Global Health

Each experience provided within Global Health is designed to help medical students become comfortable within the community health context of a developing country which has limited resources and access to medical care.

Medical students will achieve Community and Education Goals within 3 primary areas:

1. Introduction to the Local Health Care Systems.
2. Cultural Issues and Communication, including natural healers within bush medicine.
3. Reading, Research and Community Education Projects.

The learning objectives facilitated through Global Health student experiences are:

1. Recognize and appreciate cost-effective approaches to medical care in a resource constrained setting. Students will have the opportunity to practice medicine relying heavily on the history and physical examination with limited access to diagnostics, choice of medicines and hospital facilities
2. Demonstrate effective team-building skills with colleagues from multiple medical disciplines and with local health care providers
3. Recognize and treat illnesses common to those seen in the developing country
4. Recognize the delivery of health in a multi-culture region of the world while gaining an understanding of the country's political, cultural and historical context and their impact on health and health care delivery
5. Recognize prevalent cross-cultural and underserved issues in primary care, and gain an understanding of how this knowledge can be applied to a practice in the participants’ home country
6. Understand the benefits and challenges of working with communities and recognize strategies to overcome the challenges
7. Develop the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to effectively work with communities to identify and appropriately access community-based resources
8. Understand and appreciate how psychological, economic, spiritual, social and biological factors interrelate to affect patient health

Student experiences will encompass caring for adults and children. Depending on the location, students will participate in the Global Health program for a 4 week rotation and will be called upon to support all aspects of the medical team and clinic operation. During this month they are given reading assignments, didactic lectures, participate in group discussions and complete a project or paper for presentation. With the supervision of the Director, students will take care of patients at medical clinics, mobile clinics, and during home visits while in the developing country. Students will be involved in multiple operational aspects of field medical work as they work closely with the medical and support staff.

Contact

David Beyda, MD