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Why Invest in Global Health Education?

The reasons for giving more attention to global health education go well beyond the needs of the developing (and usually poor) countries. The U.S., Canada and other industrialized countries have large disadvantaged, multi-cultural and foreign-born populations whose needs are often ill met by health workers trained in traditional ways. Moreover, only a relatively small percentage of the students who take courses in global health and/or go overseas during training will spend a substantial portion of their professional career overseas. Global health education can therefore offer dual benefit: providing a minority of highly motivated students with the expertise for career work overseas, and a much larger number who will be called upon to provide high quality, culturally sensitive services here at home.

The reasons are many:

Need for more personnel able to address global health problems
Strong student interest in global health issues and experiences
Insufficient qualified faculty
Lack of good teaching materials
Global health education can affect career choices
Global health education can enhance the ability to work in cross-cultural settings
Better prepare students to serve the communities in which they are placed

 

  Serving All Communities  
 

Students go overseas to further their own education and experiences, often with little thought about what they might contribute to their host institution and community. The expectation is, however, that they will provide some service (clinical, data collection, volunteering, etc.) to their hosts in return. Students will not be in a position to provide useful services unless their education has prepared them to do so. Good pre-departure global health education can help reduce the risk of ‘inflicting the unprepared on the unaware.’

 
     

 

   
copyright 2005 Global Health Education Consortium