Mengistu Brittney S, Vins Holly, Kelly Caitrin M, McGee Daphne R, Spicer Jennifer O, Derbew Miliard, Bekele Abebe, Mariam Damen Haile, Del Rio Carlos, Blumberg Henry M, Comeau Dawn L
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd, Rm 510, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
BMC Med Educ. 2017 Jan 13;17(1):11. doi: 10.1186/s12909-016-0849-0.
Ethiopia is a country of over 94 million people that has a severe physician shortage with approximately only 2.5 physicians per 100,000 persons. Recently, the Ethiopian government implemented a "flood and retain" initiative to rapidly increase the quantity of physicians in Ethiopia. Consequently, medical student enrollment at Addis Ababa University (AAU) School of Medicine increased from 100 to approximately 300-400 students per class. This study evaluated the impact of the rapid scale-up in the number of medical students on the quality of medical education at AAU and the impact of the U.S. government-funded Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) grant awarded to AAU to provide resources to strengthen the quality of medical education at AAU.
Qualitative, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 22 key informants including faculty members, administrators and medical students at AAU. The audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and interview data were analyzed with thematic analysis.
Four key themes emerged from the data. Overall, participants perceived a decrease in the quality of medical education at AAU due to challenges created by the rapid scale-up in the number of medical students. Positive learning environments were described as difficult to achieve due to overcrowding in classrooms and the limited numbers of textbooks. Overall, participants stated that infrastructure improvement is needed to provide adequate medical student training. The medical education initiatives implemented and funded by MEPI have provided significant resources to support the medical student curriculum but additional resources are required to accommodate a large student body.
The unprecedented rapid scale-up of medical students has impacted multiple facets of medical education at AAU. It is important to consider the perspectives of students and faculty in order to focus future medical education policies, MEPI programming and the allocation of resources.
埃塞俄比亚是一个拥有超过9400万人口的国家，面临严重的医生短缺问题，每10万人中大约只有2.5名医生。最近，埃塞俄比亚政府实施了一项“扩招并留住”计划，以迅速增加该国医生数量。因此，亚的斯亚贝巴大学医学院的医学生入学人数从每班100人增加到了约300至400人。本研究评估了医学生数量的迅速增加对亚的斯亚贝巴大学医学教育质量的影响，以及美国政府资助的医学教育伙伴关系倡议（MEPI）授予亚的斯亚贝巴大学的赠款对加强该校医学教育质量所提供资源的影响。
对包括亚的斯亚贝巴大学的教师、管理人员和医学生在内的22名关键信息提供者进行了定性、半结构化的深入访谈。对录音进行逐字转录，并采用主题分析法对访谈数据进行分析。
数据中出现了四个关键主题。总体而言，由于医学生数量迅速增加带来的挑战，参与者认为亚的斯亚贝巴大学的医学教育质量有所下降。由于教室拥挤和教科书数量有限，难以营造积极的学习环境。总体而言，参与者表示需要改善基础设施，以提供足够的医学生培训。MEPI实施和资助的医学教育倡议提供了大量资源来支持医学生课程，但还需要额外资源来容纳大量学生。
医学生数量前所未有的迅速增加对亚的斯亚贝巴大学医学教育的多个方面产生了影响。考虑学生和教师的观点对于聚焦未来医学教育政策、MEPI项目规划和资源分配很重要。
