Pre-departure Training for Healthcare Students Going Abroad: Impact on Preparedness

A Gatebe Kironji; Jacob T Cox; Jill Edwardson; Dane Moran; James Aluri; Bryn Carroll; Chi Chiung Grace Chen

doi:10.9204/aogh.2378

Pre-departure Training for Healthcare Students Going Abroad: Impact on Preparedness

Ann Glob Health. 2018 Nov 5;84(4):683-691. doi: 10.9204/aogh.2378.

Authors

A Gatebe Kironji¹, Jacob T Cox², Jill Edwardson³, Dane Moran⁴, James Aluri⁴, Bryn Carroll⁴, Chi Chiung Grace Chen⁵

Affiliations

¹ Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Baltimore, MD, US.
² Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, US.
³ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, John Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, US.
⁴ John Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, US.
⁵ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, US.

Abstract

Background: Many medical and nursing schools offer opportunities for students to participate in global health experiences abroad, but little is known about the efficacy of pre-departure training in preparing students for these experiences.

Objectives: The primary aim was to identify characteristics of pre-departure training associated with participants' reporting a high level of preparedness for their global health experiences. Secondary objectives included identifying students' preferred subjects of study and teaching modalities for pre-departure training.

Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to all medical and nursing students at our institution from 2013 to 2015. Questions addressed prior global health experiences and pre-departure training, preferences for pre-departure training, and demographic information. Findings: Of 517 respondents, 55% reported having a prior global health experience abroad, 77% of whom felt prepared for their experience. Fifty-three percent received pre-departure training. Simply receiving pre-departure training was not associated with perceived preparedness, but pre-departure training in the following learning domains was: travel safety, personal health, clinical skills, cultural awareness, and leadership. Perceiving pre-departure training as useful was also independently associated with self-reported preparedness. Students' preferred instruction methods included discussion, lecture, and simulation, and their most desired subjects of study were travel safety (81%), cultural skills (87%), and personal health (82%).

Conclusions: Incorporating travel safety, personal health, clinical skills, cultural awareness, and/or leadership into pre-departure training may increase students' preparedness for global health experiences. Student perceptions of the usefulness of pre-departure training is also associated with self-reported preparedness, suggesting a possible "buy-in" effect.

© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
International Educational Exchange*
Learning*
Male
Middle Aged
Professional Competence / standards*
Students, Medical / psychology*
Students, Nursing / psychology*
Teaching / organization & administration*
Young Adult

Grants and funding

Financial support was provided by the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Nursing to pilot an elective, entitled the Global Health Leadership Program, in which medical and nursing students participate in clinical clerkships abroad. These data were collected as a component of the Global Health Leadership Program.