Cargando…

The ethics and safety of medical student global health electives

OBJECTIVES: To explore and characterize the ethical and safety challenges of global health experiences as they affect medical students in order to better prepare trainees to face them. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 Canadian medical trainees who had participated in global...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dell, Evelyn M., Varpio, Lara, Petrosoniak, Andrew, Gajaria, Amy, McCarthy, Anne E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: IJME 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4207171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25341214
http://dx.doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5334.8051
_version_ 1782340929880850432
author Dell, Evelyn M.
Varpio, Lara
Petrosoniak, Andrew
Gajaria, Amy
McCarthy, Anne E.
author_facet Dell, Evelyn M.
Varpio, Lara
Petrosoniak, Andrew
Gajaria, Amy
McCarthy, Anne E.
author_sort Dell, Evelyn M.
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To explore and characterize the ethical and safety challenges of global health experiences as they affect medical students in order to better prepare trainees to face them. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 Canadian medical trainees who had participated in global health experiences during medical school. Convenience and snowball sampling were utilized. Using Moustakas’s transcendental phenomenological approach, participant descriptions of ethical dilemmas and patient/trainee safety problems were analyzed. This generated an aggregate that illustrates the essential meanings of global health experience ethical and safety issues faced. RESULTS: We interviewed 23 participants who had completed 38 electives (71%, n=27, during pre-clinical years) spend-ing a mean 6.9 weeks abroad, and having visited 23 countries. Sixty percent (n=23) had pre-departure training while 36% (n=14) had post-experience debriefing. Three macro-level themes were identified: resource disparities and provision of care; navigating clinical ethical dilemmas; and threats to trainee safety. CONCLUSIONS: Medical schools have a responsibility to ensure ethical and safe global health experiences. However, our findings suggest that medical students are often poorly prepared for the ethical and safety dilemmas they encounter during these electives. Medical students require intensive pre-departure training that will prepare them emotionally to deal with these dilemmas. Such training should include discussions of how to comply with clinical limitations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4207171
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2014
publisher IJME
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-42071712014-10-23 The ethics and safety of medical student global health electives Dell, Evelyn M. Varpio, Lara Petrosoniak, Andrew Gajaria, Amy McCarthy, Anne E. Int J Med Educ Research Article OBJECTIVES: To explore and characterize the ethical and safety challenges of global health experiences as they affect medical students in order to better prepare trainees to face them. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 Canadian medical trainees who had participated in global health experiences during medical school. Convenience and snowball sampling were utilized. Using Moustakas’s transcendental phenomenological approach, participant descriptions of ethical dilemmas and patient/trainee safety problems were analyzed. This generated an aggregate that illustrates the essential meanings of global health experience ethical and safety issues faced. RESULTS: We interviewed 23 participants who had completed 38 electives (71%, n=27, during pre-clinical years) spend-ing a mean 6.9 weeks abroad, and having visited 23 countries. Sixty percent (n=23) had pre-departure training while 36% (n=14) had post-experience debriefing. Three macro-level themes were identified: resource disparities and provision of care; navigating clinical ethical dilemmas; and threats to trainee safety. CONCLUSIONS: Medical schools have a responsibility to ensure ethical and safe global health experiences. However, our findings suggest that medical students are often poorly prepared for the ethical and safety dilemmas they encounter during these electives. Medical students require intensive pre-departure training that will prepare them emotionally to deal with these dilemmas. Such training should include discussions of how to comply with clinical limitations. IJME 2014-04-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4207171/ /pubmed/25341214 http://dx.doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5334.8051 Text en Copyright: © 2014 Evelyn M. Dell et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use of work provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
spellingShingle Research Article
Dell, Evelyn M.
Varpio, Lara
Petrosoniak, Andrew
Gajaria, Amy
McCarthy, Anne E.
The ethics and safety of medical student global health electives
title The ethics and safety of medical student global health electives
title_full The ethics and safety of medical student global health electives
title_fullStr The ethics and safety of medical student global health electives
title_full_unstemmed The ethics and safety of medical student global health electives
title_short The ethics and safety of medical student global health electives
title_sort ethics and safety of medical student global health electives
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4207171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25341214
http://dx.doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5334.8051
work_keys_str_mv AT dellevelynm theethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT varpiolara theethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT petrosoniakandrew theethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT gajariaamy theethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT mccarthyannee theethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT dellevelynm ethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT varpiolara ethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT petrosoniakandrew ethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT gajariaamy ethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives
AT mccarthyannee ethicsandsafetyofmedicalstudentglobalhealthelectives