Integrating Diverse Study Abroad Opportunities Into Public Health Curricula: Three Distinct Strategies to Address Common Barriers

Abstract

Background: To effectively train future leaders, undergraduate public health programs must prepare students to address challenges with cross-cultural competence and a global perspective. Study abroad programming represents a high impact practice that can be applied to any number of areas and topics within the field of public health. Infusing global learning into undergraduate curriculum, increases confidence in serving culturally diverse populations and aligns with multiple public health accreditation standards. Unfortunately, barriers often prevent integration of this high impact practice into program curriculum. This manuscript provides strategies to integrate diverse study abroad programming into public health curriculum and mitigate common barriers for students and faculty. Methods: Faculty from the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public Health (COPH) used three strategies to improve access to global learning: Adding public health courses to established study abroad programs Utilizing academic travel companies Leveraging existing international and university partnerships. Results: A diverse array of public health-focused study abroad programs resulted from these strategies. Starting with just 12 students in the first program, the number of undergraduate participants in short-term, faculty lead courses grew to 164 students over the span of 4 academic years. This represents a 275% increase in undergraduate students participating in public health-focused study abroad courses, and a 160% increase in the percentage of public health majors participating in study abroad coursework. The primary barriers of cost, curriculum, and academic culture were addressed throughout development of each new program. Conclusions: Infusing study abroad programs into the public health curriculum provides students with diverse opportunities to gain the skills they will need as public health practitioners. The design and implementation of the strategies that were used to successfully integrate global learning into one public health program's curriculum can help inform other schools and programs of public health on ways to increase student utilization of this high-impact practice.

Using Collaborative Online International Learning to Support Global Midwifery Education

“…Although global programming has been ongoing for decades, it has largely benefited those living in high-income countries (HICs) in the Global North. Eichbaum and colleagues stated, “Where bidirectional exchanges exist, it is well known that HIC learners traveling to low and middle income countries (LMIC) consistently outnumber LMIC learners traveling to HICs.”4 (p334) Furthermore, the data to support the benefits of global programming emphasize the impact of the study abroad programs on student learning (largely students from HICs)2,5 and rarely consider the impact the program has on the local community 6. This has created significant inequity in access in global programs and unethical programming 7.…”

Internationalisation of the curriculum in health programs

“…However, such programs have been criticised as being peripheral to teaching programs, only available to limited numbers of students, and a lack of evidence that short term mobility programs lead to transformations in students' global and intercultural capabilities [29][30][31]. Nevertheless, study abroad within health programs does appear to be effective if it is faculty led, takes students out of their comfort zone, is immersive, and has reflective practices embedded to facilitate transformative learning [28,29,[31][32][33]. From this, there needs to be serious consideration of the underlying pedagogy if such experiences are to have the intended learning outcomes.…”

“…As accreditation agencies move towards recognition of learning outcomes rather than insistence on particular content [45], this should open up opportunities for health programs. Furthermore, accreditation standards for health programs increasingly stipulate the need for students to develop intercultural competencies, which will help to contribute towards internationalisation of the curriculum [14,15,28,29,[46][47][48].…”

“…This can include short term study tours, placements/internships, short courses, and longer term study programs. The immersion in a different culture can bring benefits including knowledge acquisition, cultural insights, and personal growth [26,29], but there are also inherent risks [28,35,[59][60][61][62]. Risks include cultural imperialism, imposition on the host's resources, lack of benefit for, or damage to, the host community, culture shock, harassment, sickness, crime, political and industrial events, logistical problems, home sickness, and ethical challenges.…”

“…In Australia, schemes such as the New Columbo Plan provide support for over 10,000 Australian students to engage in projects across the Asia–Pacific in a typical year ( https://www.Dfat.Gov.Au/people-to-people/new-colombo-plan/mobility-program/previous-rounds ). Similarly, there has been strong growth in study abroad projects in North America and elsewhere in the world [ 26 , 28 ]. However, such programs have been criticised as being peripheral to teaching programs, only available to limited numbers of students, and a lack of evidence that short term mobility programs lead to transformations in students’ global and intercultural capabilities [ 29 – 31 ].…”