Global Health Training in U.S. Emergency Medicine Residency Programs

Abstract

Objectives: Formal education in global health (GH) and short-term experiences in GH (STEGH) are offered by many emergency medicine (EM) residency programs in the United States. In an increasingly connected world, training in GH and STEGH can provide essential knowledge and practical skills to trainees, particularly at the graduate medical education level. The current core programmatic components and the essential competencies and curricula that support ethical and effective STEGH, however, still vary widely. The authors conducted a survey of the 228 EM residency programs in the United States to describe the current state of GH training and STEGH.

Methods: An online survey was developed in REDCap by a team of GH faculty. In July 2018, programs were invited to participate via individual invitation of program directors from a directory. The programs received two reminders to participate until January 2019.

Results: Of the 84 programs that responded, 75% offer STEGH and 39% have longitudinal GH curricula. Within these programs, only 55% have dedicated GH faculty and only 70% have dedicated sites. Both faculty and residents encounter funding and insurance barriers; most notably, only 20% of programs that offer STEGH provide evacuation insurance for their residents. Most residents (95%) engage in clinical work along with teaching and other activities, but 24% of programs do not allow these activities to fulfill any residency requirements. Finally, only 80 and 85% of programs offer preparatory and debriefing activities for residents, respectively.

Conclusions: While the results of this survey show progress relative to prior surveys, there are still barriers to implementing GH curricula and supporting safe, ethical, and effective STEGH, particularly in the form of continued financial and logistic support for faculty and for residents, in U.S. EM training programs.

Figure 1

States represented by the 84 participating U.S. EM residency programs in the survey.

Figure 2

Frequency of countries traveled to by EM residents participating in STEGH. STEGH = short‐term experiences in global health.

Figure 3

Key results of survey questions pertaining to resident involvement in STEGH from programs that offer STEGH by percent of program respondents. STEGH = short‐term experiences in global health.

Figure 4

Key results of survey questions pertaining to faculty involvement in GH training from programs with dedicated faculty by percentage of program respondents. GH = global health.

Figure 5

Key barriers to developing and conducting GH training and STEGH among EM residency programs by percent of program respondents. GH = global health; STEGH = short‐term experiences in global health.