An evaluation of Biokinetics internships
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Date
2014
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
Few evaluations of internships have been carried out in the health professions in South
Africa. Those that have been undertaken are in the field of medicine, physiotherapy and
clinical psychology. This research seeks to fill that gap. The study used a mixed methods
approach utilising both qualitative and quantitative research methods which is consistent with convergence model of triangulation design. This process evaluation allowed an evaluation of Biokinetic Honours and internships, and how they functioned at a specific moment in time. Descriptive statistics and a chi-square test were used to analyse the quantitative results and Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was used to analyse qualitative data. Results, both quantitative and qualitative indicated that the male and female Biokineticists (N = 47, SD =3.12) who participated in the study were satisfied with their Biokinetic Honours and internships years. The results also indicated that supervising Biokineticists (N = 20, SD = 6.9) were satisfied with their interns. Qualitative results generally underpin results from the quantitative data and, while the majority of the results are positive, there were some problem areas. These related to poor supervision, long working hours, poor pay and perceived exploitation of interns, interns not completing the guideline number of evaluations in each category and poor teaching practices at Honours level. The following recommendations were
1) Review Biokinetic Honours programmes; 2) The structure of Biokinetics programmes be reviewed; 3) Community Service is introduced; 4) The possibility of introducing
specialization in the field; 5) Internships should be in the public and private sector; 6)
Supervising Biokineticists should undergo supervision training; 7) Cultural transformation
needs addressing in the field; 8) Working conditions must be reviewed; 9) Selection
processes for Honours should be reviewed and 10) More aggressive marketing of the
discipline.
Description
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Science and Agriculture in the Department of Biokinetics and Sports Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2014
Keywords
internship --supervising --biokineticist --focus group --scope of practice --HPCSA --BASA