Development of a mentorship framework guide to promote the acquisition of interprofessional education and collaborative practice competencies during undergraduate training: a mini-Delphi cross-sectional study.

Background: The current global burden of disease which includes emerging and re-emerging diseases calls for interprofessional partnerships and team work to work collaboratively to solve community health problems. Inter-professional collaboration needs to start with training whereby learners are mentored in inter-professional teams and collaborative care. Many guidelines do exist in teaching and learning but faculty often do not have guidelines on how to mentor learners to acquire the needed inter-professional competencies. This study aimed at developing a mentorship guide for faculty to enable them to ably mentor learners in the acquisition of interprofessional competencies. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study involving both students and faculty mentors. Questionnaires were distributed to undergraduate students and the mentors at Makerere University College of Health Sciences and Busitema University Faculty of Health Sciences. Data from the participants was used alongside literature to develop the interprofessional education mentorship guide for faculty mentors. The guide was validated by a panel of experts. Results: From this study, students reported limited knowledge of the IPE core competencies and the faculty mentors corroborated this finding. Mentors did not directly give any feedback specifically targeting the IPE core competencies, though some of them unknowingly talked about some of the IPE competencies. The key challenges identified from students and faculty included limited training IPE and IPE core competencies and lack of guidelines for faculty mentors which they can follow to mentors students adequately across all the expected IPE competencies. Conclusion: There was limited mentorship in IPE competencies. Findings from this study alongside literature and expert validation, a framework guide for mentors in relation to IPE competencies has been proposed.

Undergraduate research- a tale of three African institutions.

Background: The inclusion of research in undergraduate medical curricula benefits students as well as the scientific community. Multiple studies report the presence of one or more barriers to research training in these curricula. Objectives: This paper presents and compares three studies done regarding the teaching of research in undergraduate medical curricula in South Africa, Sudan and Uganda. Methods: Two cross-sectional study designs (South Africa and Sudan) and one interventional study design (Uganda) were conducted. Both cross-sectional studies used mixed methods while the Ugandan study used a quantitative method. A total of 41 faculty members and 554 students participated. The studies used a combination of surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and document analysis. Results: Participants from all three studies valued research and considered it useful and relevant to their studies. The findings from the South African and Sudanese studies align with the 'Four I's' framework that summarise the barriers to research training as lack of initiative, impulse, incentive and idols. The Ugandan study demonstrated improved self-reported knowledge and attitude (specifically anxiety) among participants after completion of a short course on research.