GLOBAL HEALTH AND VOLUNTEERING BEYOND BORDERS. A GUIDE FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

1. An Overview of Global Health for the Healthcare Professional
2. Global Health Education
3. Perspectives on Global Health and Volunteerism for Healthcare Providers: The Importance of Preparation, Identification and Management of Infectious Diseases, and Mitigation of Other Risks
4. What Could Go Wrong?: Providing a Moral Grounding to the Ethics of Short-Term Medicine
5. Religious Foundations for Global Health Missions
6. Professionalism in Global Health
7. Technical Factors in Telemedicine Adoption in Extreme Resource-Poor Countries
8. Encountering Traditional Medicine in Global Health Service
9. Humanitarian Relief: A Public Health View
10. Military Medicine and Global Health: A Core Competency
11. The Role of Professional Societies in Achieving Global Health Security: Validating a Discipline of Disaster Medicine and Public Health
12. Global Health Organizations: What They Are and How They Work
13. Cultural Sensitivity in Global Outreach
14. Country Spotlight: China
15. Country Spotlight: India
16. Recollections of My International Experiences
17. Regional Spotlight: Africa
18. Regional Spotlight: Eastern Mediterranean
19. Regional Spotlight: Caribbean
20. Cultural Considerations for Healthcare Treatment of Latinos in the United States
21. Similarities Greater Than Differences: A Doctor’s Perspective
22. International Foundations for Ophthalmology
23. Global Ophthalmology
24. Ophthalmology: India
25. Coda

Global Health and Volunteering: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals is designed to educate volunteers to be effective partners in delivering medical services locally and globally. Healthcare professionals are increasingly interested in global health and volunteering in areas of acute need. The biggest challenge to health in many locales is the inability to access the health care system. When people do connect with medical services, medications and surgical opportunities for chronic disease (i.e. glaucoma, diabetes, or hypertension) are often not affordable or cannot be sustained for a long period of time.
The contributions in this book focus on a respectful dialog with local people and a willingness to learn from new experiences on the part of the volunteer. Skills transfer from visiting personnel to local providers is featured as a means to enhance healthcare sustainability.
An appreciation of differing cultures, an understanding of the local economic conditions and challenges, and strategies for collaborating with the existing medical establishment are foundations of successful volunteer experiences as highlighted in this book. Dimensions of global health such as professionalism, religious beliefs, ethical dilemmas, traditional medicine, and alternative strategies for service are addressed by experts.
Written and edited by leaders in the field, many of whom have more than two decades of experience volunteering abroad, Global Health and Volunteering: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals imparts lessons learned to help the reader avoid initial mistakes, while making the global health commitment stronger.

Features
• Prepares students and first-time volunteers to be effective helpers locally and globally
• Discusses topics such as appreciation of differing cultures, an understanding of the local economic conditions, a willingness to learn from new experiences, and strategies for collaborating with the existing medical establishment
• Provides pathways to integrate long-range learning on the part of the volunteer and skills transfer to local personnel
• Discusses the pitfalls to be avoided when volunteering abroad, including cultural ignorance, lack of background in local medical conditions, assuming that there is only one way to treat patients, and medical voyeurism
• Written and edited by leading experts in the field