PHCFM CALL FOR SHORT REPORTS: Innovative educational methods for family medicine training in Africa

AOSIS is calling on all authors to participate in this year’s topical short report collection to be published in the open access scholarly journal, the African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine (PHCFM). Submit your latest research for consideration and contribute to the open access content available to everyone. By participating, you can help maximize the impact of the journal and share your expertise with a wider audience.

Timelines:

Deadline for submission: 1 May 2024
Expected Publication Date: 31 Aug 2024

We would be honoured to receive a positive reply from you and look forward to receiving your article.

Title: Innovative educational methods for family medicine training in Africa

The World Health Organization continues to promote strong primary health care (PHC) systems as highly effective and efficient in addressing the main causes and risk factors for poor health, as well as for responding to challenges that may threaten health in the future (1). Primary health care systems may potentially achieve these goals by addressing people’s health needs through comprehensive promotive, protective, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative care, and by systematically addressing the broader determinants of health (including social, economic and environmental factors)(1).

As clinicians, consultants, clinical trainers, capacity builders, team-leaders and champions of community-oriented primary care, Family Physicians (FPs) are noted to have moderate to high impact on improving quality of care and patient safety in African health systems (2). Their training has been shown to successfully equip FPs with the skills and competencies to work anywhere in the district health system, and as leaders and trainers of other members of PHC teams (3). Family Medicine departments also train other health professionals including clinical associates and nurse practitioners. However, Family Medicine is a relatively new discipline in Africa and FPs are a scarce resource in most countries, where frontline healthcare is provided by nurses, clinical associates and community health workers. FPs have to therefore be skilled in training and mentoring their colleagues in provision of comprehensive and coordinated holistic person-centred care. They also work as change agents in engaging with the needs of the communities they serve and orienting services towards being responsive to these (2,3). Training of FPs has to be innovative and responsive to the many challenges faced, to be embedded in scientific and contextual evidence and focused on improving health outcomes.

Aspects of PHC are included to different degrees in training of all members of health teams. In 2010, Frenk et al motivated for the transformation of all health professionals’ education from biomedical disease-centred models to models emphasizing the health of patient, families and communities. Health professionals’ education and training would be more effective in achieving its goals for delivering patient-centred, continuous and evidence-based care, by developing interprofessional team-building, faculty development, health needs orientation and life-long training methods, with a strong focus on professionalism, social accountability and continuous quality improvement. Use of on-line teaching, telemedicine and other technologies, along with the infrastructure needed to support them, provides opportunities for enhancing these innovations in training (4). Educators can help build a collective understanding of what works and what doesn’t, and improve the quality of training programmes across Africa, especially in describing the interconnectivity of training and relationships between health professionals in becoming more effective in delivering PHC.

This editorial promotes the call for short reports on innovative educational methods in Family Medicine and PHC training programmes, where FM and PHC educators can showcase their successes in teaching and learning, encourage others to think creatively about how they can improve FM and PHC training in their own contexts. We welcome short reports from educators in a range of countries in Africa, who can support development of FM and PHC training through sharing experiences, promoting best practices and by building a body of knowledge for effective FM and PHC training. Submissions can focus on training of all PHC providers including family physicians, primary care nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, clinical associates (clinical officers) and community health workers.

The short reports could include (at undergraduate and postgraduate levels):

1. Descriptions of the methods FM and PHC educators have used that have been inspirational to others, the challenges they faced, and the outcomes they achieved, providing examples for colleagues interested in replicating their approach.
2. Experiences of best practices in FM and PHC training that can help improve the quality of training and thereby improve the quality of healthcare services provided to patients and communities.
3. Submissions on undergraduate FM and PHC education, showing how they serve as an entry point into future postgraduate FM and PHC training.
4. Lessons for pre-service and in-service training, as well as academic and research teaching initiatives.

Manuscript Information

Manuscript contributions may consist of the following:

• Manuscript submissions should be in English.
• Short reports must fully comply with the journal guidelines for manuscripts.
• Interested authors must consult the journal’s procedures for manuscript submissions.

Reports should be 800-1500 words, have no more than 1-2 Figures or Tables, a 250-word unstructured abstract, and 20 references or less. Reports will be peer reviewed. The usual publication fees and opportunities for waivers will apply.

Submission Procedure

To submit your article to the African Journal of Primary Health Care and Family Medicine (PHCFM), please visit phcfm.org. When you submit the article, select ‘Innovative educational methods for FM training in Africa’ as the article type. The submission portal will be accessible on phcfm.org after login in with your personal user credentials. For more details on the submission procedure, please visit the journal website. All submissions will undergo anonymous review to guarantee high scientific quality and relevance to the subject. The final decision regarding acceptance/revision/rejection will be based on the reviews received from the reviewers and at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Of course, we will be happy to provide you with any assistance during the submission and application process. Kindly enquire at submissions@phcfm.org.

References

1.  WHO, UNICEF. A vision for primary health care in the 21st century: towards universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. Geneva; 2018.
2.  Flinkenflögel M, Sethlare V, Cubaka VK, Makasa M, Guyse A, Maeseneer J De. A scoping review on family medicine in sub-Saharan Africa : practice , positioning and impact in African health care systems. Hum Resour Health. 2020;4:1–18.
3.  Erumeda N, Jenkins L, George A. Perceptions of resources available for postgraduate family medicine training at a South African university. Afr J Prm Healthc Fam Med. 2022;14(1):a3746.
4.  Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta Z, Cohen J, Crisp N, Evans T, et al. Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet. 2010;376(9756):1923–58.

PHCFM CALL FOR SHORT REPORTS: Innovative educational methods for family medicine training in Africa