There are many firsts in the newly introduced Bachelor of Emergency Medical Care (BEMC) course being offered at the Bellville campus.

Apart from being offered in a state-of-the-art building, CPUT’s BEMC 1 is also pioneering the introduction of Anatomy and Physiology into the course.

This is a first for Emergency Medical Care courses across the country and is expected to completely revolutionise the training of paramedics in South Africa.

Head of Department Christopher Lloyd says Anatomy and Physiology used to largely be taught via textbooks and PowerPoint presentations which cannot compare to the practical experience of seeing tissue under a microscope.

Dr Kareemah Gamieldien is at the helm of the innovation and this week taught her very first Anatomy and Physiology course to first years in a specially designed laboratory.

At a later stage, students will graduate from lab work to working on actual cadavers - another first for the course.

TOP CLASS: Health and Wellness Dean Dhiro Gihwala with HOD Christopher Lloyd and staff and students in the brand new anatomy lab

“The point of a subject like this is so that the students understand how the body works. So when it isn’t functioning correctly they can understand why the body responds the way it does,” says Gamieldien.

The course is offered in a state of the art lab which is kitted out with brand new microscopes and Data Acquisition Systems which will allow the students to monitor their own pulse rates, blood pressure, electrical cardiac events and even analyze their respiratory capacities.

“For our department, it is a huge feat, since we will be the first to incorporate practicals of this caliber in the Emergency Medicine programme so we are leading the way,” says Gamieldien.

Written by Lauren Kansley
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Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.

CPUT has benefited from a fellowship program, which gives African-born scholars in the United States and Canada the opportunity to collaborate with universities in six African countries.

A collaborative application between Dr Kareemah Gamieldien from CPUT’s Department of Emergency Medical Sciences (EMS) and Prof M. Faadiel Essop from the Physiological Sciences Department at Stellenbosch University, saw them being awarded the prestigious Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship. This accolade presented them with the opportunity to invite Dr Ismail Laher, a professor in the Department of Anaesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine, as a visiting academic to their institutions. 

Prof Laher has travelled to South Africa where he has been collaborating with CPUT’s EMS Department as well as with Stellenbosch University's Physiological Sciences Department on teaching, curriculum, research and mentoring. Laher said he was motivated to apply for the fellowship as he had been following Essop’s research and was keen on collaborating with him and the Department. Another motivating factor was the fact that the Western Cape is a hub for excellence in cardiovascular research.
“There are some interesting opportunities here because of the changing nature of the population - obesity is on the increase and there are other metabolic diseases. It’s an opportunity for sharing and exchanging ideas. I’ve come to learn from people here but I also have some ideas of how they can do things differently,” said Laher.

Gamieldien and Essop decided to collaborate on the fellowship because of its potential for research and education. Gamieldien said that Prof Laher had provided her with valuable feedback on improvements that could be made in terms of helping students to better learn and understand physiology.
“The main outcome is that this will help us to improve teaching physiology,” she said.

Opportunities for networking between various institutions in terms of research and teaching was also expected to flow from the initiative. Gamieldien said the program and collaboration were also in line with the vision for the Human Anatomy and Physiology in Emergency Care (HAPEC) endeavour, which was established in 2015 and strives to align anatomy and physiology to EMS.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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How Anatomy and Physiology is designed, taught and learnt by Emergency Care (EC) students was vigorously debated at the inaugural Human Anatomy and Physiology for Emergency Care (HAPEC) round-table conference.

The event saw academics from across the health spectrum converge on CPUT’s Bellville campus to unpack the issue which is becoming a growing concern for the Health Professions Council of South Africa.

Attendees from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Durban University of Technology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, University of Johannesburg, University of Fort Hareand the Boitekanelo College in Gaborone, Botswana gave their perspectives on how their courses are approached at their respective institutions in an attempt to problematize current A&P offered and how it aligns with their primary subject, emergency medical care (EMC). This all in an effort to nationally standardise A&P in EC programmes.

Anatomy and Physiology are pivotal foundation subjects that provide the EC graduate with knowledge about the structure and function of the human bod. In addition it helps the student understand the course of treatment they need to employ when responding to emergency scenes.

Guests found themselves debating a number of critical issues like how in-depth the subject matter should be, whether the course should articulate into credits for future admission into other health science subjects and challenges facing the overhaul of the course with the primary goal of proposing the minimum standard of A&P required for EC graduates

HAPEC Chairperson,CPUT’s Dr Kareemah Gamieldien says the conference was necessary because there were indications of mal-alignment between A&P and EMC. HAPEC therefore provided the ideal platform for both the A&P and EMC academics to identify the challenges faced when trying to integrate A&P theory with EMC practice.  

Written by Lauren Kansley

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Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.

The teaching excellence of a lecturer who strives to get more matric learners from disadvantaged backgrounds into university was acknowledged during a recent awards ceremony.

The Emergency Medical Sciences (EMS) Department’s Dr Kareemah Gamieldien recently won the Faculty Award during the Health and Wellness Sciences Faculty’s annual Teaching Excellence Awards.

Gamieldien, with the help of her department, initiated a community project at her alma mater, Wynberg High School, in a bid to boost matric Life Sciences results through a revision programme. 

“This is a project that is very dear to my heart. The reality is that students who come from socio-economic disadvantaged backgrounds automatically are disadvantaged in the education system. I asked myself one day ‘What can EMS Basic Sciences do to help these matriculants qualify to even apply for medical or science programmes’,” said Gamaldien.

She approached the school and offered the support of EMS Basic Sciences to their Life sciences matric students in preparation for their final exams. Ten second-year physiology students came along as tutors.

“After three sessions the results were unexpectedly exceptional,” said Gamieldien who added that they were now waiting for the matric pupils’ final results to assess the impact of the project.

She acknowledged the Marketing and Communication Department and the Centre for Community Engagement and Work Integrated Learning for their support.

Two Departmental Awards were also announced and both winners are from the Department of Medical Imaging and Therapeutic Sciences. They are Diagnostic Ultrasound lecturer Merlisa Kemp and clinical instructor Heidi Thomas.

“What I tell students is that sometimes your circumstances mould you but you shouldn’t let your circumstances define who you are,” said Kemp.

Thomas said the focus of her teaching was on active participation where everyone is involved in the learning process, peer engagement and literature.

Prof Penelope Engel-Hills, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences, said it has been a great year for the faculty: “I thank each and every one of you because our students come out of here ready to go into healthcare practice because they have such competent teachers and practitioners.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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The Emergency Medical Sciences (EMS) Department has reached out to a school community in a bid to boost matric Life Sciences results through a revision programme. 

The project at Wynberg High School was initiated by the Department’s Dr Kareemah Gamieldien who said their vision was to help more learners achieve the requirements to qualify for programmes in the medical field.

She said that while many Western Cape matriculants pass Life Sciences, they do not achieve the minimum requirements for many medical fields, including the Bachelor of Emergency Medical Care (BEMC) programme.

“CPUT is always trying to ensure that the students registered at our institution are demographically represented. However, the social inequalities in our country are still quite evident and this places many of our matriculants at a significant disadvantage to qualify for the medical programmes offered at higher education institutions,” said Gamieldien.

“Being part of a department that invests in engaging and supporting the community, I identified an area that the Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) programme could also provide a community service to through community of practice.”

Gamieldien said the school, which is commonly known as Abbey Hall, was her alma mater and she was collaborating on the project with the acting principal Gavin Nieuwoudt and Life Sciences teacher Nabeelah Israel.

She said a significant number of learners at the school were from underprivileged homes and the school was understaffed in terms of Life Sciences teachers.

A total of 85 learners would benefit from the project and lessons would be presented once a month on a Saturday morning until the start of the final exams.

The lessons are being presented by A&P staff and a selected group of second-year BEMC 2 Physiology students.

For 2018 only one high school was approached in order to determine the feasibility of the project. “In 2019 I will select an additional school in order to determine the sustainability of the project with the vision of maintaining it as an integral part of the department’s community service programmes,” Gamieldien said.

Israel said there wasn’t always enough time to go into detail with some of the content in the curriculum and project allowed for more focus on some of the longer questions.
“The CPUT students have been brilliant and the learners can really relate to them.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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