Exploring the role of the physiotherapy clinical educators in the clinical setting in Uganda
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Background: Clinical education is considered a cornerstone of the healthcare professionals' education including physiotherapists.Clinical education involves translation of theoretical knowledge into practical skills, facilitated by clinical educators whose roles vary from place to place.The clinical educators' roles have a number of facilitators as well as barriers and these have been minimally evaluated globally and locally, including Uganda.Therefore, the aim of the study was to explore and describe the perception of the physiotherapists regarding their role as clinical educators and to identify the barriers to and facilitators for physiotherapy clinical education at the national and regional referral hospitals in Uganda.Method: A qualitative exploratory descriptive research design was used.All physiotherapy clinicians from the national and the four main regional referral hospitals who provided consent to participate were included.Total population sampling, a form of purposive sampling was used where only those physiotherapists from the national and the four main regional referral hospitals in Uganda who had worked as clinical educators for at least two years were invited for an individual face-to-face audio-taped interview conducted by the researcher at a time and place convenient to participants following informed consent using a semi-structured interview guide.Data was transcribed verbatim and analysed using both inductive and deductive thematic content analysis to develop codes, categories and themes.Trustworthiness was observed by ensuring credibility, conformability, dependability and transferability of data.Ethics clearance was obtained from the relevant authorities both in South Africa and in Uganda.Results: Eighteen (81.8%, n=18/22) physiotherapy clinical educators participated in the study.Eight (44.4%, n=8/18) participants were from the national referral hospital and ten (55.6%, n=10/18) participants were from the regional referral hospitals.The age range was 32-50 years and the mean age was 41.1(SD±5) years with males generally older (42±6.28)than females.The majority of participants (67%, n=12/18) had five to ten years of experience http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ v working as clinical educators but 83% (n=15/18) had ten and more years of experience as a physiotherapist working in clinical practice.The majority of the participants (67%, n=12/18) held a diploma in physiotherapy as the highest education qualification.Five themes, each with their own categories and subcategories, emerged for the clinical educators' roles and included: empowerment of the students, promotion of students' professional behaviours, integration of theory and practical, evaluation of students and promotion of multidisciplinary teamwork.The facilitators of educators' roles were more of personal factors than external factors.There were challenges related to the lack of knowledge of teaching methods and clinical education guidelines by the educators, lack of commitment to studies by the students and an unconducive work environment that appears to be negatively affecting physiotherapy clinical education in Uganda. Conclusion:The study findings suggest that physiotherapy clinical educators in Uganda carry out roles that are similar to those of physiotherapy clinical educators in other countries but with different implementation approaches including the dual role (clinician and clinical educator) of clinical educators in Uganda.The lack of knowledge of clinical education guidelines being the most common barrier perceived seems to negatively affect and make the attainment of effective clinical teaching and learning in physiotherapy clinical education difficult in Uganda.However, it is perceived that an acceptable level of the desired clinical education outcomes is still being achieved because of the clinical educators' personal factors and facilitators described by the physiotherapy clinical educators in Uganda.
Author: Charles Kibuuka
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3206729148