Evaluation of a pilot interprofessional Arclight™ workshop for healthcare students in Rwanda: promoting collaborative practice in eye health

ABSTRACT

Preventable and treatable visual impairment affects more than 1 billion people worldwide. Rwanda has an estimated visual impairment prevalence of 3.7% amongst the 12 million inhabitants. Around one third of this demand could be addressed through a more integrated and collaborative approach, particularly in primary eye care services. Healthcare students, therefore, need to be prepared for collaborative practice in eye health through interprofessional learning. Interprofessional workshops were piloted with ophthalmic clinical officer, medical clinical officer, nursing and medical students from the University of Rwanda. The aim was to promote collaborative practice by teaching students how to assess and recognize common eye conditions using the Arclight; a low cost, solar powered, portable ophthalmoscope designed for use in low resource settings. Students reported that the workshop content was relevant to all professional groups. They valued the opportunity to learn interprofessionally, share their knowledge and perspectives, and acquire new knowledge and skills together. This pilot helped to identify the most relevant skills and knowledge for future interprofessional eye health training. It enabled the facilitators to reflect on how best to maintain a balance between a quality interprofessional experience and the more specific eye health related learning objectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional education
• Arclight
• Rwanda
• eye care
• interprofessional collaboration
• interprofessional evaluation

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Global Challenges Research Funding awarded by the Scottish Funding Council (XFC069).

Notes on contributors

Veronica O’Carroll

Dr Veronica O'Carroll is a Lecturer and Registered Nurse (Adult) in the School of Medicine, University of St Andrews.  Since 2009, she has been involved in the design and implementation of interprofessional education, and interprofessional research in the academic and practice learning environment.  She is a Board Member of the UK Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) and is the lead of CAIPE’s research group.

Jean Baptiste Sagahutu

Dr Jean Baptiste Sagahutu is a lecturer at the University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences Physiotherapy Department since 2009. He is currently Coordinator of Postgraduate programmes in the School of Health Sciences. He has been involved in various interprofessional education projects at the University of Rwanda and District Hospitals in Rwanda.

Denys Ndayambaje

Mr Denys Ndayambaje has worked in the University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences Ophthalmology department since 2008 to date. Since 2017, he has been Head of Ophthalmology department.

Dieudonné Kayiranga

Mr Dieudonné Kayiranga is an Assistant Lecturer and Registered Nurse in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Rwanda. He is interested in health promotion, prevention and treatment of diseases and rehabilitation. He has been involved in interprofessional education related teaching and research since 2015.

Gatera Fiston Kitema

Mr Gatera Fiston Kitema is a community eye health and Disability Specialist and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Rwanda, originally trained as an Ophthalmic Clinical Officer and Certified as an Ophthalmic Technician by IJCHAPO. After his Masters in Public Health for Eye Care at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2019, he joined the faculty at the University of Rwanda and the Technical Working group for Eye Health at the Ministry of Health representing Ophthalmic Clinical Officers. He has a particular interest in eye health, disability and interprofessional education.

Nadine Rujeni

Dr Nadine Rujeni is a senior lecturer and the Dean of the School of Health Sciences, at the College of  Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda. She joined the university after graduating from the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She has been involved in a number of collaborative multidisciplinary research to tackle infectious diseases and as the Dean of a multidisciplinary school she is working to promote interprofessional education.

Andrew Blaikie

Dr Andrew Blaikie is a Consultant Ophthalmologist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine, University of St Andrews. Clinically he works 8 months of the year in the National Health Service in Fife, Scotland and for 4 months at the Rwandan Charity Eye Hospital just outside of Kigali. He leads a multidisciplinary team that develops, implements, and evaluates low cost diagnostic and teaching tools tailored to the needs of users in low and middle-income countries.