Long-term impact of Global Health educational experiences in Rome: an attempt of measurement
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RESEARCH
Open Access
Long-term impact of Global Health educational experiences in Rome: an attempt of measurement Giulia Civitelli* , Gianfranco Tarsitani, Alessandro Rinaldi and Maurizio Marceca
Abstract Background: Global health education (GHE) is spreading in Europe and in other parts of the world. Since 2008, Sapienza University of Rome has offered activities to medical and other health profession students related to global health (GH), which is grounded in the theory of social determinants of health and inspired by social justice. The educational activities included elective courses as well as community and service-learning experiences, referred to as GH gyms. This study attempts to measure the long-term impact of these educational experiences, especially to demonstrate their influence on the perceived social responsibility of future health professionals. Methods: A questionnaire was elaborated and tested on a small sample of participants. It was sent to participants by e-mail. Quantitative results were analysed through descriptive statistics and qualitative answers were carefully read and classified. Results: A total of 758 students from different faculties took part to the educational experiences. Only 488 e-mail addresses were available. One hundred and five (21.5%) questionnaires were returned. Participation in GH gyms was perceived to have had a higher influence on future professional and personal choices, when compared to participation in elective GH courses. Conclusions: The study shows that consideration of health and social issues related with inequities in health and the use of interactive teaching methodologies had important effects on social responsibility of a large number of students. As there could be a selection bias among respondents, more research is needed to understand the impact of GH educational experiences. The inclusion of global health education in health and social curricula and the use of interactive methodologies with a correct evaluation of results are the indications that emerge from this research, together with the necessity of a strong involvement of students, professors and the whole academic reality. Keywords: Global health education, Health equity, Migrants, Refugees, Prisoners, Third-Mission
Background Global health education (GHE) is becoming more important for the education of current and future health professionals, as a means to prepare them to live and work in a globalized world [1–19]. The Global Health * Correspondence: [email protected] Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases - Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
approach, based on the theory of social determinants of health, aims to allow physicians to recognise and tackle the social, economic, political and cultural factors which influence patient’s health. Those factors, related to the local, national and global context, are the causes of existing inequities in health within and between countries. The authors argue for the importance of including social
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