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Preparing Future Medical Students for Exchanges and Beyond! Tommaso Pomerani, Tara D’Ignazio
SISM - Italy, IFMSA - Québec ga.scope@ifmsa.org
Every year, around 15,000 medical students like us pack their bags and prepare for an unforgettable experience abroad thanks to IFMSA exchanges. For at least one month, we are fully immersed in a new cultural environment and learn how to practice medicine or medical research in a new context. We develop friendships and experiences, and we have more than the daily recommended amount of fun. However, how prepared are we for such an enriching yet challenging experience?
medical students worldwide | AM2017, Tanzania
Imagine you are a student doing his/her first clerkship in a country where there is a huge stigma on people with mental health problems. How would you behave in front of a patient with an undiagnosed mental illness? And how would you behave if your tutor required you to perform procedures beyond your competencies? There is no easy answer to any of these questions, but it is in this perspective that IFMSA has recently developed a Pre Departure Training (PDT) in collaboration with the Chair of Bioethics to UNESCO. Research shows that, in the current globalized world, health issues are becoming increasingly transnational (Battat et al., 2010)[1]. In light of this, it is extremely important for medical students to be up to the challenges of modern medicine, which necessitates adaptation to the needs of a new, multicultural society. Literature also shows that Pre Departure Trainings have a positive impact on outgoing students by giving them the skills to face ethical and cultural issues they may encounter in their host community (Anderson et al. 2012, Centre for Intercultural Learning, Canadian Foreign Service Institute 2005)[2].
The new IFMSA UNESCO Pre Departure Training has been pioneered with the goal of increasing exchange students’ ability to face ethical and cultural challenges in their host countries with greater confidence and to protect the patients they will encounter. This also translates to a generation of future physicians better skilled at treating patients from cultures different from their own. The training features sections on basic medical ethics, culture shock and cultural competence, exceeding level of skills, and basic research ethics. It is a combination of theory and case studies (12 case studies and 2 examples) that participants then discuss in small groups. All the content of the training has been included in a presentation which is already made to be delivered. The goal of both SCOPE and SCORE International Teams, in line with their Strategic Plans, is to implement the PDT in at least 80% of NMOs by 2018. If you want to know more about the new Pre Departure Training or receive suggestions on how to implement it in your NMO, please send an email to both aq.score@ifmsa.org and ga.scope@ifmsa.org.
References: 1. Battat et al., Global health competencies and approaches in medical education: a literature review. BMC Medical Education, 2010, 10:94. 2. Anderson et al., Are We There Yet? Preparing Canadian Medical Students for Global Health Electives. Academic Medicine, Volume 87 - Issue 2 - p 206–209, 2012.
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