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Residency Training in Global Health: Is It Ready for Prime Time? :

January 4, 2019

As fourth year medical students come to interview for a possible internship position in our residency program, we find ourselves being asked more questions about the education they will get in global health while training with us.

As fourth year medical students come to interview for a possible internship position in our residency program, we find ourselves being asked more questions about the education they will get in global health while training with us. These questions are not unique to being asked at our program, but at programs all over the United States, and by students applying into more than pediatric residencies.  Yet how are our own pediatric training programs doing in preparing future pediatricians for the health issues that children all over the world are encountering and that our trainees want to advocate for whether they work in this country or spend time providing care overseas.  Pak-Gorstein et al. (10.1542/peds.2018-1559) explored the status of global health education for pediatric residents by sharing with us an analysis of responses to global-health focused questions from AAP surveys of graduating residents in 2008 and again in 2016 to see what trends for better or worse can be identified.  With a response rate of 58.8% in 2008 and 56.0% in 2016, the authors report on 1100 residents overall, and found that there was a significant uptick in programs offering global health training from 59.1% in 2008 to 73.1% in 2016. While about 14% of respondents said they had done an international elective in 2016, a third noted that they had not received formal preparation before going overseas and 24.3% were not offered a debriefing session upon their return. About a quarter of the residents surveyed found their global health training excellent or very good, and of those who opted for this training, the majority were somewhat, very, or likely to work in a low or middle-income country after residency—and this trend was unchanged between 2008 and 2016.  The study also notes variation in the quantity and quality of experiences offered suggesting that while those who are interested in global health are having more opportunities presented in pediatric training today, there is still work to be done to identify best practices, especially regarding preparation and debriefing of those who participate in an international elective. Journey through the findings in this survey article and if you are involved in global health training or would like to be, then the data should help you decide how your local training program might further improve their educational offerings in this important area of pediatric training.

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