract

Background: In South Africa, the critical skill base shortage of healthcare workers, the underperforming global health indicators and the planned roll out of the National Health Insurance have burdened South African higher education authorities to rapidly expand nursing student enrolments. The expansion in student numbers has placed increased demands on overstretched educational institutions, and students are confronted with challenges of congestion in classrooms and clinical facilities, while lecturers encounter difficulties in the process of clinical allocation. A solution is to utilise decentralised clinical training platforms (DCTPs) and allocate students in rural hospitals.Aim: To explore and describe undergraduate midwifery students’ reflections of their DCTP experiences, in order to inform future practice of decentralisation in student training.Setting: The study was conducted in the nursing discipline of an urban-based university in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, involving undergraduate midwifery students. The university had commenced a programme of allocating students to decentralised clinical sites.Method: Elo and Kyngäs’ content analysis was used to analyse the experiences of DCTP by undergraduate midwifery students (n = 14) as expressed in a focus group (n = 11) and three individual interviews (n = 3).Results: The following four categories emerged: Recognition as a team member, engaging support, win–win platform and juxtaposed challenges.Conclusion: In the presence of support and teamwork, rural settings can develop undergraduate student midwives, not only in the areas of midwifery competency but also in their personal capacity, and strengthen the responsiveness, preparedness and relevance of midwifery graduates.

Perceived Ease and Usefulness of Work-Based Learning (WBL) and its Practice among Baccalaureate Nurses in Central Uganda

“…CPDs are mandatory across the globe to enhance competent, effective, and quality health care delivery [4,5]. The findings of this study are in agreement with those of [38] in their review of a five-year's literature and professional web search on mandatory CPDs. The Engagement of nurses and midwives in CPDS was found to be less.…”

Nursing Students’ Perception and Compliance with Clinical Nursing Placement at a Selected University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria

“…We will address the initial research inquiry about students' knowledge of clinical nursing training by consulting Tables 2 and 3 In juxtaposition to our research outcomes, Fakude (2018) conducted an exploratory design study, examining the perspectives of lecturers, clinical supervisors, and student nurses within an undergraduate nursing program at a South African university in the Western Cape. Their finding revealed a notably contrasting position, wherein many nursing students harbored unfavorable perceptions of their clinical nursing training.…”

Decentralised clinical training in optometry: Student perspectives

“…However, for therapeutics privileges, there remain limited opportunities for meeting the minimum HPCSA requirements for registration within the tertiary institutions and in the private sector, hence the importance of decentralising clinical training to the public sector. 8 At one of the South African institutions, which was the first to implement DCT in the undergraduate clinical training of optometry in the year 2016, final-year students enrolled in the Clinical Grand Rounds module at that institution and completed a 3-week block placement at different public health facilities. The Clinical Grand Rounds module builds on the theoretical and practical knowledge obtained in the first semester modules of general clinics (analogous to primary care clinics), binocular vision (BV), contact lenses (CL), paediatric vision (PV) and low vision (LV) in providing clinical training experience in all components.…”

“…Positive learning experiences at decentralised training platforms have been noted in the discipline of nursing, including areas of competency, personal growth and confidence, mutual benefit to students and the health care system. 8,9 Resource limitations including access to Wi-Fi did pose a challenge to functioning in a clinical setting and as a student, with a perception of lack of support from clinical tutors also noted. 8,9 From the perspective of supervising optometrists, Ebrahim et al 2 reported support for the DCT model by public sector optometrists despite envisaged challenges such as limited resources and lack of formal training to fulfil the role of clinical educators.…”

“…8,9 Resource limitations including access to Wi-Fi did pose a challenge to functioning in a clinical setting and as a student, with a perception of lack of support from clinical tutors also noted. 8,9 From the perspective of supervising optometrists, Ebrahim et al 2 reported support for the DCT model by public sector optometrists despite envisaged challenges such as limited resources and lack of formal training to fulfil the role of clinical educators. Both the aforementioned studies were, however, conducted in the initial year of implementation of DCT in optometry and therefore may have certain limitations in providing current information that can be used in directing future planning.…”