School of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Global Health. 2009 Feb 26;5:4. doi: 10.1186/1744-8603-5-4.
Each year medical providers from wealthy countries participate in short-term medical volunteer work in resource-poor countries. Various authors have raised concern that such work has the potential to be harmful to recipient communities; however, the social science and medical literature contains little research into the perceptions of short-term medical volunteer work from the perspective of members of recipient communities. This exploratory study examines the perception of short-term medical volunteer work in Guatemala among groups of actors affected by or participating in these programs.
The researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 72 individuals, including Guatemalan healthcare providers and health authorities, foreign medical providers, non-medical personnel working on health projects, and Guatemalan parents of children treated by a short-term volunteer group. Detailed notes and summaries of these interviews were uploaded, coded and annotated using Atlas.ti (Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin) to identify recurrent themes from the interviews.
Informants commonly identified a need for increased access to medical services in Guatemala, and many believed that short-term medical volunteers are in a position to offer improved access to medical care in the communities where they serve. Informants most frequently cited appropriate patient selection and attention to payment systems as the best means to avoid creating dependence on foreign aid. The most frequent suggestion to improve short-term medical volunteer work was coordination with and respect for local Guatemalan healthcare providers and their communities, as insufficient understanding of the country's existing healthcare resources and needs may result in perceived harm to the recipient community.
The perceived impact of short-term medical volunteer projects in Guatemala is highly variable and dependent upon the individual project. In this exploratory study, project characteristics were identified that are consistently perceived to be either positive or negative. These findings have direct implications for anyone involved in the planning and execution of short-term medical volunteer projects, including local and foreign medical team members, project planners and coordinators, and health authorities. Most importantly, this preliminary study suggests avenues for future study and evaluation of the impact of short-term medical volunteer programs on local health care services.
每年，来自富裕国家的医疗服务提供者都会在资源匮乏的国家参与短期医疗志愿服务。许多作者都对这种工作有可能对受援社区造成伤害表示担忧；然而，社会科学和医学文献中几乎没有关于受援社区成员对短期医疗志愿服务看法的研究。这项探索性研究调查了危地马拉人对短期医疗志愿者工作的看法，参与者包括受这些项目影响或参与这些项目的各个群体。
研究人员对 72 人进行了深入的半结构化访谈，受访者包括危地马拉医疗服务提供者和卫生当局、外国医疗服务提供者、参与卫生项目的非医疗人员以及接受短期志愿者团体治疗的危地马拉儿童的家长。这些访谈的详细笔记和摘要被上传、编码和注释使用 Atlas.ti（Scientific Software Development GmbH，柏林），以识别访谈中的反复出现的主题。
受访者普遍认为危地马拉需要增加获得医疗服务的机会，许多人认为短期医疗志愿者能够在他们服务的社区提供更好的医疗服务。受访者最常提到的适当的患者选择和对支付系统的关注是避免对受援社区产生依赖的最佳方式。改善短期医疗志愿者工作的最常见建议是与当地危地马拉医疗服务提供者及其社区协调并尊重他们，因为对该国现有医疗资源和需求的了解不足可能会导致对受援社区的感知伤害。
危地马拉短期医疗志愿者项目的感知影响是高度可变的，取决于具体项目。在这项探索性研究中，确定了被一致认为是积极或消极的项目特征。这些发现直接影响到任何参与短期医疗志愿者项目规划和执行的人，包括当地和外国医疗团队成员、项目规划者和协调者以及卫生当局。最重要的是，这项初步研究为未来研究和评估短期医疗志愿者项目对当地医疗服务的影响提供了途径。
