Evaluation of community based education and service courses for undergraduate radiography students at Makerere University, Uganda

Introduction: The Faculty of Medicine, Makerere University, is the oldest health professionals' training institution in East Africa. It has been training health professionals since 1924. In 2001, a bachelors degree in radiography commenced. After a curriculum review, the university's longstanding traditional curriculum was converted to a problem based learning curriculum with a focus on Community Based Education and Service (COBES). As a component of COBES, radiography, medical, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy students are sent to community health facilities where they are expected to participate in community services and other primary healthcare activities. This study was designed to obtain radiography teachers' and students' opinions of the significance and relevance of this community based training to radiography training. Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Results: Both students and teachers (91.4%) affirmed the community training to be significant and relevant to radiography training. In total, 71.4% of the students had participated in X-ray services and 39.2% in ultrasound services during COBES; and 68.6% of the students reported the need to be better prepared for the COBES training. Conclusion: Both students and teachers confirmed COBES to be relevant to Ugandan radiography training.