Submission ID 118583
| Issue/Objective | Students interested in healthcare often participate in global volunteer trips to gain new skills and experiences. While these trips can offer benefits in personal and professional competency development, they also present documented harm to host communities. A potential alternative to the traditional volunteer trip is an experiential learning trip, which emphasizes collaborative discussion and lecture-based global health instruction. However, the impact of this model on personal and professional competency development has yet to be explored. This mixed-methods study analyzed the impact of a Global Health course at Queen's University, involving an experiential learning trip to Tanzania, on influencing personal and professional competency development. |
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| Methodology/Approach | To examine how participation in this alternative learning experience affected students' professional competencies and perspectives, this study analyzed responses from mixed methods surveys completed before and after the trip, and daily transformative journaling completed during the trip. The qualitative data from the surveys underwent thematic analysis and quantitative Likert scale data was assessed for changes. |
| Results | Quantitative results revealed that students demonstrated significant improvement in self-rated competency levels, especially relating to communication, collaboration, scholarship, and advocacy. 72% of students reported an improvement in problem-solving ability, and 59% of individuals reported an improvement in overall confidence. Furthermore, thematic analysis revealed that students felt that the structured two-way discussions that occurred with community organizations in Tanzania best supported their personal and professional competency development while inspiring reciprocal engagement and knowledge exchange. Career goals also shifted significantly after the course; many students indicated in the qualitative survey that they were much more interested in pursuing further studies in global health. Overall, 61% of students demonstrated an increase in their confidence to make meaningful contributions in unfamiliar cultural settings. |
| Discussion/Conclusion | This study demonstrates the benefit of an experiential learning trip in supporting personal and professional competencies in students, indicating that it is likely an effective alternative to traditional volunteer-based trips. Furthermore, it suggests that experiential learning trips can inspire students to enter the global health field. Going forward, future research should expand on these findings through comparative studies, and investigate the potential impacts of these trips on host communities. |
| Presenters and affiliations | Swetlana Kumar Queen's University Marlee Schwartz Queen's University Kaileigh Webber Queen's University Corrinne White Queen's University Malek Benameur Queen's University Jashmira Bhinder Queen's University Tsegaw Geremew Belayneh Queen's University Sarina Jeffcoat Queen's University Julia Apolot Queen's University Shayne Belchos Queen's University Nikita Chopra Queen's University Kate Cruess Queen's University Alexandra Finn Queen's University Nimisha Grover Queen's University Jayden Jeong Queen's University Briar McCaw Queen's University Emily Moar Queen's University Shadi Mousavi Nia Queen's University Heeya Patel Queen's University Tyson Rudolf Queen's University Olivia Skinkle Queen's University Quintyn Zuber Queen's University Bailey Milne Queen's University Jennifer Carpenter Queen's University |
