The current global emphasis on appropriate standards for medical education and
greater civic engagement by higher educational institutions, and the value of
electrocardiography as diagnostic aid stimulated the researcher to perform this study.
Globally electrocardiography is an essential exit-level core competency of
undergraduate medical programmes. Although an outcome-based curriculum was
introduced by the UFS School of Medicine in 2000, certain aspects of competencybased
education (such as the registration and interpretation of an electrocardiogram)
can be adapted and included in outcome-based curricula.
Prior to the commencement of this study, a preliminary literature review revealed that
little research had been performed with regard to the use of electrocardiography as a
learning task in community settings in the preclinical phase of medical curricula.
The overall goal of the study was to facilitate the transition between
electrocardiography teaching and learning in the preclinical and clinical phases of the
UFS medical curriculum.
The problem that initiated the research was that more information was required
regarding the practicability of implementing electrocardiography teaching and learning
in community settings during semesters four and five of the UFS undergraduate
M.B.,Ch.B. curriculum.
To address the problem, two research questions were formulated concerning the
generic, context-specific and task-specific issues that inform decisions regarding
community-based electrocardiography learning during semesters four and/or five of the UFS undergraduate medical curriculum and the attitudes and opinions of a
purposive sample of Faculty members regarding community-based electrocardiography
learning in semesters four and/or five.
To answer the research questions, two research objectives were pursued regarding the
identification of the principal issues and challenges that inform decisions regarding the
feasibility of introducing community-based tasks in the preclinical phase of a South
African undergraduate M.B.,Ch.B. curriculum and the collection of quantitative and
qualitative information from a purposive sample of personnel employed at the UFS
Faculty of Health Sciences.
The first part of the study consisted of a comprehensive literature review, which
assisted the researcher to identify applicable key aspects for inclusion in the interview
schedule used for the empirical study.
The survey was performed with a view to later formulating an effective strategy to
facilitate the transition between the electrocardiography learning provided in the
preclinical and clinical phases of the UFS M.B.,Ch.B. curriculum and possibly
incorporate four additional hours of community-based learning in phase II of the
curriculum.
Ninety-two (92) per cent of the persons in the sample consented to participate in the
study and a pilot study was conducted, to improve the reliability, validity and
trustworthiness of the study.
The data collected from the interviews was analysed and a description and discussion
of the research findings were documented.
Based on the literature review and the responses of the interviewees, several
prominent conclusions were reached. Important faculty-related and communityrelated
key issues and challenges were identified, and intervieweesâ favourable
responses regarding CBL, task-based CBL and CB ECG learning in the UFS
undergraduate medical curriculum indicated that further related research is justified. Intervieweesâ responses with regard to the practicability of implementing CB ECG
learning in the preclinical phase were moderately favourable and useful
recommendations were made. Of significance to the planning of future research
studies was that twenty-six per cent more respondents supported the implementation
of CB electrocardiography learning during the clinical phase of the curriculum than was
the case for the preclinical phase.
These research findings can assist with decisions as to whether future (more
comprehensive and potentially more costly) research projects are justified.
The appropriate implementation of electrocardiography, as community-based learning
task during the preclinical and/or clinical phases, can contribute to a greater degree of
community engagement and an improvement in the quality of electrocardiography
learning in the UFS undergraduate curriculum. This should therefore benefit all the
stakeholders involved.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-06272014-151008 |
| Date | 27 June 2014 |
| Creators | Larson, Carol Olivia |
| Contributors | Dr LJ van der Merwe, Dr J Bezuidenhout |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-06272014-151008/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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