The CGH Evaluates its Student Training Programs
Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214999615012412
From 2014-2015 the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health (CGH) worked with student researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to evaluate its flagship student program, the Global Health Established Field Placements (GHEFP). The GHEFP program matches Hopkins students with Hopkins global health researchers and provides travel grants in order to support student research and practice overseas. As stated in the article,
Field education is essential to comprehensive global health training: overseas placements provide students with the opportunity to integrate their classroom knowledge with applicable skills in a global health setting. Programs that offer overseas placements have been found to improve students' cultural competency (“the ability of individuals to establish effective interpersonal and working relationships that supersede cultural differences”3) and personal and professional growth
The CGH used both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data from program reporting requirements, semistructured interviews, and focus groups with both faculty and students across the University. According to the article, "Faculty and students thought that the program was beneficial to the learning experience, particularly for its contribution to experiential knowledge of a low- and middle-income country setting and for developing cross-cultural relationships. Communication and scope of work were 2 areas in which students and faculty members often had different expectations and many students emerged having cultivated different skills than they or their mentor initially expected. Students found the experience useful for both their academic and professional careers and faculty members saw mentorship, one of their professional responsibilities, emerge." Faculty and students were asked to discuss the types of support they feel they need in order to have a productive experience overseas and three important themes emerged: preparation, communication, and funding.
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