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18 October 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo André Damons
Prof Mathys Labuschagne
Prof Chris Viljoen, Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences; Prof Gert van Zyl, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences; Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal; and Prof Mathys Labuschagne, Head of the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit (CSSU), during the unit’s 10-year anniversary celebration.

In just 10 years, the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit (CSSU) at the University of the Free State (UFS) went from being just a dream to becoming a national and international leader in medical simulation training.

The CSSU forms part of the School of Biomedical Sciences and was officially opened on 21 February 2013. The CSSU celebrated its 10-year anniversary on Thursday, 12 October 2023.

Prof Mathys Labuschagne, Head of the CSSU, said at the evening’s celebration that the vision and dream came true 10 years ago. “I think the requirement for the successful integration of simulation into a curriculum is first and foremost that it is based on research evidence. It is not a thumb-sucking exercise”.

“It is really seated in research and then you need passion and dedication. You cannot be successful without that, and for that I need to thank my staff – without your passion and dedication it would not be possible to excel,” said Prof Labuschagne.

Simulation important for patient safety

According to the professor, good networking is also important – between departments, professions and companies outside the university and hospital. He said simulation is important for improving patient safety and expanding the training platform.

“By doing simulation, we can train students who cannot always be accommodated on the training platform. There are also a lot of educational advantages to using simulation. Our training activities in the past 10 years grew tremendously. At the moment we have about 4000 undergraduate and postgraduate student contacts a year. Then we do a lot of certification and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses. During COVID-19 we did PPE training and ICU training for hospital and clinical staff in a safe environment.

“I am really proud of our research output. In the past 10 years we published 34 articles, and have another six articles currently in press. We have successfully completed eight master’s and seven PhD dissertations and there are now five students who are enrolled and all of them are simulation-associated. I cannot believe it has already been 10 years. I am very proud of the unit, and we strive for excellence in simulation education and training.”

Highlights of unit

Prof Gert van Zyl, Dean of the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences, congratulated the unit on achieving this milestone. Taking a trip down memory lane, he mentioned the names of colleagues who played a role in establishing the unit and said their contributions might not be visible in name in the unit, but they are recognised by them in achieving this milestone.

“It is an excellent achievement to have seven PhDs in 10 years. Well done. Another highlight is supporting the establishing of other simulation units at Nelson Mandela University who came to learn from us. They didn’t have to go the US. The training of staff and students during COVID-19, we had the facility. Let us not forget our simulation role at undergraduate and postgraduate training.

Cutting edge of simulation-based education and training

Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal, who gave a toast at the celebration, said the occasion is an opportunity to reflect on the excellent work done over the past decade and to consider how the unit is ideally placed to meet the aspirations that the UFS has for Vision 130 and the strategy of the university.

“The work of this unit has put the University of the Free State at the cutting edge of simulation-based education and training and the ongoing efforts of all of our staff in the unit who assist with the planning, the development, the setup, and the running of scenarios are acknowledged and greatly appreciated. I want to congratulate the leadership and the staff of the unit for the excellent work you are doing,” said Prof Petersen.

According to him, simulation education has numerous advantages such as improved patient safety, skills development, learning without involving real patients and the transfer of knowledge to the clinical environment. It creates a well-structured teaching and learning framework where simulation can be used as an educational tool assist in grasping the practical aspects of learning.

The training of specialised skills and deliberate practice are the key drivers behind clinical simulation as a training technique. It can also be applied as a tool to prepare students for a crisis situation, which requires high levels of preparedness and that is a very important aspect, said Prof Petersen.

“All these aspects of simulation-based education are something that relates very much to our vision and strategy. We want to be a research-led university, which means that it is not only doing research, but we try to focus on evidence and the research also helps us in the undergraduate programme to make it much more competitive.

“It also brings to the fore some qualities of our values, value of quality, value of impact and value of care. In addition, clinical simulation creates a vibrant learning experience for students and contributes towards our goal to meet the highest standards of excellence and impact in our teaching, learning and research.”

News Archive

Media: ANC can learn a lesson from Moshoeshoe
2006-05-20


27/05/2006 20:32 - (SA) 
ANC can learn a lesson from Moshoeshoe
ON 2004, the University of the Free State turned 100 years old. As part of its centenary celebrations, the idea of the Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture was mooted as part of another idea: to promote the study of the meaning of Moshoeshoe.

This lecture comes at a critical point in South Africa's still-new democracy. There are indications that the value of public engagement that Moshoeshoe prized highly through his lipitso [community gatherings], and now also a prized feature in our democracy, may be under serious threat. It is for this reason that I would like to dedicate this lecture to all those in our country and elsewhere who daily or weekly, or however frequently, have had the courage to express their considered opinions on pressing matters facing our society. They may be columnists, editors, commentators, artists of all kinds, academics and writers of letters to the editor, non-violent protesters with their placards and cartoonists who put a mirror in front of our eyes.

There is a remarkable story of how Moshoeshoe dealt with Mzilikazi, the aggressor who attacked Thaba Bosiu and failed. So when Mzilikazi retreated from Thaba Bosiu with a bruised ego after failing to take over the mountain, Moshoeshoe, in an unexpected turn of events, sent him cattle to return home bruised but grateful for the generosity of a victorious target of his aggression. At least he would not starve along the way. It was a devastating act of magnanimity which signalled a phenomenal role change.

"If only you had asked," Moshoeshoe seemed to be saying, "I could have given you some cattle. Have them anyway."

It was impossible for Mzilikazi not to have felt ashamed. At the same time, he could still present himself to his people as one who was so feared that even in defeat he was given cattle. At any rate, he never returned.

I look at our situation in South Africa and find that the wisdom of Moshoeshoe's method produced one of the defining moments that led to South Africa's momentous transition to democracy. Part of Nelson Mandela's legacy is precisely this: what I have called counter-intuitive leadership and the immense possibilities it offers for re-imagining whole societies.

A number of events in the past 12 months have made me wonder whether we are faced with a new situation that may have arisen. An increasing number of highly intelligent, sensitive and highly committed South Africans across the class, racial and cultural spectrum confess to feeling uncertain and vulnerable as never before since 1994. When indomitable optimists confess to having a sense of things unhinging, the misery of anxiety spreads. It must have something to do with an accumulation of events that convey the sense of impending implosion. It is the sense that events are spiralling out of control and no one among the leadership of the country seems to have a handle on things.

I should mention the one event that has dominated the national scene continuously for many months now. It is, of course, the trying events around the recent trial and acquittal of Jacob Zuma. The aftermath continues to dominate the news and public discourse. What, really, have we learnt or are learning from it all? It is probably too early to tell. Yet the drama seems far from over, promising to keep us all without relief, and in a state of anguish. It seems poised to reveal more faultlines in our national life than answers and solutions.

We need a mechanism that will affirm the different positions of the contestants validating their honesty in a way that will give the public confidence that real solutions are possible. It is this kind of openness, which never comes easily, that leads to breakthrough solutions, of the kind Moshoeshoe's wisdom symbolises.

Who will take this courageous step? What is clear is that a complex democracy like South Africa's cannot survive a single authority. Only multiple authorities within a constitutional framework have a real chance. I want to press this matter further.

Could it be that part of the problem is that we are unable to deal with the notion of "opposition". We are horrified that any of us could become "the opposition". In reality, it is time we began to anticipate the arrival of a moment when there was no longer a single [overwhelmingly] dominant political force as is currently the case. Such is the course of change. The measure of the maturity of the current political environment will be in how it can create conditions that anticipate that moment rather than ones that seek to prevent it. This is the formidable challenge of a popular post-apartheid political movement.

Can it conceptually anticipate a future when it is no longer overwhelmingly in control, in the form in which it currently is and resist, counter-intuitively, the temptation to prevent such an eventuality? Successfully resisting such an option would enable its current vision and its ultimate legacy to our country to manifest itself in different articulations of itself, which then contend for social influence.

In this way, the vision never really dies, it simply evolves into higher, more complex forms of itself. If the resulting versions are what is called "the opposition" that should not be such a bad thing - unless we want to invent another name for it. The image of flying ants going off to start other similar settlements is not so inappropriate.

I do not wish to suggest that the nuptial flights of the alliance partners are about to occur: only that it is a mark of leadership foresight to anticipate them conceptually. Any political movement that has visions of itself as a perpetual entity should look at the compelling evidence of history. Few have survived those defining moments when they should have been more elastic, and that because they were not, did not live to see the next day.

I believe we may have reached a moment not fundamentally different from the sobering, yet uplifting and vision-making, nation-building realities that led to Kempton Park in the early 1990s. The difference between then and now is that the black majority is not facing white compatriots across the negotiating table. Rather, it is facing itself: perhaps really for the first time since 1994. It is not a time for repeating old platitudes. Could we apply to ourselves the same degree of inventiveness and rigorous negotiation we displayed up to the adoption or our Constitution?

Morena Moshoeshoe faced similarly formative challenges. He seems to have been a great listener. No problem was too insignificant that it could not be addressed. He seems to have networked actively across the spectrum of society. He seems to have kept a close eye on the world beyond Lesotho, forming strong friendships and alliances, weighing his options constantly. He seems to have had patience and forbearance. He had tons of data before him before he could propose the unexpected. He tells us across the years that moments of renewal demand no less.

  • This is an editied version of the inaugural Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture presented by Univeristy of Cape Town vice-chancellor Professor Ndebele at the University of the Free State on Thursday. Perspectives on Leadership Challenges In South Africa

 

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