THE KALEIDOSCOPE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK TO GUIDE THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTER-PROFESSIONAL COURSE

Mostert K.¹, Bresser P.¹, Engelbrecht L.¹, Maree C.¹, Sithole M.¹, Rossouw S.¹, Pickworth G.¹, van Rooijen A.J.¹

¹University of Pretoria, Physiotherapy, Pretoria, South Africa

Background: In the quest to produce more relevant and effective health-care professionals, some strategies have been advocated. These include competency-based curricula and inter-professional education. The executive committee of the School of Health Care Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa, launched a process to develop a new inter-professional module in health leadership. The involved departments were Human Nutrition, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Radiography. The principle author had developed the kaleidoscope curriculum framework for community and public health physiotherapy in South Africa through a national consensus-building process and identified nine overarching professional roles similar to the CanMEDS model.

Purpose: To describe how the kaleidoscope curriculum framework was used to integrate the minimum generic outcomes of the five different professional boards into one inter-professional course to be delivered over four years of study.

Methods: The roles of the kaleidoscope framework were used as outline and each discipline categorised their outcomes according to the overarching professional roles. These roles include the role of the public health practitioner and community developer. In both of these roles health care professionals act as agents of change.

Results: A macro-curriculum over four years was developed. Examples from the curriculum will be shared.

Conclusion(s): The kaleidoscope framework was feasible and effective in integrating minimum requirements from different professional boards into one integrated macro-curriculum for an inter-professional course in Integrated Health Management.

Implications: The undergraduate physiotherapy students at the University of Pretoria are educated in an inter-professional course where they get the opportunity to obtain competencies and capabilities, such as - Professionalism, for example cultural sensitivity. - Communication and collaboration, e.g. basic elements and principles of communication are learnt including conflict management and to function as members of the healthcare team. - Evidence based-practice, e.g. as scholar they use different types and sources of health and disability data. - Clinical prevention/ health promotion, e.g. as health promoter, students do a needs-and-strength analysis of a specific community and implement a health education session. - Population health, e.g. a wellness project is carried out in specific communities in teams. - Community practice, e.g. as community developer/ change agent, they apply different models of care in community settings. - Health systems and health policy, e.g. as leader and manager, health-related legislation is described. Other institutions can benchmark against this macro-curriculum, and practitioners can identify continuous professional development needs.

Funding acknowledgements: The Medical Research Council of South Africa contributed financially towards this study.

Topic: Education

Ethics approval: Development of the framework was approved by the Ethics Committee, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria

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