Theme
International Medical Education
Category
General
INSTITUTION
Weill Cornell Medical College. New York, NY. USA
Global Health (GH) Program at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC)
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A strength of the Medical College that draws applicants with interests and/or experiences in GH
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Prior student interests include community service, research, and public health field work
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50% of WCMC students go overseas during 4 yrs of medical education
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4th year electives
- Summer experience between 1st & 2nd years
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4th year electives
Global Health Summer Fellows (GHSFs)
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Go through a strict application process
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Trips partly sponsored by privately endowed or foundational funding
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Post-trip report required to receive moneys
- No guidelines on these post-trip write-ups prior to 2011
Service Learning
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Concept has been shown to promote personal & professional development by incorporating reflection
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Is gaining increasing attention in medical education
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Past literature focuses on changes/outcomes in those receiving service
- Current trend is shifting to evaluating the learn experience
Glassick’s Criteria for scholarship (Glassicks 2000)
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Based on work at the Carnegie Foundation
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A rigorous framwork to evaluate scientific & educational edeavors
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Useful for guiding academic projects, from planning to implementation to evaluation
- 6 criteria: clear goals, adequate preparation, appropriate methods, significant results, effective presentation, reflective critique
Objectives:
- Standardize post-trip write-up guidelines by incorporating service learning & Glassick’s scholarship frameworks;
- Identify emerging themes elicited by the new guidelines that capture learner personal & professional growth
Methods:
- Two medical students accepted to the Global Health Summer Fellowship volunteer to work with 2 GH Fellows (hired by the Office of Global Health Education)
- Under faculty mentorship, the team reviewed pertinent literature & drafted guidelines for post-trip write-ups
- The draft was reviewed & approved by the Global Health Committee
- The guidelines were introduced to GHSFs in a one-hour in-class session during the 2-week GH enrichment elective course 2 months prior to their trips
- During the session faculty reviewed the 2 frameworks, and asked students to apply them to evaluate write-ups from previous years
Sample questions in addition to description of the proposed activities or research projects
· How did your experience meet or not meet your learning objectives?
· What obstacles & opportunities did you encounter during your experience. How did you take advantage of or overcome them?
· Describe how your experience has impacted your personal & professional development, including future career goals.
· Describe the best aspects about the experience
· List three remaining questions you still have that you plan to pursue further
· What advice would you give future students interested in similar projects/experiences?
Data Collection & Analysys
- The team collected post-trip summaries after the summer of 2011
- The data were de-identified by removing names
- The team reviewed the write-ups for emerging themes using Grounded Theory
- The team first reviewed the data individually, coded them with emerging themes
- The team then met to compare & finalize themes based on concensus
- None of the team members was involved in the distribution of funding to GHSFs
Participant Characteristics
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24 students participated in the program, in 12 countries
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All students submitted their write-ups
- Experiences included clinical observership, basic-science & translation research
Post-Trip write-ups after guideline introduction
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Increase in length, number of topics discussed & depth of discussion/reflection
- Emerging themes include
- The wide range of medical conditions seen
- Impact of psychosocial factors on illness
- Clinical & research skills acquired
- Challenges encountered in the field: Largely systems-issues
- Impact on future careers
- Advice for future students
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Areas requiring further investigations
- Pain control
- Cross-cultural communication
- Patient-centered care
- Interprofessional collaboration
The introduction of explicit guidelines using service learning & Glassick’s scholarship frameworks improved the quantity & quality of post-trip summaries. Emerging themes identified areas for future research & curricular enhancement for the preparatory elective course
2. Glassick CE, Huber MT, Maeroff GI. Scholarship assessed : Evaluation of the professoriate. 1st ed. San Francisco, Ca.: Jossey-Bass; 1996