The impact of global health opportunities on residency selection

Abstract

Background An increasing number of medical trainees across specialties desire and expect Global Health (GH) experiences during training. It is useful for residency programs to know the impact that offering GH opportunities has on resident recruitment. The study objectives were to explore the importance of GH opportunities in residency selection among fourth-year medical students, examine the relationship between interest in GH and career plans, and describe students’ perspectives on prior GH experiences. Methods The authors administered an electronic survey to all fourth-year medical students attending 12 different US institutions in February 2020. Data from the ten schools who were able to comply with the survey distribution methodology and with response rates above 25% were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation. Results A total of 707 fourth-year medical students from the included schools completed the survey out of 1554 possible students (46% response rate). One third of respondents ranked the presence of GH experiences in residency as moderately or very important and 26% felt that the presence of a formal GH curriculum was at least moderately important, with variation noted among specialties. After training, 65% of students envision practicing internationally in some capacity. A desire to care for underserved patients in their careers was significantly correlated with an interest in GH experiences during residency. Conclusions The opportunity to be involved in GH experiences during training can be an important factor for many medical students when considering residency choice, and the availability of these opportunities may be a valuable recruitment tool. Students valuing GH opportunities during residency are more interested in working with underserved populations in their future careers.

Global cardiothoracic surgery: A survey of trainees’ interests and barriers

“…Previous studies have shown that trainees with prior international experience are more likely to select residency programs that offer global health training opportunities, 31 and that participating in global health electives during residency is subsequently associated with involvement in international healthcare initiatives postresidency. 32 During the progression through medical training, time for extracurricular activities such as global health often becomes more limited as residents are limited to using call-free elective time to pursue these experiences. 33 This is consistent with our data.…”

Underprepared: influences of U.S. medical students’ self-assessed confidence in immigrant and refugee health care

“…Ultimately, 707 fourth-year medical students from ten different medical schools participated in this study, a 46% response rate based on medical school enrollment. This report is a sub-analysis of a survey that assessed medical student GH experiences and its impact on selecting residency training programs [ 31 ]. Here, results from the questions focused on immigrant and refugee care will be shared and discussed.…”

Strengthening Mentorship in Global Health for US Medical Students

“…Although there is a lack of consensus around which global health competencies should be implemented within a medical global health training program, the importance of global health training through mentorship has gained widespread attention as university-based global health programs have proliferated, and the number of students engaging in global health has risen [ 4 5 ]. For example, a multi-institution Medical Student Global Health Study Group found that 65% of US fourth-year students in the survey envisioned practicing internationally in some capacity [ 6 ].…”