Acceptability and feasibility of a faculty development programme for medical and dental academics in Ghana

TL;DR

This study evaluated a UK-based faculty development program for Ghanaian medical and dental educators, finding it acceptable and feasible for promoting competency-based education.

Contribution

The study provides evidence on adapting international faculty development programs to the Ghanaian context for competency-based health worker education.

Findings

The faculty development workshops were positively received and perceived as relevant and applicable to the local context.

Participants felt confident in applying concepts like clinical placement supervision and clinical reasoning.

Conflicting priorities and high workloads were identified as main barriers to broader uptake of the workshops.

Abstract

Universal health coverage is more likely to be achieved by competency-based education of health workers than by traditional, time-based learning. Large-scale transitions in pedagogical approaches to such health worker education require effective faculty development. This research aimed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a UK-based faculty development programme tailored for medical and dental educators within the Ghanaian context.

A series of faculty development workshops was provided by a UK-based medical programme, focussing on facilitating the transition from didactic teaching to competence-based medical and dental education. Perceptions of feasibility and acceptability were captured from participants through a post-intervention survey and semi-structured interviews, both utilising the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability, and analysed using thematic analysis.

From 27 survey and 15 interview participants representing leaders in medical and dental education in Ghana, the faculty development workshops were positively received, perceived as effectively delivering pedagogical content relevant to medical and dental education in a way that was both engaging and applicable to the local context. Participants felt confident in applying the taught concepts such as clinical placement supervision and clinical reasoning, as well as confident in leading broader uptake of competency-based medical and dental education across educational institutions in Ghana. Conflicting priorities and high workloads for medical and dental educators were perceived as the main barriers to participation and uptake of the workshops nationally.

Continuing professional development with contemporary pedagogical approaches is considered essential by educators for training the next generation of health professionals.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-026-08826-3.

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