AIHA established its third Clinical Associates partnership in early 2011 to support the National Department of Health's efforts to increase the number of mid-level medical professionals in South Africa through the Clinical Associates Program.
The University of Pretoria in Johannesburg and Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, are working together to strengthen Pretoria’s Clinical Associates program.
Experts from Arcadia traveled to South Africa in February 2011 for their initial partnership exchange, during which they conducted a thorough needs assessment to help guide upcoming capacity-building activities.
Partners are working together to
develop a tracking system to ensure that students at all 18 training sites are receiving adequate training hours and similar breadth of patient types. They are also collaborating to improve both formative and summative student assessments, as well as to design and carry out a Clinical Associates program evaluation.
As of October 2011, partners have revised student log book data collection methods. The Arcadia partners contributed test questions for Pretoria’s exams and acted as external examiners during finals. Partners also jointly participated in the development of the Clinical Associates National Exam.
Planned activities for the coming year include developing student tracking software to enable better monitoring of student practical training in remote district hospitals.
Four Pretoria faculty will participate in the Physician Assistant Education Association Educational Forum and Arcadia faculty will participate in the graduation ceremony for Pretoria’s first cohort of Clinical Associates students to earn their degrees.
As with the other two CDC-funded Clinical Associates partnerships in South Africa, AIHA will support their efforts by providing increased internet access and learning resource materials at rural rotation sites, as well as recruiting volunteers as needed through the VHC.
Updated November 15, 2011
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