Academic affairs and global health: how global health electives can accelerate progress towards ACGME milestones.

Alison Schroth Hayward,Bhakti Hansoti,Gabrielle A Jacquet,Hani Mowafi,Tracy Sanson

doi:10.1186/s12245-015-0093-0

Abstract

Global health electives (GHEs) have become a standard offering in many residency programs. Residency electives should aid residents in achieving outcomes in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competency domains. In this paper, the authors review existing literature and provide expert opinion to highlight how global health electives can complement traditional training programs to assist residents in achieving ACGME milestones, using emergency medicine residency as an example. Recommendations are provided for identifying exemplary global health electives and for the development of institutional global health elective curricula in order to facilitate milestone achievement. Global health electives can advance progress towards ACGME milestones; however, they may vary greatly in terms of potential for learner advancement. Electives should thus be rigorously vetted to ensure they meet standards that will facilitate this process. Given that milestones are a newly introduced tool for assessing resident educational achievement, very little research is available currently to directly determine impacts, and further study will be needed.

Highlights

The number of physicians-in-training participating in global health electives (GHEs) is continually increasing
The proportion of medical students who report participating in GH experiences has increased annually from 27.2 % in 2006 to 30.8 % in 2010 [1]
There has been a concomitant rise in residents engaging in GHEs as part of graduate medical training

Summary

Introduction

The number of physicians-in-training participating in global health electives (GHEs) is continually increasing. The six competencies are as follows: patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice. Global health electives provide a rich environment for trainees to enhance their patient care skills and to hone their history-taking and physical examination skills (Fig. 1, Milestones # (M#)2, 4) when their access to high-cost diagnostics is limited.

Results

Conclusion