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ABSTRACT
Background
According to the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), the training of undergraduate medical students is meant to produce a basic medical practitioner with a generalist overview of the medical practice. It is not clear whether medical schools in South Africa are intentional in this regard in their training of medical students. There is need for the exploration of the experiences of undergraduate medical students and their trainers regarding the former’s training in generalist medical practice in South African medical schools.
Method
A qualitative study was conducted among purposefully selected undergraduate medical students and their trainers at four conveniently selected South African medical schools: Witwatersrand University, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Walter Sisulu University. Data was collected through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews among the students and their trainers, respectively. The students were in their clinical years of training (MBChB 4-6). Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically, using the MAXQDA 2020 (Analytics Pro) software.
Result
The themes identified were: (1) identification of student trainers (generalists and specialists), (2) students’ training platforms (central and distributed), (3) training methods employed and (4) challenges experienced by both students and their trainers in the students’ training on generalist medical practice.
Conclusion
Although the study indicated that students and their trainers had experienced the training in generalist medical practice in a comparable and relatable manner within both groups, the challenges experienced by both groups need collaborative discussion towards a common understanding among them. There should be intentionality in structuring generalist medical practice in the training of undergraduate medical students in South Africa.