Family medicine rotation in Botswana: experiences of fifth-year medical students in decentralized rural training sites

INTRODUCTION: globally, medical students have been exposed to decentralized training in rural settings. The experiences of these students regarding this kind of training have been reported in various settings. However, such students´ experiences have rarely been reported from sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this study was to explore fifth-year medical students´ experiences of a Family Medicine Rotation (FMR) at the University of Botswana and their recommendations for improvement. METHODS: an exploratory qualitative study using a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was done to collect data from the fifth-year medical students who underwent family medicine rotation at the University of Botswana. Participants´ responses were audio-recorded and later transcribed. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data collected. RESULTS: the overall experience of the medical students during FMR was positive. Negative experiences included issues with accommodation, logistic support onsite, inconsistency of learning activities between teaching sites, as well as limited supervision attributed to staff shortage. Emerging themes from the data included: diverse FMR rotations experiences, inconsistency of activities and different learnings between FMR training sites, challenges, and barriers to learning during FMR, enablers to learning during FMR, and recommendations for improvement. CONCLUSION: FMR was regarded as a positive experience by fifth years for medical students. However, improvement was needed especially with the inconsistency of learning activities between sites. Accommodation, logistic support, and recruitment of more staff were also needed for the improvement of medical students´ FMR experience.