Applications are now being accepted for a unique and incredible opportunity to develop intercultural e-learning health care modules for medical students in Rwanda and at UNMC.
The deadline is Friday for applications to the Global Health Program: Rwanda Health Education Experience. The six-week summer program will run from May through June. It is open to eight students in their first-year of medical school, public health, pharmacy or nursing. Public health students from the University of Nebraska at Omaha also may apply.
UNMC students will spend two weeks in Rwanda working with students at the University of Gitwe in the southern province of Rwanda. Together, the students will develop e-learning modules on topics set by UNMC and University of Gitwe faculty.
Students have developed modules on cleft lip and palate, malaria, wound care, nematodes (roundworms), Zika and vital signs.
Danielle Dohrmann, a program coordinator with the International Health and Medical Education Office at UNMC, said the collaborative project provides an experiential learning opportunity to support global health education and inter-cultural awareness through immersion.
“Our goal is to develop a whole series of education modules on diseases and medical conditions not normally found in Nebraska. For example, we’ve started a series on malaria. Last summer, two modules were developed that focused on 1 to 5-year-olds and school-aged children. This year, we’ll focus on pregnant women and newborns.”
This educational model is so unique it is not found in published literature. Dohrmann and alumni are writing two manuscripts about the program this semester. The first will describe development of the program. The second is an analysis of written student reflections to identify common themes related to learning that resulted from program participation.
It was Andrew Patterson, M.D., professor of anesthesiology, who first brought the relationship with the University of Gitwe to UNMC in 2015. It started with surgical mission trips and has grown to include student exchange programs, clinical electives and research projects.
In the newly developed clinical elective rotation, five physician assistant students will work in Rwanda in April and July of this year. Medical students can sign up now to participate in this elective for 2019.
Past programs were sponsored by the departments of anesthesiology and internal medicine in the College of Medicine.