To improve our understanding of patients’ needs in cross-border healthcare, with a specific focus on handover.
In this qualitative study, we conducted narrative interviews with 8 patients who had ...experienced cross-border healthcare, including handover. Based on an inductive analysis, we crafted stories representing participants’ perspectives. Crafted stories attend to the personal character of patients’ experiences.
We crafted 3 stories relating patients’ cross-border healthcare pathways. We identified 3 recurring issues in these stories: (1) Patient involvement in the decision-making process regarding their healthcare; (2) Communication with their healthcare providers; and (3) Information throughout the healthcare process.
The said issues, albeit no novelty in healthcare, seem to be amplified by cross-border barriers, such as system, language, and cultural differences. To empower patients to be involved in their own healthcare process, these issues should become a topic of conversation between patients and healthcare professionals.
The patient stories in this article could help raise awareness among professionals and patients about the issues patients face in cross-border healthcare. Awareness is a first step in overcoming these issues.
•Patients in cross-border healthcare experience issues concerning involvement, communication, and information.•Patients and healthcare professionals seem to be unaware of these issues and their possible implications for healthcare.•Deliberate communication efforts and adequate information provision are needed to empower patients in cross-border healthcare.•Patient stories can be used to foster awareness of these issues.
Although cross-border healthcare benefits many patients and healthcare professionals, it also poses challenges. To develop a shared understanding of these opportunities and challenges among ...healthcare professionals, we designed an educational intervention outline and invited experts in healthcare and education to evaluate it. The proposed intervention was based on theoretical principles of authentic, team, and reflective learning.
Experts (N=11) received a paper outline of the intervention, which was subsequently discussed in individual, semi-structured interviews.
Based on a thematic analysis of the interviews, we identified 4 themes: 1) using the experience you have, 2) learning with the people you work with, 3) taking the time to reflect on the past and future, and 4) adapting the intervention to its context.
According to the experts, the proposed intervention and its three underlying principles can enhance a shared understanding of cross-border healthcare. To unlock its full potential, however, they suggested adjusting the application of learning principles to its specific context. By situating learning in landscapes of practice, the intervention could contribute to the continuous development of cross-border healthcare.
People marginalized based on their sexual and gender identity face specific health risks and experience barriers to culturally competent care. Insight into how Dutch medical schools address LGBTQI+ ...health-related learning objectives is scarce. We therefore examined how LGBTQI+ health issues are integrated in the Amsterdam UMC-VUmc medical curriculum by evaluating the year-two course 'Sex, Sexuality and Relationships' for LGBTQI+ content.
We examined written course content (course syllabus, lecture notes, and course literature) of the 2016-2017 course. We used a framework for essential LGBTQI+ content in medical education and an intersectional approach to examine which LGBTQI+ themes and subthemes were addressed.
Several essential LGBTQI+ health issues were adequately addressed and integrated into the Amsterdam UMC-VUmc curriculum, but we also identified curriculum gaps. The needs of patients with lesbian, bisexual, or gender non-conforming identities were marginally addressed, and issues related to intersections of minoritized sexual and gender identities with other aspects of diversity such as ethnicity, age and class remained unexplored. The course discussed gender and sexuality as fixed and mainly binary constructs, and only addressed biomedical explanatory models of sex, gender and sexuality.
The absence of complex patient identities in relation to sex, gender and sexuality does not adequately prepare students to provide LGBTQI+ responsive care. If not designed and taught competently, LGBTQI+-related curriculum content may reproduce bias and stereotypes, and contribute to a medical climate where both LGBTQI+ patients, students, and doctors conceal their identities. Further implementation of LGBTQI+ health issues is required in (continuing) medical education to secure culturally competent clinical environments. Educational research is needed to understand how medical education contributes to marginalization of LGBTQI+ identities and thus, to health disparities.
Co-creation is the active involvement of all stakeholders, including students, in educational design processes to improve the quality of education by embodying inclusivity, transparency and ...empowerment. Virtual co-creation has the potential to expand the utility of co-creation as an inclusive approach by overcoming challenges regarding the practicality and availability of stakeholders, typically experienced in face-to-face co-creation. Drawing from the literature and our experiences of virtual co-creation activities in different educational contexts, this twelve tips paper provides guidelines on how to effectively operationalize co-creation in a virtual setting. Our proposed three-phased approach (preparation, conduction, follow-up) might help those aiming to virtually co-create courses and programs by involving stakeholders beyond institutes and across borders.
PDF
