Table 1.

Global health learning objectives

Medical Expert

Students will develop diagnostic and therapeutic skills in the realm of relevant infectious disease.

Students will develop diagnostic and therapeutic skills in the realm of preventative global medicine.

Students will learn how to access medical information in a variety of remote and under-resourced settings, and apply it to the specific context of their setting.

Students will practice patient-centered, ethical care. They will develop expertise at serving under-resourced populations: inner-city, aboriginal, immigrants

Communicator

Global Health residents will build on abilities learned as family physicians, and continue to take thorough histories.

Students will provide patient advice and education appropriate to the clinical setting.

Students will demonstrate the ability to develop effective therapeutic relationships with patients, while actively addressing language and cultural challenges.

The Global Health resident will develop communication skills that reflect cultural competence (work with interpreters, consider language training, consider patient comfort).

Collaborator

Global Health residents will learn how to establish triage and referral systems for ongoing care of complex patients in remote settings or marginalized populations.

Trainees will learn how to be the patient gateway and a resource to the interdisciplinary team available in a resource-poor setting.

Students will learn how to build working relationships with teams in the context of expertise on a defined population, examples include aboriginal communities in Canada or field experience in a resource-poor setting. They will team up with other experts in the field of Global Health.

Health Advocate

Students will learn about epidemiological principles and apply these to the populations they serve.

The Global Health resident will understand the economic, political, social, and environmental determinants of health. They will become advocates for their patient for appropriate health care, human rights, basic needs, and poverty alleviation.

Students will understand basic concepts in public health and their potential role as an advocate within a defined resource-poor or marginalized community (examples include street-associated, aboriginal, immigrant and refugee, as well as those abroad).

Students will respect diversity and difference, including but not limited to the impact of gender, religion, and cultural beliefs on decision-making and health.

Manager

Students will develop skills that enhance their ability to deliver appropriate care in a defined community, such as utilization of limited resources and balancing the needs of all patients where such limits exist.

Global Health students will learn to work within a variety of health care organizations in diverse contexts throughout both Canada and the developing world.

Students will become familiar with government, NGO, and other Global Health stakeholders’ policies and programs that affect the communities in which they serve.

Global Health trainees will become familiar with the principles of development, and how vertical and horizontal programming works in building health care related projects.

Scholar

Global Health residents will become adept at developing their own personal learning objectives, and at reframing these objectives periodically according to their experience.

Trainees will learn about how to maintain a portfolio for assessment purposes.

Students are encouraged to develop research skills for the fieldwork component of the curriculum, and to contribute to the development of new knowledge in the field of Global Health.

Global Health residents will become teachers to other students within their practice community and encourage others to consider the Global community beyond their limited scope of practice.

Scholar cont.

Students are encouraged to analyze how each patient encounter reframes their own ideas about Global Health, and to reflect on these experiences with respect to their learning goals and personal ideology.

Professional

Students will deliver high quality health care with compassion and integrity in each clinical setting.

Residents will demonstrate professional and ethical behaviour at all times, cautioning against ethnocentric beliefs and always maintaining a cross-cultural perspective.