Not Above the Law: A Legal and Ethical Analysis of Short-Term Experiences in Global Health

Rowthorn, Virginia; Loh, Lawrence C.; Evert, Jessica; Chung, Eleanor; Lasker, Judith N.

doi:10.5334/aogh.2451

Cited by 45 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…32 Lack of supervision of volunteers and volunteers who practice outside their abilities are often reported as negative aspects of global health experiences. 11,16,19,46,47 Smaldino et al 48 explained that practice beyond one's scope can occur when local needs are great, resources are limited, and the host country desires the volunteer services. Although students and trainees are often given safety and supervision recommendations, the ethical considerations for safe practice may not be part of preparation for all types of volunteers.…”

Section: Recruitment Preparation and Supervision Of Volunteersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical Considerations for Short‐Term Global Health Projects

Penney

2020

J Midwife Womens Health

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Various types of health professional volunteers from high-income nations are increasingly engaged in short-term global health projects in lowand middle-income countries. The goal of global health projects is to improve health for all people and address health inequities. Short-term projects lasting days to months can create challenges for volunteers and hosts. Despite attempting to do good, volunteer efforts may unwittingly cause harm to host organizations by planning projects without consideration for the local infrastructure, the community, and the health care staff. Although well-intentioned and often beneficial, volunteer efforts can fail to provide adequate follow-up or may disrupt or override local health efforts. In some low-resource settings, dire health needs and lack of supervision may result in volunteers practicing beyond their professional scope. Recently published guidelines, competencies, and position statements have addressed ethical behaviors for short-term global health experiences. Partnerships that are founded on principles of justice and autonomy provide an avenue for mutual collaboration. Short-term global health projects that focus on host needs are likely to strengthen local capacity to improve health outcomes. This article reviews guidelines for short-term global health experiences and addresses the ethical principles for planning effective projects.

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Section: Recruitment Preparation and Supervision Of Volunteersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical Considerations for Short‐Term Global Health Projects

Penney

2020

J Midwife Womens Health

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“…While we believe the data produced by the STAT project would be helpful in this regard, the legal implications of enforcement are outside the scope of this study, although this topic is discussed in depth in a recent publication. 9 It is also reasonable to believe that a similar tool could be useful for other, non-medical cadres, although such a tool would need to be separately validated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliability of the Service Trip Audit Tool to assess the quality of short-term medical missions

Dainton

Gorman

Cherniak

et al. 2020

International Health

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Background We aimed to assess the adherence of short-term medical missions (STMMs) operating in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to key best practices using the Service Trip Audit Tool (STAT) and to calculate the inter-rater reliability of the data points. This tool was based on a previously published inventory of 18 STMM best practices. Methods Programme administrators and recent volunteers from 335 North American organizations offering STMMs in LAC were invited to complete the STAT anonymously online. Adherence to each of 18 best practices was reported as either ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘not sure’. Fleiss’ κ was used to assess inter-rater agreement of the responses. Results A total of 194 individuals from 102 organizations completed the STAT (response rate 30.4%; 102/335 organizations) between 12 July and 7 August 2017. Reported adherence was >80% for 9 of 18 best practices. For 37 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with multiple raters, inter-rater agreement was moderate to substantial (κ>0.4) for 12 of 18 best practices. Conclusions This is the first study to evaluate adherence to STMM best practices. Such an objective evaluation will be valuable to governments, volunteers and NGO donors who have an interest in identifying high-quality partners. Assessment and monitoring of STMMs through self-audit may be foundational steps towards quality improvement.

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“…There are many well-documented criticisms of STEGHs and the inequities of opportunities [39][40][41]. Before and during many STEGHs, international partners are expected to support coordination and facilitate logistics, particularly for those who are new to a setting.…”

Section: Addressing the Criticisms Of Steghsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical and Ethical Solutions for Remote Applied Learning Experiences in Global Health

Kalbarczyk

Harrison

Sanguineti

et al. 2020

Annals of Global Health

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Global health trainees rely on immersive experiences to apply their classroom knowledge in real-world settings. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic travel has come to a halt and short-term experiences are no longer available in their current form. As with didactic material, global health programs have an opportunity to innovate the delivery of applied learning, providing trainees with robust, mentored experiences that promote the acquisition of core global health competencies. We provide a series of practical solutions for remote applied learning including case-based learning, pathfinder pedagogy, virtual reality simulations, and twinning. We further describe the role of these approaches in addressing common criticisms of short-term experiences and their potential for creating new win-win dynamics between institutions and trainees.

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Not Above the Law: A Legal and Ethical Analysis of Short-Term Experiences in Global Health

Cited by 45 publications

References 7 publications

Ethical Considerations for Short‐Term Global Health Projects

Ethical Considerations for Short‐Term Global Health Projects

Reliability of the Service Trip Audit Tool to assess the quality of short-term medical missions

Practical and Ethical Solutions for Remote Applied Learning Experiences in Global Health

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