AMA Journal of Ethics

The finality of reductive linocut offers an apt analogy to a medical student’s first human cadaver anatomy dissection.

Awareness of one’s own interests is critical to successfully engaging in global health immersions.

Almost all allopathic medical schools in the United States allow students to participate in global health.

Ethical questions raised during “immersions” include scope of practice, continuity of care, and erosion of local health systems. This is a perspective of one volunteer in a related field.

If not planned and executed thoughtfully, “immersions” might not provide much benefit to communities they seek to serve.

Exploitation can be exacerbated when health professions students’ educational goals are overemphasized relative to patients’ and communities’ needs.

Single-procedure interventions with minimal follow-up and clear quality-of-life gain are well suited for surgical mission trips. But not all risks and benefits are easily assessed.

The Volunteer Physicians for Vietnam Program (1966-1973) influenced both physicians-in-training and the environments in which they were immersed.

Within the United States, many “immersions” happen in student-run indigent care clinics that serve vulnerable populations.

Four MDGs directly concern public health, and public health schools should be involved in meeting them.