Next Generation of Global Surgeons: Aligning Interest With Early Access to Global Surgery Education

Scott, Erin M.; Fallah, Parisa; Blitzer, David; NeMoyer, Rachel; Sifri, Ziad C.; Alliance, Global Surgery Student; Hanna, Joseph; Peck, Gregory

doi:10.1016/j.jss.2019.03.009

Cited by 33 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Students at American and Canadian schools report having limited global surgery opportunities. [20,21] Among the few global surgery opportunities in the global surgery course developed by Lund University, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Zimbabwe. [22] This course is run for five weeks, and it combines theory and practice in a low resource setting.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of Cameroonian medical students towards global surgery: A web-based survey

Kanmounye¹,

Mbonda

Djiofack³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Introduction Global surgery is a growing field studying the determinants of safe and affordable surgical care and advocating to gain the global health community's attention. In Cameroon, little is known about the level of knowledge and attitudes of students. Our survey aimed to describe the knowledge and attitudes of Cameroonian medical students towards global surgery. Materials and methods We performed an anonymous online survey of final-year Cameroonian medical students. Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation analysis were used for bivariate analysis, and the alpha value was set at 0.05. Odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Results 204 respondents with a mean age of 24.7 years (±2.0) participated in this study. 58.3% were male, 41.6% had previously heard or read about global surgery, 36.3% had taken part in a global surgery study, and 10.8% had attended a global surgery event. Mercy Ships was well known (46.5%), and most students believed that surgical interventions were more costly than medical treatments (75.0%). The mean score of the global surgery evaluation was 47.4% (±29.6%), and being able to recognize more global surgery organizations was correlated with having assumed multiple roles during global surgery studies (p = 0.008) and identifying more global surgery indicators (p = 0.04). Workforce, infrastructure, and funding were highlighted as the top priorities for the development of global surgery in Cameroon.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of Cameroonian medical students towards global surgery: A web-based survey

Kanmounye¹,

Mbonda

Djiofack³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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“…There is a growing interest among trainees in HICs for education opportunities in global surgery. In a recent survey of medical students, 66% reported an interest in global surgery, but 79% reported that global surgery is rarely addressed in their medical school curriculum [25]. This lack of education is reflected in the survey responses from students at a prominent medical school, where a minority (28%) of students correctly answered that trauma results in more deaths worldwide than obstetric complications or HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.…”

Section: Educational Initiatives In Global Surgerymentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of an Interactive Global Surgery Course for Interdisciplinary Learners

Fitzgerald

Muma

Gallis³

et al. 2021

Annals of Global Health

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Introduction: Global surgical care is increasingly recognized in the global health agenda and requires multidisciplinary engagement. Despite high interest among medical students, residents and other learners, many surgical faculty and health experts remain uniformed about global surgical care. Methods:We have operated an interdisciplinary graduate-level course in Global Surgical Care based on didactics and interactive group learning. Students completed a pre-and post-course survey regarding their learning experiences and results were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.Results: Fourteen students completed the pre-course survey, and 11 completed the post-course survey. Eleven students (79%) were enrolled in a Master's degree program in global health, with eight students (57%) planning to attend medical school. The median ranking of surgery on the global health agenda was fifth at the beginning of the course and third at the conclusion (p = 0.11). Non-infectious disease priorities tended to stay the same or increase in rank from pre-to post-course. Infectious disease priorities tended to decrease in rank (HIV/AIDS, p = 0.07; malaria, p = 0.02; neglected infectious disease, p = 0.3). Students reported that their understanding of global health (p = 0.03), global surgery (p = 0.001) and challenges faced by the underserved (p = 0.03) improved during the course. When asked if surgery was an indispensable part of healthcare, before the course 64% of students strongly agreed, while after the course 91% of students strongly agreed (p = 0.3). Students reported that the interactive nature of the course strengthened their skills in collaborative problem-solving. Conclusions:We describe an interdisciplinary global surgery course that integrates didactics with team-based projects. Students appeared to learn core topics and held a different view of global surgery after the course. Similar courses in global surgery can educate clinicians and other stakeholders about strategies for building healthy surgical systems worldwide.

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“…Nearly one-third of all United States (U.S.) graduating medical students participate in a global health elective during the course of medical school, reflecting a significant demand for global health education opportunities [ 4 ]. The parallel growth in learner interest in addressing surgical disparities, and renaissance in international advocacy and action provides a unique opportunity for learners to achieve personal development and satisfaction through participation in sustainable global health research [ 5 ]. Of 116 U.S. allopathic medical schools surveyed in one study, the majority had active student global health interest groups, of which half offered substantive transnational opportunities (including in-country research and/or clinical experiences), and over one-third offered didactic coursework in global health [ 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of 116 U.S. allopathic medical schools surveyed in one study, the majority had active student global health interest groups, of which half offered substantive transnational opportunities (including in-country research and/or clinical experiences), and over one-third offered didactic coursework in global health [ 6 ]. Despite this apparent wealth of opportunities, in a recent survey of graduating U.S. medical students, nearly half of respondents believed that global health and global surgery education in general was inadequately addressed during their training [ 5 , 7 ]. This may be in part due to insufficient programmatic funding or design, inadequate development of health systems education curricula [ 8 ], or insufficient mentorship.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A longitudinal surgical systems strengthening research program for medical students: the exploration of a model for global health education

Peck

Hanna

Scott

et al. 2021

glob health res policy

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Background In response to the staggering global burden of conditions requiring emergency and essential surgery, the development of international surgical system strengthening (SSS) is fundamental to achieving universal, timely, quality, and affordable surgical care. Opportunity exists in identifying optimal collaborative processes that both promote global surgery research and SSS, and include medical students. This study explores an education model to engage students in academic global surgery and SSS via institutional support for longitudinal research. Objectives We set out to design a program to align global health education and longitudinal health systems research by creating an education model to engage medical students in academic global surgery and SSS. Program design and implementation In 2015, medical schools in the United States and Colombia initiated a collaborative partnership for academic global surgery research and SSS. This included development of two longitudinal academic tracks in global health medical education and academic global surgery, which we differentiated by level of institutional resourcing. Herein is a retrospective evaluation of the first two years of this program by using commonly recognized academic output metrics. Main achievements In the first two years of the program, there were 76 total applicants to the two longitudinal tracks. Six of the 16 (37.5%) accepted students selected global surgery faculty as mentors (Acute Care Surgery faculty participating in SSS with Colombia). These global surgery students subsequently spent 24 total working weeks abroad over the two-year period participating in culminating research experiences in SSS. As a quantitative measure of the program’s success, the students collectively produced a total of twenty scholarly pieces in the form of accepted posters, abstracts, podium presentations, and manuscripts in partnership with Colombian research mentors. Policy implications The establishment of scholarly global health education and research tracks has afforded our medical students an active role in international SSS through participation in academic global surgery research. We propose that these complementary programs can serve as a model for disseminated education and training of the future global systems-aware surgeon workforce with bidirectional growth in south and north regions with traditionally under-resourced SSS training programs.

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Next Generation of Global Surgeons: Aligning Interest With Early Access to Global Surgery Education

Cited by 33 publications

References 12 publications

Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of Cameroonian medical students towards global surgery: A web-based survey

Exploring the knowledge and attitudes of Cameroonian medical students towards global surgery: A web-based survey

Development of an Interactive Global Surgery Course for Interdisciplinary Learners

A longitudinal surgical systems strengthening research program for medical students: the exploration of a model for global health education

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