Kelly Anderson on The International Health Mentorship Project
The International Health mentorship project
It is not really Rhona’s blog today. I am handing straight over to Kelly Anderson, National Officer of Public Health at the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, to tell you all about The International Health Mentorship Project she has founded. It sounds amazing. She also explains the rationale behind it and sets a few challenges. Take it away Kelly—Rhona 
Kelly Anderson
Despite growing and enthusiastic interest from students, it is clear that not all medical school curricula prepare future physicians to work in the international health sector. While keen students and faculty work tirelessly to advocate for and build relevant curriculum, many medical students are left to fend for themselves as they search for a career path in international health. How should we approach our independent education in pressing global health issues while in the thick of our medical training?
For interested medical students, this global learning task rests on our shoulders: if we wish to acquire education in global health, a current solution is to actively seek it ourselves. Should we pursue this approach, who are the experts in international health that we can learn from? In the context of international development, communities in resource-poor environments are the true experts in building their own health systems. With this in mind, consider the hundreds of community-based and international non-governmental organizations that work on a daily basis to ameliorate the lack of basic health and education services worldwide. These organizations - and moreover, the communities they work with and strive to represent - are the front lines of global health. For medical students who wish to learn about internationalism, we stand to learn much from them.
Luckily, these hardworking organizations are often more willing to help educate medical students than we would initially expect. Consider the option of independently asking an NGO professional to teach you about his or her work. For example, what if you are interested in immunization projects, working with HIV positive individuals, or learning about the medical side of a natural disaster response? Seek out and ask an NGO professional for help as you strive to achieve your learning goals. They might just say yes!
The NGO community said yes when asked for help in starting a project that provides international health education for medical students. The International Health Mentorship Project pairs eager medical students with global health professionals to act as mentors. The mentors in this project are professionals from 45 various non-governmental organizations, universities, multilaterals and government agencies globally, including Médecins Sans Frontières, World Vision, Save the Children, the World Health Organization and the Canadian International Development Agency. Each student-mentor pair interacts weekly over email, phone and in-person to build and share knowledge about what it means to contribute to global health. Students develop goals for the relationship, and mentors assist in providing resources and insights to reach those goals. NGOs and medical students work together to ensure that an increasing number of future physicians choosing to work internationally will do so not only in a well-intentioned manner, but also effectively, sustainably and ethically.
The world of NGOs and the world of physicians have yet to fully come together in collaboration for global health. We are often divided and segmented, with lack of communication being a common obstacle in both sectors as we strive to be effective in our practices. Through independently seeking teachers in the NGO sector, medical students and global health professionals are building bridges. Inevitably, many physicians will work in resource-poor environments around the world, tackling challenging development and health issues. Through partnership with NGOs and multilaterals, physicians can be better equipped, knowledgeable, ethical and sensitive when working internationally and cross-culturally. As medical students born into the era of growing dedication to global health challenges, we must challenge ourselves to be educated, even if it means we must seek out opportunities on our own.
For those of us passionate about global health, let us ask ourselves: who are our teachers? Medicine and international development professionals should not function independently in building the health of individuals and communities. The International Health Mentorship Project is only a start to the collaboration possible between our sectors. Let us continue to build our bridges of education to ensure that as doctors, we will be most capable of making international contributions. And in our search for international health education, let us remember that the most important step is just to ask for help.
For more information on international health mentorship and physician-NGO collaboration, please contact me- Kelly Anderson at mentorship@cfms.org.
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