DOI: 10.5176/2251-3833_GHC16.53
Authors:Mei-Ling Tsai
Abstract: A bridging course “Introduction to Global Health” was designed for junior medical students in a 6-year medical program to raise humanistic concerns when cultivating medical professionalism. The purpose of this study was to reveal the key elements students learned in this course Three pedagogies (story telling, situational discussion in small groups, and reflection) were used to cover the concept of global health in the class of 100 medical students and 12 non-medical students. The post-class surveys, assignments, and reflection reports were collected to analyze the key elements of medical professionalism through coding. Results: Students in post-class surveys indicated that “International humanitarian rescue” and “Tropical medicine and diseases” were the most beneficial topics. Coding analysis found that telling stories and small-group discussion about medicine-related experience and the change of students’ conventional thought about international humanitarian support were commonly mentioned in their reflection report. Four common elements were frequently raised in their assignments and reports: respect of different viewpoints, recognition of cultural gap, avoidance of service pollution, and importance of cross-border collaboration. Conclusions: Since social justice is an essential element in medical professionalism, the four elements commonly mentioned in students’ assignments and reports may help students appreciate are the important feature of medical professionalism the course “Introduction to Global Health”, learned are important features in medical professionalism, our findings in this study suggest that delivering the concept of Global Health through storytelling, small-group discussion, and reflection is a feasible way to cultivate medical professionalism.
Keywords: storytelling, reflection, global health, medical professionalism, intercultural appreciation
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