Global Health: A changing curriculum for a changing world?
Credit: Creative Commons
Today we’d like to announce the publication of Isaac Ghinai’s article on the controversial subject of user fees for healthcare in the developing world, and whether small charges are such a bad thing. Read it here.
In today’s blog, the last of a 4 part series examining the global health worker crisis, second year medical students Hannah Dunton and Joanna Carson, discuss the inclusion of Global Health into the Medical Curriculum.
Tomorrow’s Doctor’s recently introduced guidelines suggesting increased emphasis be placed on global health in the medical curriculum
Global health is becoming an increasingly discussed issue in international circles, so why do we hear so little about it in the medical curriculum? It seems ironic that an issue so widely debated receives such sparse discussion in the training of those who will one day be instrumental in combating the global health workforce crisis. Talk to any medical student, and it is likely they will aspire to travel, to take their skills beyond their comfort zone and truly ‘make a difference’; but how is this really possible in an education environment so geared away from international health?
Without the information and tools to truly comprehend the complexity of an alien health system it is unrealistic to expect graduating doctors to be capable of functioning effectively abroad. An understanding of the complex global government interplay is vital for the travelling doctor to be sensitive to the needs of their new patients. Foreign travel exposes doctors to a world of alternative health determinants not addressed in their day to day rotations, and it makes a huge difference – both personally and professionally – to have a good background understanding of these factors. Of course, it is foolish to suggest that medical schools should be criticised for focusing on their own health system, but it is a blinkered approach that drives schools to assume that all their graduates will remain within that system. Tomorrow’s Doctor’s has recently introduced guidelines suggesting increased emphasis be placed on global health in the medical curriculum. Although these ideals appear to be several years from implementation, this is definitely a step in the right direction – the stereotype of an entirely science-orientated doctor is on the way out, and a more socially aware model is moving in.
With air travel becoming cheaper and more accessible, the provision of health service has become a global market. Patients can now choose which country to be treated in, and it is therefore important for modern doctors to know the expectations and background of their foreign patients. Britain must fit into this globalised provision of care, and surely the best way to do this is to make sure graduates know their niche in the worldwide environment. It is therefore vital that all doctors, regardless of their degree of travel-lust, are provided with a sound baseline knowledge of global health. In this series of blogs, we have examined other health systems, and this has fuelled our desire to see a unified, cooperative health market, and not one full of individualistic ideals. Politics went global long ago, economics has been a worldwide issue for centuries, even fast food companies have branches in every country imaginable; why should health be any different? The meeting of a global defect is only possible with graduates who understand our need for unity, and have enough passion and drive to see the inequality eliminated.
It seems contradictory to impose a factory analogy upon the art of medicine – but doctors are becoming increasingly aware of the ‘production line’ nature of a medical career. It is with a resignation of individuality that students enter the system, knowing that they will be spat out fifty years later a product of their health service. Encouraging freedom is the only was to truly foster an art form, and in discouraging deviation from the ‘set’ career expectations, medical schools are restricting their students. From a student perspective, the lack of information, advice and encouragement on alternative career paths, especially with regard to working abroad, is frustrating and needs to be addressed. One of the best ways to do this is through global health teaching; not only does it inform students about international health, it widens the scope of opportunities open to them and provides the tools to pursue their ambitions.
We are not calling for a complete overhaul of the medical curriculum – science still needs to be learnt, and patients still need to be seen – but surely an hour a week isn’t too much to ask? International health teaching is a vital tool in tackling the health workforce crisis, as well as in the generation of well informed doctors that are sympathetic to global issues. Medical school should produce educated, informed, enthusiastic individuals, and frankly, not to globalise their horizons does students a gross injustice. In our increasingly interconnected world, we need interconnected doctors, and medical schools should wake up to this fact before it’s too late.