Bringing Global Health to Class: The Pilot Test of a Global Health Simulation

Global health is an ever changing and rapidly expanding component of public health programs. Global health is the study and practice of improving health, healthcare, and health equity for people throughout the world by means of international and interdisciplinary collaboration (Koplan, Bond, Merson, Reddy, Rodriguez, Sewankambo, Wasserheit, 2009).  Medical schools are starting to incorporate the principles of global health on a regular basis.  While this information is important to physicians, it is also necessary for those working in other aspects of public health.  The current study looks the teaching of global health to undergraduate students at a public four-year institution.  Many of the undergraduate students are first generation college students; many have never been outside of their county of birth.  This isolation or limited access to diverse cultures has posed a problem in students reaching intended learning outcomes.  To ameliorate these outcomes, the current pilot program has been implemented.  Students enrolled in an introduction to global health course are given simulation tasks.  Small groups of students are assigned to a fictitious country.  Within this country, each student is assigned a specific healthcare role.  Throughout the semester groups are presented with various tasks based on global health topics (environmental health, communicable diseases, nutrition, etc.).  After one semester of pilot testing, student scores on exams and written work have increased.  Simulations continue to be refined and improved based on student feedback and class performance.