Browsing by Author "Hartman, Nadia"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Exploring first year health sciences students' perceptions and experiences of teamwork: an introduction to interprofessional education
    (2020) Hendricks, Adibah; Hartman, Nadia
    Teamwork has become an important goal of contemporary healthcare. Therefore, one of the objectives of educating health professionals is to impart teamwork skills. While teamwork skills have become widely acknowledged as important for health sciences education (HSE), teamwork pedagogy within the ambit of interprofessional education within HSE is contested in the literature. The need to trouble the meaning of concepts within the interprofessional field to understand its nature and process in different contexts has been highlighted and remains an area in which further research is needed. Understanding the point of view of students can help educators, curriculum planners and evaluators make optimal use of their opportunities and resources within HSE. Thus, the present study sought to explore students' perceptions and experiences of teamwork within a HSE context with a view to contributing to this resource base. Implicit in the study context is the occurrence of first year health sciences students coming into contact with each other in a mixed professions course “Becoming a health professional” (BHP). A theory about social interaction, contact theory, postulates that when individuals from different groups have opportunities to come together under certain conditions, positive social outcomes may result. On the contrary, contact between distinct groups could also bring about adverse effects. In this study different groups referred to students registered for different health professional degree programmes. Based on the proviso that teamwork can be associated with positive, functional interactions between people, which of contact theory's suppositions were experienced by the students in this study was explored. Since teamwork is innately a social activity which is experienced in relation to others, one of the assumptions underpinning this study was that students' perspectives of teamwork may be co-constructed. Thus, the study was positioned within an interpretivist paradigm in which reality is subjective but also co-constructed by individuals, including participants and researchers. Using a qualitative design, this exploratory study offers insight into first year students' perspectives of teamwork within the undergraduate mixed professions course BHP. The primary data production method was focus group discussion and data were evaluated using thematic analysis. The thematic analysis yielded three broad themes: the purpose of teamwork in BHP; the persons involved in teamwork; and the process of teamwork in BHP. The findings of this study revealed that students had a comprehensive perception of what teamwork entails in their educational context, although their experiences of teamwork varied. These perspectives have been linked in concrete ways to the literature reviewed in this study and its theoretical framework. Thus, the findings were used to generate a heuristic for teamwork learning for health sciences students. The impact of this study is that students' perspectives of teamwork may be useful to the future design and delivery of entry level interprofessional courses aiming to instil teamwork skills. The underlying rhetoric of this thesis is that students are capable of contributing to their own learning, and the present findings manifested in one such contribution, the development of a pedagogical tool for teamwork.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Health sciences undergraduate education at University of Cape Town: a story of transformation
    (Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2012) Hartman, Nadia; Kathard, Harsha; Perez, Gonda; Reid, Steve; Irlam, James; Gunston, Geney D; Janse van Rensburg, Vicki; Burch, Vanessa; Duncan, Madeleine; Hellenberg, Derek; Van Rooyen, Ian; Smouse, Mantoa; Sikakane, Cynthia N; Badenhorst, Elmi; Ige, B
    Undergraduate education and training in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town has become socially responsive. A story of transformation that is consonant with wider societal developments since the 1994 democratic elections, outlining the changes in undergraduate curricula across the faculty, is presented.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The impact of computerisation on clerical work in the finance sector : case studies of two large life assurance companies in the Western Cape, 1955-1985
    (1986) Hartman, Nadia; Maree, Johann
    The association of microelectronics and the office and its consequences specifically for life assurance companies is the central focus of this thesis. The original intention was to survey the impact of computerisation on clerical work in the Finance Sector, focusing specifically on banks, building societies and life assurance companies. The Finance Sector was chosen because it is the largest employer of clerical workers after the civil service and was also the most advanced user of computers in commerce. A survey of the literature on computerisation and clerical work revealed that a comparison of job categories prior to and following computerisation was necessary if the full impact of the technology was to be assessed. However, after several months of research it became evident that a comparison of job categories in the pre- and post-computer eras in all parts of the Finance Sector - banks, building societies and assurance companies - would make for an impossibly long exercise in the thesis if all were researched comparably. It was decided to concentrate on two very large life assurance companies in South Africa who were among the first to computerise in the country. Comparability was enhanced by the fact that both company headquarters were in Cape Town and therefore accessible for in-depth and repeated interviewing. This together with the fact that the companies were among the largest employers of clerical labour in the Western Cape made the choice natural and inevitable.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Processes in widening access to undergraduate allied health sciences education in South Africa
    (Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2012) Amosun, Seyi L; Hartman, Nadia; Janse van Rensburg, Vicki; Duncan, Eve M; Badenhorst, Elmi
    The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the processes followed in initiating and managing widening access to allied health sciences education at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In response to national higher education policy imperatives in South Africa and in anticipation of the first cohort of Outcome Based Education (OBE) school leavers entering tertiary education, the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the university launched an extensive intra- and cross-programme transformation project in 2004. The project afforded four undergraduate professional programmes, namely audiology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech therapy, an opportunity to address common educational and contextual drivers. These included, among others, the need for increased access and throughput of historically under-represented students in higher education. An advisory task team, named the curriculum review management team (CRMT), was engaged in envisaging, navigating and containing a complex socio-political process involving many stakeholders with disparate ideas, practice approaches, and focal concerns. The use of the Gale and Grant model of change management, augmented by the Community of Practice conceptual framework, to assist with these processes is described.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    “The graduates of the Postgraduate Diploma in Community Eye Health: how do they manage?”
    (2020) Minnies, Deon; Reid, Steve; Cook, Colin; Hartman, Nadia
    The Postgraduate Diploma in Community Eye Health (PgDCEH) has been offered at the University of Cape Town, South Africa since 2009 to develop management capacity in support of the delivery of effective and efficient eye care services in sub-Saharan Africa. We investigated how graduates applied the PgDCEH-acquired management competencies and the factors that enabled or constrained them to apply these competencies. A multiple case study design was used, employing mixed methods of data collection and analysis. Data collection comprised of a questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews and review of various supporting documents, including assignments submitted by students. Twenty-six of the 34 students who graduated from 2009 to 2014 submitted completed questionnaires. Of these, 15 purposively selected graduates and their secondary key informants participated in in-depth interviews. We found that the PgDCEH elicited some positive effects on the graduates, especially in their ability to perform management tasks and the level of confidence they have in their abilities. There were some personal achievements, but no significant programme improvements were observed. This study provided evidence that the PgDCEH as a health system strengthening intervention struggled to generate the anticipated response of improved eye care programme performance. Personal motivation, suitability of the training and opportunity to apply were the main factors determining how graduates apply management competencies. The utilization of the project management approach, a greater focus on health system maintenance and attention to the dynamic of change in people's lives are critical determinants of success in eye health programmes. The research also highlighted the importance of health care workers' personal motives and motivations as drivers of success and achievement on programme level, and that line management support, supervision and proper performance management are required to attain this. This research broadened understanding of how PgDCEH graduates interact with their work environment and uncovered ways to improve the design and delivery of management training for eye health workers in the future. Revision of the criteria for selection, strengthening focus on leadership, project and relationship management topics, and integrating the training into health professions' education programmes may substantially improve the impact of health management education. The study concluded that the constituent elements of the health system are not inanimate objects, as commonly portrayed, but people, who are connected in intimate, complex and multi-dimensional ways through communication, relationships and team dynamics to deliver health outcomes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The role of medical simulation curriculum in developing acute care clinical competence in undergraduate medical students in South Africa
    (2022) Jansen, Marvin Jeffrey; Hartman, Nadia; Grant, David
    The study aim was to explore the role, including the limits and possibilities, of medical simulation as a pedagogical method in an undergraduate acute care clinical skills curriculum within a South African tertiary education environment. The study consisted of two phases. During phase one, I conducted a modified Delphi study to identify the acute care clinical skills competencies undergraduate medical students need to acquire to prepare them, in the role as newly qualified clinicians, for managing acute care cases within a South African in-hospital environment. Phase two explored what acute care clinical competencies would lend themselves to a medical simulation modality within a South African tertiary education environment, as well as exploring the role, the limits and possibilities of medical simulation as an educational modality in developing acute care clinical skills curriculum within a South African tertiary education environment. The data was collected through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and semi-structured interviews with simulation experts within South Africa. The findings of the modified Delphi study contributed to developing a comprehensive list of undergraduate acute care clinical skills competencies, previously unavailable, for SA. The value of engaging with medical practitioners at the forefront of societal engagement such as practising medical practitioners, who on a day-to-day basis are exposed to the healthcare needs of society, became evident. Having empirically established a comprehensive set of acute care competencies for SA undergraduate medical education, phase 2 sought to identify the simulation modality/modalities that these competences would lend themselves to. Thereafter, pesent the SimSMART framework for curriculum developers exploring the possibility of implementing simulation as pedagogy in their context. The findings were significant as they provided curriculum developers with contextually relevant literature to consider which competencies would best be suited to medical simulation as pedagogy, which is particularly important when considering the resource constraints within developing world contexts. The findings provided valuable insights into complex contextual issues such as the effects of the Apartheid legacy on teaching within health sciences, communication, and social inequality.