Abstract:
BACKGROUND : An innovative, three-year training programme, the Bachelor of Clinical Medical
Practice (BCMP), for mid-level medical healthcare workers was started in 2009 by the
Department of Family Medicine, University of Pretoria.
AIM : To measure the students’ perceptions of the instructional quality of district hospitalbased
training.
SETTING : Training of students took place at clinical learning centres in rural district hospitals in
the Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces.
METHODS : A survey using the MedEd IQ questionnaire was performed in 2010 and 2011 to
measure BCMP second- and third-year students’ perceptions of instructional quality of district
hospital-based training. The MedEd IQ questionnaire is composed of four subscales: preceptor
activities, learning opportunities, learner involvement and the learning environment.
Composite scores of instructional quality were used to present results.
RESULTS : The preceptor activities, learning opportunities and the learning environment were
considered by second- and third-year BCMP students to be of consistently high instructional
quality. In the area of learner involvement, instructional quality increased significantly from
second to third year.
CONCLUSION : Overall, instructional quality of district hospital-based training was high for both
second- and third-year BCMP students, and the instructional quality of learner involvement
being significantly higher in third year students. The MedEd IQ tool was a useful tool for
measuring instructional quality and to inform programme quality improvement.
