A Qualitative Evaluation of the Impact of a Rural Short-Term Service Learning Elective on Medical Students

Abstract

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