A Brief Note On Medical Students Without Borders

My level of cultural responsiveness and advocacy of integrated socio-economic and environmental justice brings out my passion and self-less devotion in providing healthcare services with care and compassion. Moreover, I

My first meeting with a Wahehe Sex Worker in Urban Iringa was a short superficial interview on healthcare access that played only a minor part in our USAID-funded study. But the interviewee thanked me vehemently, not only for realizing her ceaseless struggle, but for taking on her issues as an African, and for working with my professor every day to achieve true health equity for all of the sex workers and MSM in the city of Iringa. I won’t lie, the experience was validating, but I do not want it to be one fond memory in the background of my life but rather my life’s central theme. Like me, the Global Health Corps is dedicated to the health equity of all people regardless of sexuality, race, or ethnicity, and it has proven that it has proven

Many years ago, an epileptic Hmong girl named Lia Lee entered a permanent vegetative state due to cross-cultural misunderstanding between her parents and her doctors. An author named Anne Fadiman documented this case and tried to untangle what exactly went wrong with the situation. Two key players in her narrative were Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp, the main doctors on Lia’s case. As Fadiman describes, “Neil and Peggy liked the Hmong, too, but they did not love them… [W]henever a patient crossed the compliance line, thus sabotaging their ability to be optimally effective doctors, cultural diversity ceased being a delicious spice and became a disagreeable obstacle.” (Fadiman 265) At first glance, this statement seems to implicate Neil and Peggy as morally blameworthy for a failure to be culturally sensitive enough. However, upon further inspection of the rest of the book, it becomes clear that Neil and Peggy’s failure to be more culturally sensitive to their Hmong patients was caused by structural issues in the American biomedical system. To prove this point, this paper will first present a background to Lia’s case, then discuss possibilities for assigning blame to Neil and Peggy, then show evidence for the structural issues in American biomedicine, before finally concluding.

A Heart for the Work: Journeys Through an African Medical School by Claire L. Wendland is both an first hand account of time spent in an African medical school and hospital as well as a critique on Western medical practices. Dr. Wendland, an accomplished anthropologist and physician, provides a first hand account of her time in a Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. Through this account she provides insight into the complete journey a student must take to become a doctor in conditions much different than our own. These insights and research are used to argue that medicine, or biomedicine as it is called, is part of a cultural system and is predicated on the cultural ideals and resources of developed nations. Wendland uses the differences in moral order, technology, and resources between the Malawian culture and our own culture to provide evidence for her main argument.

The poor areas have many less doctors than the wealthy spots, even though the rural areas suffer from much harsher diseases on a larger scale. The countries either provide medical training for their own citizens or fund their training from somewhere else, but once the students have the skills to save lives, they move to different places for higher pay. This issue lies not only in South Africa, but in the entire continent. For example, for every Liberian doctor working in Liberia, there are two working abroad. Not only is there a shortage of doctors in general (averaging about 1.15 doctors for every 1,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa) but a shortage of nurses and midwives. Over two-thirds of mothers in Africa have no health professionals to guide them through hardships regarding pregnancy and childbirth, causing Africa alone to be responsible for over one half of the world’s infant and maternal

Abassi, L. (2017, August 10). Refugee doctors a wasted resource? | American council on science and health. Retrieved from https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/08/10/refugee-doctors-wasted-resource-11679

At the age of seventeen I made my first journey to India with my mom to visit my sick grandfather. This was my first time returning in fourteen years and my first time observing health care in a different. During my two week stay there, I started shadowing with the Dr. Sanjeev Desai at Kasturba Hospital in Valsad, India. During one of our trips to a small village nearby we encountered a man that had severe gangrene of both extremities from uncontrolled diabetes because he lived too far from the city on very low income. It struck me as how unfair it was; all people should have access to adequate medical care, regardless of where they live.

a) Dr. Sandra Soo-Jin Lee focuses on sociocultural ethical issues in her field of medical anthropology. She studies with an intersectional approach to data and science. (“Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, Ph.D.”, n.d.).

Most physician-driven efforts have been bio-medically focused. One competency assessment by Wilson, et al. was adapted from Medicine for undergraduate nursing by removing treatment and medical diagnoses (2012). In a study of 700 undergraduate nursing programs, only 29% offered global health as a separate course outside of standard community health and there are no reports in the literature establishing or documenting global health competence among graduate prepared advanced practice nurses. In another sample of 36 Canadian Association of University Schools of Nursing, only 0.81% of undergraduate students had international experiences and only 2 of 36 institutions had transcultural nursing requirements which limits abilities or competence in assisting diverse populations. We do know utilization of health belief models and transcultural theory have been very effective in implementing health interventions and this has been noted in several studies including the use of social capital in management of disease (Malin, 2014). Cultural mistrust of providers remains amongst low-income persons of minority status who have experienced previous inequity or discrimination has been repeatedly documented and will continue to be a barrier (Benkert,

Despite the geographical, economical, cultural difference between the US and Haiti, the books told a stories that parallel one another. Each book described the experience of a doctor driven by the fundamental moral concept of health care as human right who aimed to correct the affects of structural violence in society through provision of medical care. Overall the books highlight the need for people with high social awareness level like Paul Farmer and David Ansell in the public health field in order to make universal healthcare a reality.

There is no universal fix to the complexities of each country and what they face with regards to their health care needs. Health care is a fundamental need among all peoples. Each country will have to work on solving the disparities that exist in access of care, funding of care, and availability of care. Because we now find ourselves facing the dilemma of fighting many infectious diseases once thought to be under control, we must work with all countries around the world. Every country faces the potential of an outbreak of a disease like SARS or a terrorism strike involving biological or chemical agents. Global initiatives to improve the health of nations across the board regardless of resources in these nations will benefit all. We need to continue with consistent and comprehensive measures to ensure health equity to all (Williams & Torrens, 2010).

The developing number of foreigners and displaced people in the United States presents colossal difficulties to western bio-restorative practice. While there are different difficulties of each potential patient, individuals from outside conceived foundation experience extraordinary setbacks when trying to profit for health care; these incorporate troubles in diverse communicate, divergent disparate health practice belief, and limited social mindfulness with respect to the supplier. While there is a push to recognize and address semantic and social obstructions, learning by experimentation remains the most well-known type of instruction on the present American medical system

Global health is defined as “health problems, issues, or concerns that transcend national borders” (Institute of Medicine, 1997, p. 2). Koplan (2009) proposed a new definition for global health which he described as an “area for study, research and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide” (para, 7). Global health emphasizes transnational health issues, determinants, and solutions from an interdisciplinary perspective and blends population health and clinical care.

Human rights violations occur all around the world on a daily basis. Despite the Universal declaration of human rights (UDHR) to safeguard the rights of all human beings, some states are still dragging their feet to implement the basic rights their citizens are entitled to. So, to advocate for people whose rights have been denied, many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have taken upon themselves to work and promote social and political change. These NGOs play an important part in improving communities, and advocating for citizen participation. In that sense, Doctors without borders, mostly known as Medecins sans Fontieres (MSF), has gained a lot of praise for its work for helping people in need, and acting as an instrument of reducing poverty worldwide.

Although volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontiers are commonly stationed in various countries with a dire healthcare worker shortage, regions with refugee camps and internally displaced persons are also a focus for this organization. Refugees and internally displaced persons often come from war torn regions and live in close confines with poor sanitation and limited resources. These living situations become a breeding ground for diseases and other health issues like malnutrition, yet the individuals lack access to any sort of healthcare. The organization also responds quickly when regions suddenly experience an increased need for healthcare, for example in times of an epidemic or a natural disaster. Medecins Sans Frontiers’ involvement across its varying regions and their attempt to address a broad spectrum of healthcare truly show how altruistic the organization is to individuals regardless of race, gender, or religion.