Intersection of service and medical education: Medical student involvement in international disaster relief after the Peruvian earthquake, 2007

Background

In August 2007, the province of Ica, Peru, was devastated by an 8.0 earthquake. There were 519 total immediate deaths, and the remaining affected population required over 100,000 emergency service health care visits in the month following the disaster.

Description

Physicians from the US Naval Medical Research Center Detachment in Lima worked closely with the Peruvian Ministry of Health to provide disaster relief management to the earthquake victims. Three medical students, all NIH Fogarty International Scholars, worked as Spanish medical interpreters and collected basic disease surveillance data for the US military medical relief team that held mobile field clinics in internally displaced persons camps.

Lessons Learned

Medical student involvement in international disaster relief efforts has the potential to be a valuable service learning experience with the appropriate guidance and support. Given the common challenges of harsh conditions, limited resources and a large population in need, students need to work at a level appropriate with their training yet contribute in a meaningful way. They need to be supervised, safe, academically prepared and have a support group to help cope with the emotional impact of experiencing significant large scale destruction, death and disarray.

Next Steps

This type of experiential service learning can be a beneficial addition to medical education, providing medical students with increased empathy, triage skills and understanding of disaster relief efforts.