(1845) INCULCATING ALTRUISM AND VOLUNTEERISM MIND SET AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS THROUGH INTERNATIONAL ELECTIVES

摘要

Altruism is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. It refers to somebody whosacrificing their time, energy or possessions for someone else with no expectation of anycompensation or benefits. It is a novel mind set and practice by many professions especially amongmedical doctor. Inculcating altruism and volunteerism among undergraduate medical students arechallenging tasks by most of medical school in the world. In many instances, students have beenengaged in service-learning to provide community service in response to community-identified needsand at the same time learn about the connection between their service and their academiccoursework. In Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, students are exposed to community works invarious academic activities. One of the activities is conducting medical electives in other hospital orcommunity either locally or abroad. Recently two groups of medical students had engaged in medicalelective in Cambodia and Zanzibar Island in Africa. Some of experiences gained include enhancedclinical skills, providing medical services in lack of resources environment, cross-culturalcommunication difficulties, developing strong friendship and teamwork between themselves and withthe preceptor and community they served, and developing strong sense of devotion to help the poorand community in needs. Service-learning through international medical elective is a powerfulpedagogy that can contribute to competencies needed for health professions practice at any time. Itbenefited students, faculties, communities and community-university relationships. It reduces medicalschools “control” on student's learning, instill altruism and volunteerism and empower a community toparticipate.