Evans Tracey, Akporuno Orezioghene, Owens Katrina M, Lickers Brittany, Marlinga Jazmin, Lin Henry C, Loh Lawrence C
Department of Evaluation and Research, The 53rd Week Ltd., Brooklyn, NY, USA.
Student Success Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8, Canada.
Educ Health (Abingdon). 2017 May-Aug;30(2):133-139. doi: 10.4103/efh.EfH_175_16.
Health professional students from high-income countries increasingly participate in short-term experiences in global health (STEGH) conducted abroad. One common criticism of STEGH is the inherent power differential that exists between visiting learners and the local community. To highlight this power differential, this paper explores perceived benefits as described by volunteer and community respondents and applies Maslow's hierarchy of needs to commonly identified themes in each respondent group.
A semistructured survey was used to collect qualitative responses from both volunteers and community members located in a Dominican Republic community, that is, a hotspot for traditionally conducted STEGH. Thematic analysis identified themes of perceived benefits from both respondent groups; each group's common themes were then classified and compared within Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Each respondent group identified resource provision as a perceived benefit of STEGH, but volunteer respondents primarily focused on the provision of highly-skilled, complex resources while community respondents focused on basic necessities (food, water, etc.) Volunteer respondents were also the only group to also mention spiritual/religious/life experiences, personal skills development, and relationships as perceived benefits. Applying Maslow's hierarchy thus demonstrates a difference in needs: community respondents focused on benefits that address deficiency needs at the bottom of the hierarchy while volunteers focused on benefits addressing self-transcendence/actualization needs at the top of the hierarchy.
The perceived difference in needs met by STEGH between volunteers and the host community within Maslow's hierarchy may drive an inherent power differential. Refocusing STEGH on the relationship level of the hierarchy (i.e., focusing on partnerships) might help mitigate this imbalance and empower host communities.
来自高收入国家的健康专业学生越来越多地参与在国外开展的全球健康短期体验活动（STEGH）。对STEGH的一个常见批评是，来访学习者与当地社区之间存在固有的权力差异。为了突出这种权力差异，本文探讨了志愿者和社区受访者所描述的感知益处，并将马斯洛的需求层次理论应用于每个受访者群体中常见的主题。
采用半结构化调查，收集位于多米尼加共和国一个社区的志愿者和社区成员的定性回复，该社区是传统开展STEGH的热点地区。主题分析确定了两个受访者群体感知益处的主题；然后在马斯洛的需求层次理论中对每个群体的常见主题进行分类和比较。
每个受访者群体都将资源提供视为STEGH的一种感知益处，但志愿者受访者主要关注提供高技能、复杂的资源，而社区受访者则关注基本必需品（食物、水等）。志愿者受访者也是唯一提到精神/宗教/生活体验、个人技能发展和人际关系为感知益处的群体。应用马斯洛的需求层次理论因此显示出需求的差异：社区受访者关注满足层次底部缺失需求的益处，而志愿者关注满足层次顶部自我超越/自我实现需求的益处。
在马斯洛需求层次理论中，志愿者和东道社区在STEGH中所满足的感知需求差异可能导致固有的权力差异。将STEGH重新聚焦于需求层次的关系层面（即关注伙伴关系）可能有助于减轻这种不平衡，并增强东道社区的权能。
