Podcast

This session will provide an overview on how to choose and prepare for a clinical elective in an international setting.

To become the person God wants you to be and to accomplish what God wants you to do, you must take risks. Risk is the fertilizer that grows your faith and bears spiritual fruit for God’s Kingdom. Are you willing to risk it?”

The Global Missions Health Conference (GMHC) had humble beginnings, but over the last three decades, it's grown into one of the most influential forces in international and domestic healthcare missions. Hundreds of Christian healthcare workers around the world began or altered their ministry careers by attending the conference. We'll review the most influential speakers and concepts that made the GMHC a groundbreaking movement. We'll also look forward to the next thirty years of Christian healthcare missions.

Fruitful domestic and international medical missions overlap in multiple ways. Both require cross-cultural skills, a willingness to work with limited resources, courage in the face of potentially dangerous situations, and possible disapproval from friends and family. Each is excellent preparation for the other. Many international workers spend furlough time working in American Christian health centers--and vice-versa.

What is cultural distress? It is a negative response rooted in a cultural conflict where the patient lacks control over their situation. It results in more physiologic effects on the body resulting in allostatic overload. To prevent this, healthcare practitioners must use strategies such as cultural humility to help patients navigate healthcare. Come find the best ways to deliver culturally sensitive care in any setting.