Abstract
BackgroundAn increasing number of emergency medicine (EM) residency training programs have residents interested in participating in clinical rotations in other countries. However, the policies that each individual training program applies to this process are different. To our knowledge, little has been done in the standardization of these experiences to help EM residency programs with the evaluation, administration and implementation of a successful global health clinical elective experience. The objective of this project was to assess the current status of EM global health electives at residency training programs and to establish recommendations from educators in EM on the best methodology to implement successful global health electives.MethodsDuring the 2011 Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) Academic Assembly, participants met to address this issue in a mediated discussion session and working group. Session participants examined data previously obtained via the CORD online listserve, discussed best practices in global health applications, evaluations and partnerships, and explored possible solutions to some of the challenges. In addition a survey was sent to CORD members prior to the 2011 Academic Assembly to evaluate the resources and processes for EM residents’ global experiences.ResultsRecommendations included creating a global health working group within the organization, optimizing a clearinghouse of elective opportunities for residents and standardizing elective application materials, site evaluations and resident assessment/feedback methods. The survey showed that 71.4% of respondents have global health partnerships and electives. However, only 36.7% of programs require pre-departure training, and only 20% have formal competency requirements for these global health electives.ConclusionsA large number of EM training programs have global health experiences available, but these electives and the trainees may benefit from additional institutional support and formalized structure.
Highlights
An increasing number of emergency medicine (EM) residency training programs have residents interested in participating in clinical rotations in other countries
Experiences from various graduate medical education programs seem to indicate that participating in a global health elective during training exposes trainees to different disease pathologies, teaches them to work in resource limited settings, increases their cultural sensitivity and communication skills, and provides them with an increased awareness of community and public health [4-10]
As part of the 2011 Academic Assembly (AA), a specialty track was devoted to evaluate how global health experiences are integrated into EM residency training programs
Summary
An increasing number of emergency medicine (EM) residency training programs have residents interested in participating in clinical rotations in other countries. Little has been done in the standardization of these experiences to help EM residency programs with the evaluation, administration and implementation of a successful global health clinical elective experience. The objective of this project was to assess the current status of EM global health electives at residency training programs and to establish recommendations from educators in EM on the best methodology to implement successful global health electives. Experiences from various graduate medical education programs seem to indicate that participating in a global health elective during training exposes trainees to different disease pathologies, teaches them to work in resource limited settings, increases their cultural sensitivity and communication skills, and provides them with an increased awareness of community and public health [4-10]. Large disparities remain in funding, accreditation, oversight and evaluation among EM residency training programs
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