Award winners

The 2018 SAAHE Distinguished Educator Award was made to Prof Fatima Suleman. Fatima is Professor in the Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, in the School of Health Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). She has demonstrated a commitment to the development of teaching, mentoring and supervision skills in new academics and assisting other academics with developing their Teaching Portfolios for Performance Management and Promotion. She has developed international partnerships for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, within and beyond Africa. At UKZN, she conceptualized and coordinated the development of two completely online Masters programmes in Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Fatima has been involved in various international grants to develop health professions education. With a NORHED grant, she facilitated the development of online or blended Masters programmes in Mozambique and Malawi; she was involved in the Medical Education Partnership Initiative grant; she was a panel member on WHO Technical Working Group on Health Workforce Education; and Principle Investigator Council for AFREhealth.

Other awards she has garnered include the Distinguished Teacher Award for UKZN in 2010; the Distinguished Teacher award by Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of South Africa in 2011; and a TAU Fellowship 2015 (Teaching Advancement at University (TAU) Fellowships).

dr jacqueline van wyk – WINNER OF THE 2015 DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR AWARD

It is with great pleasure that we announce the winner of the 2015 SAAHE Distinguished Educator award, as Dr Jacqueline van Wyk. The following exercpt, taken from Dr van Wyk’s nomination, is testimony to the high level of scholarly activity that she has engaged in, and the contributions that she has made to South African health professions education:

Dr Van Wyk has been actively involved in higher education since 1995 and started at the University of Natal Durban’s (UND) Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine in 2000 when appointed the education consultant to implement a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. She has made a significant contribution to staff development and played various roles in the oversight of the curriculum which included the initial establishment of an integrated assessment office, which she headed from 2001-2003 while improving the teaching and quality of the MBChB programme. She served on each of the integrated theme design teams and on the assessment and curriculum committees and guided and prepared module templates for Senate approval. She headed the evaluations office (2004-2007) and she played a central role in preparing the faculty for the HPCSA accreditation visits to UKZN in 2001; 2005 and 2010.  Dr Van Wyk’s teaching responsibilities revolved around training staff in health education and problem based learning, assessment, teaching and learning and research methodology and this led to improvements in the teaching and learning on the MBChB programme. She also participated in educational research and capacity development at the NRMSM and had co-authored many publications with various members of staff. She was the first educationalist to be selected for the FAIMER programme in 2004 when the programme was mainly aimed at clinicians and became part of the team that started the South African regional FAIMER institute (2007). Since 2008-2012, she has also played various roles in the design, teaching and administrative functions of SAFRI, has as its aims to develop networks and research capacity of health educators in the sub-Saharan African Region.

Dr Van Wyk has served as Teaching and Learning representative for the NRMSM on the senate and became part of the task team that formulated the T and L policies for the UKZN. Once of these relates to the “up-skilling” of all academics (with educational qualification) in educational matters. Dr Van Wyk has been teaching on these modules for the UKZN Education Induction Programme (UEIP) initiative on the Assessment and Teaching and learning courses.  She also teaches on the Post-Graduate Diploma in Higher Education for the Centre of higher Education. The challenges in health professions sector have to innovative designs to expand training in research and education. This has culminated in the design of the programme to be delivers in e-learning format for Staff Development in the College of Health Sciences. Since 2006, she served on various panels such as those for the internal review for Quality Assurance of modules in the Department of Education prior to SAQA’ (HEQA) audit. In 2007 Dr Van Wyk  became a  founding member of the Women in leadership leverage (WILL) group at the Faculty of Health Sciences (UKZN) and served on the executive committee of this group designed to promote the development of research capacity and leadership ability in women within the University of KwaZulu Natal. Since 2011 serves an educationist for Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) for accrediting of undergraduate medical curricula. Her mentoring in research and post graduate supervision began in 2009 when she participated in  cohort supervision for Masters and PhDs.

Dr Van Wyk journey into contributing to health education and research at an international level began when she became one of the founding members of the Sub-Saharan African FAIMER Regional Institute (SAFRI).  SAFRI’s purpose is to improve the teaching and research capacity of health educators and foster growth of research into health professional education within the sub Saharan African region.   Since 2007, she became the Programme director and executive member for SAFRI FAIMER as well as taught on the Design modules in Teaching & Learning, Programme Evaluation; Faculty Development, Research as well as supervised Post Graduate projects as part of SAFRI.   The University of Venda recognised her expertise in curriculum design and staff development toward teaching problem based learning though inviting her to be a consultant during their Curriculum Indaba on Problem- based learning in 2005. This trend toward collaboration for the improvement of international health professional education continued when she was invited as a guest lecturer to collaborate on the Brazil FAIMER Regional institute.

Dr Van Wyk has engaged in research of her own and has presented papers at both international and national conferences. These research projects have been in collaboration with colleagues both in South Africa and internationally. These conference presentations include (2014) Towards Unity for Health (November 19-24) in Fortaleza Brazil, 2013 AMEE  Prague 24-28 August 2012 and 2013  and 2012 The Network Conference Thailand and Canada respectively. On a national level she has presented at the SAAHE for several years.

Dr van Wyk has worked toward disseminating research and contributing towards debates in health professions education though serving as a reviewer for the South African Journal of Family Practice, BMC-Medical Education, and an evaluator for the National Research Foundation. S also served as a reviewer and is currently a deputy editor for the African Journal for Health Profession Educators (AJHPE).

We are extremely proud of the achievements of Dr van Wyk and that we are able to recognise her significant contribution to South African health professions education through this award.

Ian Couper, Professor and Director of the Centre for Rural Health at the University of the Witwatersrand has long been seen as a maverick. He started contributing to a community of practice in 1988 when he completed his internship at Livingstone Hospital. His service as a doctor extended to Dora Nginza Hospital in Port Elizabeth, Paraguay, South America, and Boksburg-Benoni Hospital. His time spent at Manguzi Hospital in Northern KwaZulu-Natal demonstrated his commitment to rural health care where he inspired and supported many others working at this facility to improve community health and where he engaged directly in primary health care planning. During this time he also became involved as a part-time lecturer in the distance-based Masters in Family Medicine programme of Medunsa, a programme that produced many leaders in both family medicine and health professions education in South Africa, subsequently moving to work as a joint appointee of Medunsa and the North West Province. From July 2002, Ian has been at the Centre for Rural Health at Wits and Principal Specialist for Rural Medicine in the North West Province. His work has been acknowledged in the form of significant awards that have demonstrated his individual achievements but also the achievements of the team he leads.

In 2003, the team established a scholarship scheme, the Wits Initiative for Rural Health Education (WIRHE), for disadvantaged rural students who want to become health professionals, in partnership with the North West provincial department of health. Students are linked to their local district facilities, working there during their vacations, are supported and mentored during their training, and are required to work back in their districts on completion of their studies. By the end of 2012, there were 33 graduates already serving their communities, or completing internships prior to undertaking this service, and 57 students being supported across 7 health science programs. In 2007, the Vice-Chancellor’s Team Award for Academic Citizenship was received from University of the Witwatersrand for this programme. In 2008, he received an Honorary chieftainship awarded by the Okoyong Council of Traditional Rulers and Chiefs in Nigeria, for his role in supporting Calibre to host the 8 th WONCA World Rural health conference as well as his ongoing contribution to rural health care internationally.

In 2008, the Vice-Chancellor’s Team Teaching Award was received for the Integrated Primary Care block at Wits. The Integrated Primary Care (IPC) rotation is a unique 6-week clerkship for final year medical students, which integrates the learning from all other disciplines at primary care level, in rural and underserved sites, with a focus on the management of patient problems rather than disease, in the context of understanding and seeking to improve health systems and the health of communities. Seven departments in the faculty work together to deliver this program, under his leadership. With this support, the IPC rotation has been adapted and is being used in district-based medical student rotations in two other countries in the region, at the University of Malawi College of Medicine and the Universidade Catolica de Mozambique in Beira. The IPC rotation continues to be innovative, constantly experimenting with new approaches to learning for and assessment of medical students.

In 2012, the Vice-Chancellor’s Team Award for Academic Citizenship was received by the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP). In cooperation with the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa (RuDASA) and the AIDS Law Project, the Centre for Rural Health has launched an Advocacy Project. The aim of the project is to address specific identified high priority issues in rural health in South Africa by systematically bringing them to the attention of relevant stakeholders in order to achieve measurable improvements in rural health services. This is done through providing a voice for rural health care workers and patients, Rural-Proofing Policies, examining the financing of health care, addressing the Human Resource needs of rural communities, and monitoring the implementation of policies. In addition to chairing the steering committee, Ian’s particular contributions are in the areas of human resource development and research.

Ian was involved nationally in developing the curriculum framework for the Clinical Associates (midlevel medical workers), launched in 2009. This involves students becoming involved in patient care at district hospital level from early in their first year and integrating theoretical input (including basic sciences) around patient problems, with a single integrated course being delivered per year. Ian led the development of the Bachelor of Clinical Medical Practice (BCMP) degree at University of Witwatersrand with the team of staff who received the Vice-Chancellor’s Team Teaching Award in 2013. The curriculum objectives are structured around the needs of district hospitals, based on a national collaboration. The programme places medical and clinical associate students in remote and rural areas, where they are supported by a network of local generalist medical and nurse practitioners. In one of these sites, Lehurutshe Community Hospital, the team has established a district training centre, in collaboration with the North West provincial department of health, where students from a range of programs – medical, clinical associate, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and dentistry – are accommodated and can learn together. This model is being rolled out to other districts.

Ian initiated the adaptation and roll out of two educational programmes for practising rural doctors in South Africa, viz. a neonatal resuscitation training program and the Basic Emergency Skills Training (BEST) program, in collaboration with Australian and local colleagues. Both followed a training-the-trainers model by identifying and equipping locally based trainers who have continued to provide the training to doctors and nurses in their districts, with minimal fees involved. This demonstrates his Midas-touch when it comes to the teaching, development of teaching expertise, the innovative educational processes and the development of excellent educators in the team. Ian has been a visiting professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, and an adjunct faculty member of James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. He has been invited to conducted evaluations of educational programmes at Flinders University (2006) and at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Canada (2008). He is a founding member of the Collaboration for Health Equity through Education and Research (CHEER),which has advanced the cause of education for equity in health care in South Africa and developed a peer review approach to cross-institutional learning and development.

Recently he was one of only seven recipients of an international Special Award for Outstanding Health Professional Educators, presented by the annual Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) 2014, in Pattaya, Thailand. Upon receiving this Award Ian was quoted as saying: “The Centre for Rural Health is seeking to develop and nurture STAR health workers in rural areas, through Service support, Training, Advocacy and Research in rural health care, thus impacting on the health of rural people. I could not have done it without the team and the award is a reflection on the people I am privileged to work with!”

Ian has helped to develop the field of medical education by advancing and delivering on the concepts of community based medical education, service learning, and aligning the curriculum and schools’ programs with priority health needs in South Africa, particularly rural areas. Recently he was approached by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to develop a blueprint for the creation of a new medical school which would deliver on these fundamental concepts, and is part of a team developing a plan for a health professions school in the North West province on behalf of the provincial Department of Health. He is a member of the editorial team that, over the last 5 years, has developed an international Guidebook on Rural Medical Education, with 71 chapters written by 74 volunteer authors (including himself), which launched this month (April 2014) as a free, open access, online educational resource.

He currently serves on 5 different faculty committees at the university and contributes to the leadership on these committees with tireless engagement. He has a record of 66 publications, membership of 5 professional organisations, and has delivered over 50 presentations at local and international conference in the last three years, many of these as an invited keynote speaker. The projects and awards received demonstrate Ian Couper’s leadership impact and his contribution to teaching and administration of the discipline of health science education in South Africa. It is the teaching he does in the classroom, the field, the boardroom and the office that really warrants him receiving this award.