Chipamaunga Shalote Rudo, Prozesky Detlef, Kafumukache Elliot, Katowa-Mukwato Patricia, Dithole Kefalotse, van der Merwe Lynette, Owusu-Sekyere Samuel, Molwantwa Mmoloki Cornelius, Gwini Rudo
University of Zimbabwe.
University of Botswana.
Res Sq. 2025 Feb 10:rs.3.rs-5890423. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5890423/v1.
The COVID-19 pandemic escalated the adoption and development of technology-enhanced health professions education during large-scale lockdown mandated in multiple countries. Although the use of technology is a hallmark of the education of healthcare professionals, including clinical education, challenges including poor availability, lack of skills and support for technology-enhanced learning and teaching are reported. This study aimed to assess the needs for technology enhanced health professions education in higher education institutions in Eastern and Southern Africa.
This was a descriptive, cross-sectional survey to yield quantitative and qualitative data from healthcare students, educators and managers. The Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition Model, our conceptual framework, underpinned our study and served as an organizing framework.
Twelve program directors, 35 educators and 264 students responded from undergraduate nursing and medical programs. The findings indicate that 'Other technologies used' were relatively few - only 89 instances were mentioned by 299 respondents, and of these 89 some were basic hardware (laptops, data projectors) and online data source, which could fall under one or more of the 13 types that were drawn from the literature and the individual experiences of the researchers. There was extreme variation (between programmes and institutions) in the use of technologies. This finding is best explained by variations in the way in which programmes are offered and 'educator' preferences - there is clearly no 'one size fits all'. On reasons for using educational technology, there is wide variation between categories of respondent, programmes and institutions. The main obstacles to the use of technology include that staff and students lack the required skills; no training is available; poor connectivity; lack of hardware and of funds to buy software; and lack of online learning resources.
The information generated, in such detail was not available before and opens many opportunities for further research as well as for planning and implementing improvements in technology enhanced health professions education. Based on the data, we propose practical recommendations organized around: Infrastructure Development, Training and Capacity Building, Curriculum reviews to align with technology, Institutional Support and Policy Development, Collaboration and Resource Sharing and Addressing Equity and Inclusion.
在多个国家实施大规模封锁期间，新冠疫情加速了技术强化型卫生专业教育的采用和发展。尽管技术的使用是医疗保健专业人员教育（包括临床教育）的一个标志，但据报道存在一些挑战，包括可用性差、缺乏技术强化型学习和教学的技能及支持。本研究旨在评估东非和南部非洲高等教育机构中技术强化型卫生专业教育的需求。
这是一项描述性横断面调查，旨在从医学生、教育工作者和管理人员那里获取定量和定性数据。我们的概念框架——替代、增强、修改、重新定义模型为我们的研究提供了支撑，并作为一个组织框架。
来自本科护理和医学专业的12名项目主任、35名教育工作者和264名学生做出了回应。研究结果表明，“使用的其他技术”相对较少——299名受访者仅提及89例，其中89例中的一些是基本硬件（笔记本电脑、数据投影仪）和在线数据源，这些可能属于从文献和研究人员个人经验中得出的13种类型中的一种或多种。技术的使用在（不同项目和机构之间）存在极大差异。这一发现最好用课程提供方式和“教育工作者”偏好的差异来解释——显然不存在“一刀切”的情况。关于使用教育技术的原因，不同受访者类别、项目和机构之间存在很大差异。使用技术的主要障碍包括工作人员和学生缺乏所需技能；没有培训；网络连接差；缺乏硬件和购买软件的资金；以及缺乏在线学习资源。
之前没有如此详细的信息，这为进一步研究以及规划和实施技术强化型卫生专业教育的改进提供了许多机会。基于这些数据，我们围绕基础设施发展、培训与能力建设、与技术相匹配的课程审查、机构支持与政策制定、合作与资源共享以及解决公平与包容问题提出了切实可行的建议。
