Development of a Novel Hybrid Global Health Elective in Migrant Health and Human Rights

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruptions in global health education, effectively suspending nonessential travel, including international clinical electives for medical students. However, the necessary constraints of the pandemic also forced innovation in education. Here we report a novel hybrid online/in-person clinical and policy elective in migrant health and human rights that was developed as part of our medical school’s Global Health Leadership Program and successfully offered as an alternative to the program’s traditional international clinical sites. The elective was designed to provide students with a solid foundation in the multidisciplinary field of migrant health, along with an enriched understanding of international human rights and reproductive justice.

Methods: Our hybrid elective gave students exposure to medical-legal partnerships (which are foundational to supporting migrant populations) through training and participation in forensic evaluations of asylum seekers both locally and transnationally (across the southern border in Mexico). This was coupled with direct service supporting COVID-19-related outreach to our local undocumented Latinx population, which had been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. These experiences were further complemented by faculty-facilitated discussions, interprofessional guest lectures, readings, films/documentaries, and online modules, followed by an optional extended policy experience with a local non-governmental organization team focused on providing support to victims of forced marriage, including child marriage.

Results: We enrolled a full cohort (n=3) for the pilot elective and elicited regular feedback from participants throughout the experience, which was overwhelmingly positive. Given the limited sample size of the pilot cohort, our evaluation was primarily narrative with an intent to guide further course development. Each student participated in a total of 2-3 virtual evaluations of asylum seekers and was responsible for preparing at least one draft forensic affidavit. In addition, all students engaged in direct service with the local undocumented Latinx community through COVID-19 testing and supplementary outreach efforts, such as targeted food drives. Finally, two of the three students chose to extend their participation for an additional 3 weeks, over which they were embedded with a local NGO where they participated in additional supervised advocacy efforts, including publishing an editorial in support of a statewide bill limiting child marriage.

Conclusion: We were able to successfully adapt existing global health educational infrastructure to the COVID-19 landscape through a focus on migrant health, implementing a hybrid elective which combined synchronous and asynchronous online didactics with virtual evaluations of asylum seekers (both local and transnational), direct service, and an optional supplementary policy experience. This innovative model may be considered in scaling migrant health and human rights training across undergraduate medical education programs.