Guidelines are needed to help ensure that trainee, institutional, and faculty engagement in global health is ethically appropriate and mutually beneficial for all involved.

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

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

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

Changes made in 2017 to the World Medical Association Physician’s Pledge strive to keep in step with geopolitical trends by addressing patient autonomy and collegiality.

In the past decade, more students than ever entered medical school with the desire, if not the expectation, of participating in meaningful global health experiences.

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.

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

Short-term experiences in global health are common ways trainees engage in global health activities. Professional societies take active roles in addressing these ethical challenges.