Original Research thematic poster presentation at 2017 Summit on Social Accountability and Annual Conference of The Network: Toward Unity for Health, in Hammamet Tunisia, April 2018. Author: Esoh Godfrey Nji

1. Perceptions of community members about their involvement in
the training of health professionals in Bamenda Cameroon
Godfrey Esoh1; Heike Geduld2
1Jomatt Polytechnic Higher Institute Batibo, Cameroon; 2University of Cape Town, South Africa
INTRODUCTION DISCUSSIONMETHODOLOGY
AIM
RECOMMENDATION
REFERENCES
CONTACT
The social accountability of
Cameroonian health training
schools is still a grey area as
there is paucity of data on the
subject. There can be no social
accountability without community
engagement. The study was
aimed at assessing the
perception of community
members about their involvement
in the training of health
professionals by schools in
Bamenda, Cameroon.
A qualitative cross-sectional
approach was used involving
focus group discussions among a
purposive sample of adult
community members selected
with the help of community health
workers in Mbachongwa health
area. Data was collected and
analyzed between July 2015 and
September 2016.
Community members perceived
themselves as not directly
involved in the educational
planning, theoretical teaching,
clinical and community teaching,
assessment, research, and
health services activities of the
schools in their area. They
viewed themselves as mere
passive users or objects of these
activities.
The findings highlight the need
for further research into the
degree to which Cameroonian
health training schools are
socially accountable and what
can be done to help them
become more socially
accountable as a means of
improving the health of the
community.
This was a qualitative cross-sectional study
involving a purposive sample of adult community
members in the Mbachongwa Health Area in
Bamenda. The community health workers stationed
in these communities were involved in the
participant selection process. 3 Focus Group
Discussions were held in three villages (Mbatu,
Nsongwa and Chomba). Data was collected and
analyzed between July 2015 and September 2016.
The involvement of the community in the
planning, implementation, evaluation, and
continuous improvement of the teaching,
research, and health service activities of a
health professions training institution is the
very heart of the definition of ‘social
accountability’ or the training of fit-for-purpose
health professionals (3).
Community members do not feel involved in
the training of health professionals therefore
calling to question the social accountability of
the health professions training schools in
Bamenda.
There is however a common practice of
opportunistic involvement of the community
during clinical and community rotations.
The aim of this study was to assess the
perception of adult community members on
their involvement in the training of health
professionals by the health professions training
institutions in Bamenda, Cameroon.
This study should be taken a step further to
involve the health training institutions
themselves as a means of corroborating the
data generated from the community study.
More evidence is needed to determine the
extent to which health professions training
schools in Cameroon are socially accountable
and what can be done to improve upon their
social accountability.
Socially accountable health professionals (HP)
are:
• Appropriately trained and function as
required by society;
• Able to predict the needs of the community
and respond appropriately,
• Able to render services and conduct
teaching and research consistent with
identified needs;
• Able to impact on the improvement of the
health system both locally and
internationally.(1)
Practice of the health professions is not yet
regulated in Cameroon. A professional degree
or diploma in the respective discipline
automatically qualifies the graduate for practice.
A framework for ensuring safe practice and
continuing professional development is still at
its rudimentary stage. In this context
embedding social accountability in the health
professions education curricula has the
potential to create a practitioner-led platform for
safe and community responsive practice.
The literature on social accountability in the
domain of health is still dominated and
animated by the concept of “social
accountability of medical schools”(2)
For the health professions community to be
socially accountable, the socially accountable
school should logically produce a socially
accountable graduate.
While social accountability is not yet a
discussion topic among the health professions
education community in Cameroon, even on
the global stage there is paucity of data as to
the self-perceived involvement of community
members in the training of health professionals.
Do community members perceive themselves
as mere consumers of the services of all-
knowing health professionals produced by
infallible training institutions, or do they
perceive themselves as partners in the training
of health professionals who will later serve
them as their partners in health? 1. Boelen and Wollard R. “Social Accountability: The
leap to excellence for educational institutions,
Medical Teacher 2011
2. Global Consensus for Social Accountability of
Medical Schools,
www.healthsocialaccountability.org
3. Pálsdóttir B., Barry J., Bruno A., et al. Training for
impact: the socio-economic impact of a fit for
purpose health workforce on communities. Human
Resources for Health (2016) 14:49
Godfrey Esoh Nji
Jomatt Polytechnic Higher Institute
Batibo, North West Region, Cameroon
Email: goddynji@yahoo.com
Phone: +237 675 099 196
Community members perceived that training
institutions did not directly involve them in the
training of health professionals in Bamenda. They
reported that the educational planning, curriculum
development, theoretical teaching, clinical and
community teaching, assessment, as well as
research activities of the institutions were all
conceived and implemented by the institutions
without the involvement of the community. They
said the system expects community members to
simply welcome health professionals into the
community and ‘consume’ their services without
questioning.
RESULTS
“When you even attempt to
make a suggestion or ask a
question to a doctor regarding
your health condition while he is
attending to you, he will bark
back at you with the words, ‘do
you, a poor uneducated village
woman really think you can
teach me my job?’”(FG3P04)
The social accountability of health training
schools is indispensable in guaranteeing the
quality of health that the community receives
from health professionals. In this era where
‘community engagement’ and ‘shared decision
making’ are becoming guideposts for schools
and professionals, respectively, it does raises
concern when members of a community
perceive themselves as not involved in the
training of the health professionals serving
them.
CONCLUSION
New medical graduates from the University of Buea taking the Hippocratic Oath.
ABSTRACT
World Summit on Social Accountability/Annual Conference of The Network: Toward Unity For Health. Hammamet Tunisia, 8th -12th April 2017