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Abstract
The shortage of rehabilitation health personnel in Cameroon is a limiting factor to attaining full health coverage under Sustainable Development Goal 3 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages. This problem has been accentuated by the low level and quality of training of rehabilitation workers such as physiotherapists. This was partly due to the poor understanding of the profession of physiotherapy. The profession had also been devaluated to massage therapy or just a paramedical practice, requiring training programs of 2 years or less. This has caused a huge rehabilitation personnel gap which the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences is aimed at addressing with the Bachelor of Sciences in Physiotherapy curriculum and training. The paper aims to evaluate the aptness of the Tyler-designed curriculum in addressing the rehabilitation skill gap. The Baptist Institute of Health Sciences developed a 4-year Bachelor of Sciences curriculum designed using the Tyler Model as a training intervention to address this problem. This curriculum mapping tool is used to evaluate the designed curriculum for vertical, horizontal, interdisciplinary, and subject-area coherence and redundancy. This is to assess the structure of the curriculum in preparing physiotherapists to operate in full physiotherapists competencies in integrating rehabilitation between primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare systems as defined World Health Organization. It was found that the curriculum has zero vertical redundancy (coherent with no content overlap) as it systematically covers 16 curriculum tracks. The zero vertical redundancy reveals the aptness of the curriculum as it includes all 8 domains provided by the Physiotherapists Educational framework and more. These 16 curriculum tracks are pedagogically grouped into three broad levels of competencies namely the fundamental, core, and specialty expertise competencies levels. They are progressively fashioned to train the habits of the mind and develop the appropriate skills proficiency outcomes (SPOs) in the physiotherapists in training. The curriculum has horizontal redundancy (skill repetition development cycle) created by the spiral curriculum approach used in reinforcing the skills proficiency Outcomes (SPOs) across the three competencies categories. This is because the physiotherapist in training grows in the 6 skills proficiency outcomes (SPOs) from comprehensive examination and assessment through to recommendation and patient self-management skills at all three levels.
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Notes on contributors
Mbohjim Othniel Mobit
Mbohjim Othniel Mobit is an economist and educationist by training and has 10 years of experience working in the Higher Education milieu in Cameroon. He has 6 years of higher education administrative experience ranging from Head of Department, Dean, and Director of a PHEI in Cameroon. In 2016 he started developing skills and expertise in online education for implementation with the Blended Learning Model. He has experience in Google Classroom and the Constructivism Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (MOODLE). In March 2022 he was appointed as the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences. His responsibility is around Academic Standardization, Academic policy development, and guidance. He was the curriculum developer for the Bachelor of Sciences in Physiotherapy curriculum for the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences. He was the trainer of trainer for the implementation strategy for the blended learning model of the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences.
Lorraine Elit
Lorraine Elit is a Gynecologic oncologist. She is a professor emeritus in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McMaster University. She retired from her Canadian role to spend greater time in the global context. To this end, she is a faculty in the Pan African Academy of Christian Service (PAACS) working at Mbingo Hospital as part of the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services. In this capacity, she is an Associate Professor in the Global Health division of the Dept of Ob-Gyn at Loma Linda University, USA. She is Vice Dean for Research at the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences (BIHS) at Mbingo. She directs the master’s in public health in connection with Next Genu at the BIHS. With a wealth of experience in research, she has been the editor-in-chief of most of the articles and grant applications from the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences.
Dennis Duane Palmer
Dennis Duane Palmer DO, FACP, FWACP is the Emeritus Dean of the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences and Pioneer Program Director of the Christian Internal Medicine Specialization (CIMS) Program at the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences.
Dr. Dennis Palmer served as a medical missionary in Cameroon from 1979–1984 and 1988–1991, primarily at Banso Baptist Hospital. In 2004, he returned to Cameroon to serve as Field Director and Field Administrator, stationed in Bamenda. Dennis also served as the Director of the new HIV/AIDS treatment program. After four years in those positions, he moved to Mbingo Baptist Hospital where he began the Internal Medicine residency training program (CIMS). Dennis served as Clinical Supervisor of Mbingo Baptist Hospital and as the Program Director of the Christian Internal Medicine Specialization Residency, at Mbingo Baptist Hospital. During this period, he co-authored the book entitled The Handbook of Medicine: A Manual for Practitioners in Low Resource Settings that have been revised into over five editions. He later became the Pioneer Dean of the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences (BIHS). On his retirement from this role in March 2022, he remains a major consultant to the BIHS Board member as Pioneer Dean of BIHS. He was the adviser and customizer of the Global Active Learning curriculum. He recommended the voice-over PowerPoint flipped classroom instructional design strategies.
Nancy Lea Palmer
Nancy Palmer, BFA, MA, Ph.D (cultural/medical anthropology) has lived and worked in Cameroon for over twenty-seven years. She has taught at universities in Canada, the USA, and Cameroon. She served as the Registrar at the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences from 2017 until 2022. She served as the Curriculum Committee chairperson for the development of the Bachelor of Sciences in Physiotherapy curriculum implemented at the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences. She wrote the first drafts of the BIHS philosophy of education and the students’ handbook for the bachelor’s and master’s programs of the B Baptist Institute of Health Sciences.
Timothy Njobula Fanfon
Timothy Njobula Fanfon is the Supervisor of Physiotherapy at the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Sciences. He has been a physiotherapist with the Cameroon Baptist Convention for over 22 years. He has been passionate about the process of upgrading the skills, level of training, and quality of physiotherapy services in the Cameroon Convention Health Services and the nation of Cameroon. He has served as a trainer for the Non-operative Management of Fractures and Dislocations course in Cameroon which has been held yearly since 2013, he is a trainer for Cameroon Clubfoot Care using the Ponseti Method of treatment, and a member of the Cameroon National Clubfoot coordination committee. He is a trainer and mentor of the Support Tools Enabling Parents (STEP) which is a community-based treatment approach for children with severe neurologic disabilities and he currently serves at the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences as the Deputy Program Director in charge of Clinicals. He was part of the team that carried out the feasibility study of the rehabilitation landscape in Cameroon as part of the Analyze phase of the ADDIE model. He provided the first draft of the curriculum for the Bachelor of Sciences in Physiotherapy.