Rebecca Nekaka, Paul Oboth, Yahaya Gavamukulya, Joseph Mpagi Luwaga, Lydia Ssenyonga, Julius Wandabwa, Julius Nteziyaremye*, Paul Waako and Jacob Iramiot Stanley
Busitema University (BU) was the first and only multi-campus public university in Uganda. The BU Faculty of Health Sciences (BUFHS) was established in 2013 to rum health sciences courses. Unique about the university is the admission of 1/3 of the class as mature-age entrants. This was coined in to solve the problem of poor retention of doctors in rural areas of Uganda.
The BUFHS curriculum was also specially designed with a strong Community-Based Education, Research and Services (COBERS) program right from year 1 of the students’ study programme. The faculty over time in 2016 introduced yet another innovative way of integrating Inter-Professional Education (IPE) approach into COBERS with the ultimate target of creating different professionals of health workers that will appreciate learning and working together rather than run in silos to solve community health needs yet recognising the identity and uniqueness of oneself and the others. The program did not only allow the university to rethink traditional learning strategies and programs but also improved the skills of the academic staff, preceptors and students.
This communication is aimed at providing a platform from which health training institutions can learn from the COBERS-IPE experience.
