Exploring students’ views on clinical simulation in the acupuncture programme at a South African university

Abstract

Students’ competencies in clinical practice is vital in health sciences. Clinical simulation is one approach used to support students’ learning in clinical practice. There is a lack of research on clinical simulation in acupuncture programmes in the African context. This paper explored the experiences of acupuncture students’ views towards clinical simulation in the acupuncture programme to strengthen clinical teaching using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework as a theoretical lens. A qualitative research approach with an interpretivist paradigm was adopted. A single case study design was selected. Six undergraduate students voluntarily agreed to participate. The data were analysed inductively using the thematic analysis approach. Findings revealed that students were optimistic about clinical simulation because it assisted them in their practice. The findings highlighted students’ views regarding the lack of knowledge and skills among instructors and poor infrastructure. The study also found that students gained more confidence in the clinical simulation since they were aware that the patients are not harmed. It is recommended that clinical simulation should be included and standardised in the acupuncture curriculum. To improve clinical simulation, the authors recommended that clinical simulations should be carefully planned and coordinated; training facilities needed upgrading to accommodate COVID-19 regulations and a detailed handbook on clinical simulation should be developed to standardise the simulation process.

Exploring students' experiences of interprofessional education to improve quality learning outcomes

“…This may negatively affect students' competencies in their practice and communications with professionals in other fields. Furthermore, most programmes at HEIs focus mainly on traditional teaching and learning (Hu & Venketsamy, 2022a). The COVID-19 pandemic offered the opportunity to adopt multiple approaches to support students in acquiring knowledge, skills, values and attitudes towards their respective programmes.…”

“…Figure 1 below illustrates the outline of the TPCK model. Shulman (1986) contends that it is necessary to accommodate particular subject content knowledge with various pedagogical knowledge in education (Hu & Venketsamy, 2022a). The reason is that appropriate pedagogical knowledge in teaching and learning will improve students' learning experiences and promote learning outcomes (Venketsamy et al, 2021).…”

“…To understand how to integrate technology in teaching and learning, Mishra and Koehler (2006) proposed adopting the TPACK model. This model was built upon Shulman's PCK model to promote effective teaching by integrating pedagogical, content and technological knowledge (Hu & Venketsamy, 2022a;Koehler et al, 2013).…”

“…This knowledge includes PCK, TCK, technological pedagogical knowledge and TPCK. The technology component of this model has a significant impact on this study since the HEIs were implementing online teaching and learning (Hu & Venketsamy, 2022a).…”

University Students’ Experiences of the Teaching and Learning of an Acupuncture Programme: A South African Case Study

“…For this paper technological competencies refers to computer skills (knowledge and ability to use technology), infrastructure and resources even though many HEIs have tried to implement online learning programmes, most programmes are still delivered face-to-face (European University Association [EUA], 2020). Hu and Venketsamy (2022b) and Mpungose (2020) concur that education in HEIs has been transformed to accommodate emergency remote education (ERE) due to the impact of the pandemic. Emergency remote education is defined as the urgent but temporary adjustment to an alternative mode of delivery in education so that students are participating in the teaching and learning process (Hu et al, 2022).…”