Students In Overseas Health Programs Not Prepared To Treat Patients
By Dr. Marciene Mattleman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Over the past decade, the number of American students in health fields going abroad has nearly tripled, taking them out of the classroom to clinics and hospitals. With competition for medical school slots, many are using the experience in their applications.
Educators have a growing concern - students performing examinations, delivering babies, health risks for students and for their foreign patients and putting colleges at risk of legal liability.
In almost all other countries except the United States and Canada, a medical degree is an undergraduate degree and when students wear lab coats, local practitioners may not realize that they haven't completed coursework. A report in The Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that white coats signify authority.
The University of Minnesota requires now that all students in health-related programs abroad complete an online workshop and a certificate stating that all students are unlicensed professionals who should not be giving direct patient care.
This should be a concern of all schools.