Students’ perceptions of the instructional quality of district hospital-based training

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.