Curriculum mapping evaluation of a Tyler model designed physiotherapy curriculum of the Baptist institute of health science in Cameroon

The shortage of rehabilitation health personnel in Cameroon is a limiting factor to attaining full health coverage under Sustainable Development Goal 3 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages. This problem has been accentuated by the low level and quality of training of rehabilitation workers such as physiotherapists. This was partly due to the poor understanding of the profession of physiotherapy. The profession had also been devaluated to massage therapy or just a paramedical practice, requiring training programs of 2 years or less. This has caused a huge rehabilitation personnel gap which the Baptist Institute of Health Sciences is aimed at addressing with the Bachelor of Sciences in Physiotherapy curriculum and training. The paper aims to evaluate the aptness of the Tyler-designed curriculum in addressing the rehabilitation skill gap. The Baptist Institute of Health Sciences developed a 4-year Bachelor of Sciences curriculum designed using the Tyler Model as a training intervention to address this problem. This curriculum mapping tool is used to evaluate the designed curriculum for vertical, horizontal, interdisciplinary, and subject-area coherence and redundancy. This is to assess the structure of the curriculum in preparing physiotherapists to operate in full physiotherapists competencies in integrating rehabilitation between primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare systems as defined World Health Organization. It was found that the curriculum has zero vertical redundancy (coherent with no content overlap) as it systematically covers 16 curriculum tracks. The zero vertical redundancy reveals the aptness of the curriculum as it includes all 8 domains provided by the Physiotherapists Educational framework and more. These 16 curriculum tracks are pedagogically grouped into three broad levels of competencies namely the fundamental, core, and specialty expertise competencies levels. They are progressively fashioned to train the habits of the mind and develop the appropriate skills proficiency outcomes (SPOs) in the physiotherapists in training. The curriculum has horizontal redundancy (skill repetition development cycle) created by the spiral curriculum approach used in reinforcing the skills proficiency Outcomes (SPOs) across the three competencies categories. This is because the physiotherapist in training grows in the 6 skills proficiency outcomes (SPOs) from comprehensive examination and assessment through to recommendation and patient self-management skills at all three levels.