Assessing clinical associate students’ views on learning opportunities and involvement during primary health care placements: a mixed methods study in Tshwane

This study underscores the importance of primary healthcare settings in Clin-A training, demonstrating that clinics provide learning opportunities and involvement in patient care comparable to hospitals. To address challenges such as high workload areas where students feel like employees, insufficient teaching, lack of staff awareness, limited learning in low-volume clinics, and disrupted rotations requires, structured rotations, enhanced preceptor training, and improved communication between programs and clinical sites are essential.