The perceptions of basic science lecturers at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University on their need for health professions educator development

Faculty development is an institutional imperative that aims to ensure that health professions educators are adequately equipped as educators in their profession.Institutions have thus developed and implemented faculty development programs to answer to this imperative.However, significant barriers exist that hinder teacher's participation in these initiatives.Evidence shows that the identification and introduction of means to overcome these barriers would increase their participation.Thus the aim of this study is to explore the perceptions of the basic and preclinical science teachers at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University on their need for health professions educator development in order to identify barriers that are preventing them from participating in current faculty development initiatives.The study design was interpretivist within a qualitative methodological framework.The study targeted the 102 basic and preclinical science teachers at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University.Data collection was completed in two phases.Phase one adopted a self-administered questionnaire sent to all 102 prospective participants.In phase two, the responses to the questionnaire were analysed and used to purposively sample 13 participants for interviews.A response rate of 43% was recorded for the questionnaire.The second phase findings revealed that teachers perceived a need for health professions educator development.However, the barriers of; misconceptions and beliefs with regards to funding, institutional support and their conceptions of teaching; perceived absence of an institutional faculty development plan; an institutional focus on research; and a lack of time and scheduling issues, are hindering their participation.Thus these identified barriers need to be overcome in order to increase their participation in future faculty development initiatives.