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Mackenzie Schimpf, Kayla Donnawell, Cindy C Bitter, Injury and illness on global health electives, Journal of Travel Medicine, Volume 27, Issue 6, August 2020, taaa009, https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa009
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Global health electives (GHE) offer medical trainees from high-income countries the opportunity to enhance diagnostic skills, develop cultural sensitivity, encounter tropical diseases rarely seen in their home country and experience different healthcare systems.1–2 Health and security risks such as travellers’ diarrhea, vector-borne illness, sexually transmitted diseases, motor vehicle collisions, environmental hazards, psychological distress and political unrest may be predicted based on the general travel medicine literature. However, there is limited literature quantifying the specific occupational risks of GHE, such as exposure to blood-borne pathogens and other infectious diseases.3–5
We performed a cross-sectional survey of US-based emergency medicine (EM) residents in graduating classes 2014–2019 to determine demographics of trainees and host countries, and to quantify the risks of illness and injury during international medical electives. We developed the survey questions including demographic factors, pretravel counselling, compliance with recommendations and other factors predicted to affect outcomes. It allowed responses about GHEs and volunteer trips during college through graduate medical education. The survey tool was reviewed by faculty with experience leading GHEs and a travel medicine practitioner, then was inputted into Qualtrics (Provo, UT). It was pilot tested by residents at our institution and several questions were reworded based on their feedback. The survey link was then distributed to EM program coordinators (PCs) using the Council of Residency Directors listserve. Two hundred and fifteen PCs were asked to forward the link to their residents and respond with the total number of residents who had taken a GHE during the past five years, with a reminder email 6–8 weeks later. Descriptive statistics were performed in Qualtrics.
