Refugee Health Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education (UME): A Scoping Review

Abstract

Phenomenon: An increasing number of refugees in recent years has led to changes in healthcare delivery. Historically, health care providers did not receive systematic and longitudinal training in refugee health. There is increasing interest among educators in developing educational opportunities for medical students to gain more training on how to care for this population. The aim of this scoping review was to identify and analyze existing literature on educational content and methods of delivery in Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) curricula related to refugees. Approach: The authors conducted a scoping review. Our search was conducted in seven electronic bibliographic databases. The search strategy was restricted to English language and scholarly articles. Three members of the research team tabulated and summarized extracted data. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted to present findings. Findings: Of the 717 publications found, 24 met our inclusion criteria. The articles included in this review were published between 2003 and 2019. Thirteen (57.6%) were descriptive papers, three (11.5%) qualitative, four (15.3%) quantitative, and one (3.8%) mixed methods. Other publications included one commentary, one letter to the editor, and one review paper. Three main descriptive themes were identified: (1) Content related to refugees’ curriculum, (2) Teaching strategies, and (3) Learning outcomes. Insights: Studies included in our review suggest that delivering refugee health curricula to medical students improve self-perception of cross-cultural knowledge, communication, and physical exam skills that are necessary to deliver proper healthcare. Medical schools should focus on developing a longitudinal and standardized approach to teaching refugee health through the use of interactive and diverse learning methods while engaging with the community to ensure a better provision of health care for vulnerable populations.

Keywords:

• Scoping review
• Undergraduate medical education
• Refugees

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Ms. Khaleda Rashid, JD and Ms. Sabrina Lopresti, MPH, RDH for editing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).