“Fit” for service: contrasting physician profiles and motivations for short-term medical missions and Médecins Sans Frontières

Abstract

Background: Physicians from wealthy countries often provide direct medical services in low-and middle-income countries either on a short-term or long-term basis, herein differentiated by the physician's source of income, rather than by time or mission specifics. Research data has accumulated in recent years on physician profiles and motivations for short-and long-term dimensions of physician commitment. This review provides some current insights on these physician pathways for transnational direct caregiving activities. Objectives: Comparison is made of US physician profiles and motivations for short-term medical missions and those of long-term medical missions, specifically from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for which comparative information is available.

Medical Brigades to El Salvador and Honduras: Travel imaginaries and volunteer tourist recruitment

“…Taken together, these and related studies (Bonner et al, 2013; Bradke, 2009; Caldron, 2017; Martiniuk et al, 2012; Sykes, 2014; Welling et al, 2010), agree that medical brigades are deeply performative, reflecting immediacy in addressing medical issues and the participation of highly-trained and focused personnel. Care-giving supersedes the desired sense of worldliness or cosmopolitan sophistication associated with some forms of volunteer tourism.…”

“…Medical brigades or medical missions are a form of volunteer tourism that originated in European colonies and often accompanied evangelical missions (Hardiman, 2008; Skinner and Lester, 2012; Vaughan, 1991). Wars, natural disasters, and other physical hardships have also drawn medical teams (Caldron, 2017) to provide relief and other forms of humanitarian assistance. Today’s short-term medical brigades are commonly sponsored by religious and other non-profit organizations in high-income countries with ties to NGOs in recipient low-income nations.…”

“…Not surprisingly, much research on short-term medical brigades emphasizes the volunteer experience, focusing on three themes: participant motivation, brigade organization and objectives, and brigade interaction with local community members. Considering volunteer motivation, Caldron’s (2017) meta-analysis of physicians’ reasons for joining brigades suggests that “altruism and idealism” motivate participation. Caldron (2017) adds that the altruism of physicians participating in medical brigades must be great to overcome the rigors and risks of the travel and settings involved.…”

“…Considering volunteer motivation, Caldron’s (2017) meta-analysis of physicians’ reasons for joining brigades suggests that “altruism and idealism” motivate participation. Caldron (2017) adds that the altruism of physicians participating in medical brigades must be great to overcome the rigors and risks of the travel and settings involved. Lasker’s (2016) interviews with 119 individuals associated with medical brigades, including 15 volunteers, and survey results from respondents representing 177 organizations also address motivation.…”

Applying global standards to short-term global health clinical experiences: the case of Project Salud y Paz

“…These short excursions occur in a myriad of formats, from individual doctors to large faith-based and secular NGOs, in teaching and non-teaching domains, utilizing any number of social networks. Latin America draws this effort primarily from the US due to proximity effects, while Canada divides similar effort between Latin America and, stemming from its cultural relationship with Great Britain, the African subcontinent [4–6]. The humanitarian zeal that drives the effort now draws substantial criticism in academic literature for actual and potential harms when executed poorly.…”