The professional knowledge development of community service audiologists in KwaZulu-Natal- a phenomenographic study.

Abstract

The Department of Health implemented the community service programme in the year 2003 in allied health professions. This allowed for service provision in underserved communities while facilitating skills development in new graduates as a work-based programme, preparing community service offices for independent practice. It was, therefore, recognized by the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which certifies all new graduates who complete the programme as independent practitioners. However, due to the possibly of vast differences in experiences among community service officers’ experiences, the lack of clarity on the minimum requirement of clinical and professional exposure, and the lack of baseline assessment of competences in completion of the programme, makes the contribution of the programme in developing new graduates largely unknown and somewhat questionable. This has become a problem, necessitating a probe into the impact of qualitative differences in community service experiences, as a means of contributing to the identified knowledge gap. This research study aimed to explore the qualitatively different ways in which community service officer: Audiologists experience and conceive their development of professional knowledge during their community service year in KZN, South Africa. A qualitative semi-structured interview method was used to collect data from 12 community service officers: Audiologists who were selected through purposive sampling. This was aligned with the principles of phenomenography. Subsequently, qualitative content analysis was conducted with the use of the NVivo software. The variations in the results were hierarchically represented in the form of categories of descriptions and conceptions. The conceptions reflected qualitative differences between the participants’ experiences and their perceptions of knowledge development. The outcome space revealed three categories of description: “Category 1: Transitioning from graduate to professional”; “Category 2: Learning in the workplace during CS” and “Category 3: Professional development”. Each category of description revealed qualitative differences in conceptions of the experiences of professional knowledge development among community service officers. The identified qualitative differences were attributed to the variations in work environments, supervision, resource allocations, socialization and infrastructure at their respective placements. The differences among community service officers were reported to have had an impact on their knowledge development; advantaging some and disadvantaging others. In conclusion, while the community service programme positively contributed to professional knowledge development regardless of the limitations experienced, this study revealed a dire need to review the current model of the community service programme regarding fixed-placements of community service officers and lack of minimum experiential or learning requirements. The findings of this study served to inform future community service officers, universities, the relevant health professions council and the Department of Health, of room to improve the community service programme in allied health professions.