Population Health Sciences Institute, Applied Research Collaboration, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
School of Medicine, Newcastle Univeristy, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
BMJ Open. 2023 Oct 5;13(10):e072808. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-072808.
In an increasingly global society, there is a need to develop culturally competent doctors who can work effectively across diverse populations. International learning opportunities in undergraduate healthcare programmes show various benefits. In medical education, these occur predominantly towards the end of degree programmes as electives, with scant examples of programmes for preclinical students. This study set out to identify the multicultural learning experiences following an early year international medical student exchange programme between the UK and Malaysian campuses of one UK medical school.
Two cohorts of international exchange programme for second year medical students in the UK and Malaysia.
Interpretivist qualitative design using semistructured interviews/focus groups with students and faculty.
Participants were asked about their learning experiences during and after the exchange. Data were recorded with consent and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
Four themes were identified: (1) overall benefits of the exchange programme, (2) personal growth and development, (3) understanding and observing a different educational environment and (4) experiencing different healthcare systems.
The international exchange programme highlighted differences in learning approaches, students from both campuses gained valuable learning experiences which increased their personal growth, confidence, cultural competence, giving them an appreciation of a better work-life balance and effective time management skills. It is often a challenge to prepare healthcare professionals for work in a global multicultural workplace and we would suggest that exchange programmes early on in a medical curriculum would go some way to addressing this challenge.
在日益全球化的社会中，需要培养能够在不同人群中有效工作的文化能力强的医生。本科医疗保健课程中的国际学习机会显示出各种好处。在医学教育中，这些主要发生在学位课程结束时作为选修课，几乎没有针对临床前学生的课程示例。本研究旨在确定英国和马来西亚校区之间的早期国际医学生交流计划后，英国一所医学院的医学生的多元文化学习体验。
英国和马来西亚的两个国际交流计划队列，供二年级医学生参加。
使用半结构化访谈/焦点小组，对学生和教师进行解释性定性设计。
要求参与者在交流期间和之后分享他们的学习经验。经同意后记录数据，并逐字转录。使用主题分析来分析数据。
确定了四个主题：（1）交流计划的总体收益，（2）个人成长和发展，（3）了解和观察不同的教育环境，以及（4）体验不同的医疗保健系统。
国际交流计划突出了学习方法的差异，来自两个校区的学生都获得了宝贵的学习经验，这增加了他们的个人成长、信心、文化能力，使他们更好地理解工作与生活的平衡和有效的时间管理技巧。为医疗保健专业人员在全球化的多元文化工作场所中做好工作做好准备通常是一个挑战，我们建议在医学课程的早期阶段开展交流计划，这将在一定程度上应对这一挑战。
