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

Altruism is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. It refers to somebody who sacrificing their time, energy or possessions for someone else with no expectation of any compensation or benefits. It is a novel mindset and practice by many professions especially among medical doctor. Inculcating altruism and volunteerism among undergraduate medical students are challenging tasks by most of medical school in the world. In many instances, students have been engaged in service-learning to provide community service in response to community-identified needs and at the same time learn about the connection between their service and their academic coursework. In Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, students are exposed to community works in various academic activities. One of the activity is conducting medical electives in other hospital or community either locally or abroad. Recently two groups of medical students had engaged in medical elective in Cambodia and Zanzibar Island in Africa. Some of experiences gained include enhanced clinical skills, providing medical services in lack of resources environment, cross-cultural communication difficulties, developing strong friendship and teamwork between themselves and with the preceptor and community they served, and developing strong sense of devotion to help the poor and community in needs. One of student from Cambodian Relief Mission confessed that this mission has generated great interest for him to serve underprivileged population anywhere in the world. He felt a sense of gratitude and grateful for what Malaysia has given them in all aspects of living as compared to what Cambodia has to offer to their people. Similar sentiment was voiced from student attended the elective at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Zanzibar Island. Service-learning through international medical elective is a powerful pedagogy that can contribute to competencies needed for health professions practice at any time. It benefited students, faculties, communities and community-university relationships. It reduces medical schools “control” on student’s learning, instill altruism and volunteerism and empower a community to participate.