Rwandan family medicine residents expanding their training into South Africa: the use of South-South medical electives in enhancing learning experiences

BACKGROUND International medical electives are well-accepted in medical education, with the flow of students generally being North-South. In this article we explore the learning outcomes of Rwandan family medicine residents who completed their final year elective in South Africa. We compare the learning outcomes of this South-South elective to those of North-South electives from the literature. METHODS In-depth interviews were conducted with Rwandan postgraduate family medicine residents who completed a 4-week elective in South Africa during their final year of training. The interviews were thematically analysed in an inductive way. RESULTS The residents reported important learning outcomes in four overarching domains namely: medical, organisational, educational, and personal. CONCLUSIONS The learning outcomes of the residents in this South-South elective had substantial similarities to findings in literature on learning outcomes of students from the North undertaking electives in the Southern hemisphere. Electives are a useful learning tool, both for Northern students, and students from universities in the South. A reciprocity-framework is needed to increase mutual benefits for Southern universities when students from the North come for electives. We suggest further research on the possibility of supporting South-South electives by Northern colleagues.