Purpose:
The number of global health opportunities offered to medical students has increased over the past 20 years. Recognizing the growing prevalence of these experiences, a number of studies have shown that these types of exposures have a significant impact on medical students’ education. However, there is a paucity of literature on the educational impacts of short-term domestic service-learning trips, which can be more accessible due to fewer logistical and financial barriers. This mixed-methods qualitative/quantitative study aims to understand the impact of a domestic one-week service learning program on medical students’ educational development and career choices.
Methods:
The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of journal entries written by a cohort of students during a domestic weeklong service trip. They also administered a survey to all students who had participated in the program between 2009–2016.
Results:
In 88.6% (n = 31) of the journal entries, students reported learning about border town life, Native American health, and rural medical practice. In 42.8% (n = 15) of entries, participants described experiences they felt would impact their future medical career decisions. The students’ reflections also revealed implicit benefits such as becoming aware of privilege within society (n = 14, 40.0%). The majority of survey respondents reported that the trip improved their medical education and influenced the field and location of their future/current practice.
Conclusion:
This study suggests that domestic short-term service-learning trips impact medical students’ immediate educational development and may influence their future career plans. Further investigation into the local community’s perceptions of this service-learning trip will provide greater understanding of the impact on all involved.
medical students, interested in global health often feel that course offerings are inadequate. Thus, exposure to global health through experiential learning, such as observerships and electives, provide students with immersive opportunities to develop skills required for global health practice. This study prospectively examines what health professionals need to know to work in globalized communities, and how global health electives and observerships impact medical students' personal and professional development.Methods: Medical students participated in a pre-global health assessment survey; a pre-departure training session; completed an observership, research placement, or clinical elective in a lowresource setting; participated in a post-departure debrief, and a post-global health assessment survey.Findings: Global health placements impact students' personal and professional development in the following areas: awareness of the social determinants of health, awareness of resource utilization, adaptability to resource limitations, understanding of community needs and how to address those needs, communication skills, and compassion in clinical care. Global health placements also influenced medical students' future speciality choices, and approach to practicing medicine.Interpretation: Global health placements create opportunities for students in the health professions to develop competencies required to work in low-resource settings in Canada and abroad. This prospective study identifies some of the practice competencies required to address global health challenges, and allows us to determine whether placements abroad are associated with the development of global health competencies. Gaps in knowledge or skills that create barriers to working in global health settings need to be investigated.Abstract #: 1.023_HHR
Feasibility of Standardizing Prehospital Communication in Cuenca, Ecuador
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