Guidelines for peer physical examination as a teaching tool for health professional students in South Africa

Abstract

Globally, students learn clinical skills and surface anatomy in health professions education using each other as models (Rees, Wearn, Vnuk & Sato 2009:104). In the South African context, with its multicultural student population, practising on one another might bring forth challenges for various reasons, such as differences in gender, ethnicity, age, religion and culture. The researcher could not establish any policy or best practice guidelines regulating the use of PPE as an educational tool at any South African university. The researcher addressed the problem by conducting a study to establish the elements students and lecturers regard essential to include in best practice guidelines when PPE is used as the educational tool of choice at South African universities.

The researcher followed a qualitative research design and conducted the study in four phases. During phase one, the researcher conducted a comprehensive literature study to answer the question, 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘗𝘌 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?

In phases two and three, which ran concurrently, the researcher conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers, respectively, at the Faculties of Health Sciences of five South African universities. The empirical phase of the study happened amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in the majority of the interviews being conducted virtually. The researcher transcribed all the interviews verbatim and identified themes, categories, and subcategories. The identified data were compared with the literature on existing guidelines and policies on PPE use at universities in New Zealand and Australia. The results of these two phases answered the last research question, 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘗𝘌 𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵?

The researcher then compiled preliminary guidelines to use when PPE is the educational tool of choice at South African Faculties of Health Sciences. During the last phase of the study, the researcher asked a panel comprising seven experts to validate the proposed guidelines. With the input of the expert panel, the guidelines were finalised to reach the aim of the study.