What is it about?
The training of doctors is largely clinical but they also need to be taught other skills. Interviewed participants agree that: management training is not present but essential; using research is more important than doing it; health economics is not needed.
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Why is it important?
Doctors across four medical schools in Southern Africa reflected on their experiences. They felt any formal management training would have informed managing themselves, others and navigating the health system. Health economics training was not seen as a priority. Defined research training towards evidence-based practice was necessary. There is a reliance on the clinical training in a curriculum to instil some of these non-traditional competencies.
Perspectives
We know that how we train doctors needs to change. This qualitative research developed the factors (attributes and levels) needed for a discrete choice experiment in curriculum design. This next step will provide insight into how many hours of clinical training doctors are they willing to give up for management and research training, which the study highlighted needed to be included formally. Participants were able to recall experiences of feeling overwhelmed but expected to make a decision and manage. All without training. Just a hopefulness that they develop these competencies. I hope this study provided insight on the necessity to improve curricula and equip doctors with these essential non-clinical skills.
Astrid Turner
University of Pretoria
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: We know but we hope: A qualitative study of the opinions and experiences on the inclusion of management, health economics and research in the medical curriculum, PLoS ONE, October 2022, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276512.
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