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22 October 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Supplied
Dr Marankie Swinfen was awarded the Dean’s medal for achieving the best results in respect of a master’s degree in the Faculty of Health Sciences during the year 2019.

Dr Marankie Swinfen, who was awarded the Dean’s medal in the faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Free State (UFS) at the recent virtual graduation (6-9 October 2020), says she was completely surprised by this award and was unaware that it existed. 

Dr Swinfen, who teaches Clinical Skills to second- and third-year medical students at the UFS and received a master’s degree in Health Professions Education, says the road to obtaining her qualification was quite a bumpy ride and difficult at times.

The Dean’s medal is awarded to the student who achieved the best results in respect of a master’s degree in the Faculty of Health Sciences during the year 2019. 

“Through God’s grace, the patience of my supervisors and an eleventh hour burst of energy I managed to reach the goal,” says Dr Swinfen. 

In her dissertation title; A Student Review of Doctor Patient Communication Skills Training in The UFS Undergraduate Medical Programme she asked medical students to review the training of doctor-patient communication skills during their undergraduate programme. 

Students gave valuable insights

Says Dr Swinfen: “I was pleasantly surprised at the response rate and the students’ level of engagement in the study. They gave valuable insights into the strengths of the communication skills training and highlighted areas where the training can be improved. For instance, they accentuated the need to have more practical training in breaking bad news and managing language and cultural differences in the consultation.” 

According to Dr Swinfen she undertook this study because as an undergraduate medical student, she never formally received training in doctor-patient communication. During her postgraduate diploma in Palliative Medicine, they had role-play sessions in breaking bad news, which opened her eyes to the importance of practical, interactive communication skills training. 

“I wanted to explore how useful students find aspects of doctor-patient communication skills training in the current UFS undergraduate medical training programme.”

Challenges on her journey 

Dr Swinfen says the biggest struggle for her during her studies, was self-discipline and setting aside enough time for research. She also had formal modules to complete and found that she would devote more time and energy to these modules than to research (Especially due to having inspirational teachers such as Dr Chantel van Wyk at HPE).  

“I also had become very rusty in terms of research methodology and had to start again with the ‘ABC’ of research. I was greatly helped by Postgraduate School courses such as using Microsoft Word in research. My supervisors, Prof Mathys Labuschagne and Prof Gina Joubert had immense patience with me and saw potential in my research that I could often not see myself.”


News Archive

Enhancement of social justice focus at research colloquium
2010-10-07

At the third Education for Social Justice Research Colloquium the publication Praxis towards sustainable empowering learning environments in South were handed to Prof. Ezekiel Moraka, Vice-Rector: External Relations at the UFS. At this occasion were, from the left: Prof. Dennis Francis, Dean of the UFS Faculty of Education; Prof. Sechaba Mahlomaholo, Research Professor in the Faculty of Education Sciences at the North-West University; Prof. Moraka; and Dr Milton Nkoane, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Faculty of Education.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

 

This year, the University of the Free State (UFS) was the host for the Research Colloquium: Education for Social Justice for the very first time. It is the third time that this colloquium has been presented.

Prof. Ezekiel Moraka, Vice-Rector: External Relations at the UFS, opened the colloquium, stating that academics, through their research, are ultimately in a good standing to advise government on important issues such as social justice for them to address these issues accordingly.

Prof. Sechaba Mahlomaholo, Research Professor in the Faculty of Education Sciences at the North-West University, delivered the opening address on the theme: Validating community cultural wealth towards sustainable empowering learning environments for social justice. He said that the legacy of our recent past as South Africa still continues to haunt us, especially as exemplified in the dysfunctionalities that are rife in our education.

“With the colloquium we manage to bring together the ideas, thoughts, resources and efforts of educators and/or educationists concerned with the creation of a more equitable, equal, free, hopeful, peaceful and socially just society. Through our teaching, our community engagement and research activities we strive towards a more humane, caring, respecting and respectful South Africa and the world,” he said.

According to Prof. Mahlomaholo, education and its research are some of the most potent mechanisms at the very centre of social transformation. The papers at the colloquium focused on investigating, understanding and responding to issues of amongst others:

  • The medium of teaching and learning which continues to be a barrier to many learners to perform to the best of their abilities in the majority of the education institutions in South Africa;
  • Health, sexuality, HIV/Aids, stigmatisation and other deseases plaguing our communities currently;
  • Self-fulfilling prophecies and stereotypes about some learners not being as intelligent as the rest and this finally being reflected and confirmed in their poor academic achievements;
  • Differentiated levels of parental involvement in the activities of their children’s learning due to long absences from their families as they have to work in far-off places of employment;

Papers delivered at the colloquium moved beyond merely identifying the problems; they also suggested possible and plausible research-based solutions to these, such as integrating HIV/Aids education in curricula, listening to the aspirations of significant stakeholders such as mothers and parents generally in teaching and facilitating more rigorous community engagement practices.

At the colloquium gala dinner the book Praxis towards sustainable empowering learning environments in South Africa by authors Dr Milton Nkoane, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Faculty of Education, Prof. Mahlomaholo and Prof. Dennis Francis, Dean of the Faculty of Education at the UFS, was launched. The publication consists of a collection of the best peer-reviewed papers from a conference with the theme Creating sustainable empowering learning environments through scholarship of engagement. The main criterion for inclusion was that the paper should contribute to the theme by means of an original, tight, theoretical and empirical study conducted with the aim of informing the practice of creating sustainable empowering learning environments. The concrete cases examined in many of the chapters are very useful to helping readers understand the specific, on-the-ground concerns related to higher education and schools.

Media Release
Issued by: Leonie Bolleurs
Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2707
Sel: 0836455853
Email: bolleursl@ufs.ac.za  
30 September 2010
 

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