Contextualisation of Practice, interviews with primary health care professionals for undergraduate health students.

Background: Primary health care (PHC) is at the forefront of undergraduate health student learning. As tertiary health educators there is need to convey to students that there is a change in provision of care from acute to primary resulting in greater benefits for clients. Students can also recognise the opportunities this has for them as professionals. In response, Charles Darwin University nursing academics and learning technologists collaborated to design an open web resource, consisting of a series of video interviews with professionals from five different PHC non-government organisations. The aim was to ask each PHC provider the same set of questions and capture their response on individual video clips. Exhibiting the PHC provider’s perspectives enables students to envisage the challenges within this sector and showcase the professional opportunities that exist beyond acute care.
Methods: The qualitative method of inquiry used semi-structured interviews, which targeted six areas of health: health care systems, primary health care provision, preparation of health students, chronic disease, health education [for clients] and health promotion. A highly sophisticated open web platform consisting of a single web page that is visually attractive, interactive, accessible and responsive was designed. This web resource can be viewed on all devices and has passed the Web consortium accessibility guideline (WCAG 2.0) Level AA accessibility standards.
Results: The development of the interactive open web based platform and the hosting of its video interviews provides a rich interactive learning experience for students and professionals to explore the multidisciplinary nature of PHC. The PHC key informants came from diverse workplaces which translated into various professional perspectives and so providing the end user with maximum coverage of topics. The willingness of key informants to contribute to this project shows the collaborative nature of the tertiary health education sector and the PHC industry.
Conclusions: The PHC project demonstrates to undergraduate health students, professional opportunities and innovations that exist beyond the acute care tertiary hospital sector. The web resource provides a rich interactive learning experience that makes education accessible to all.