title: Beyond ethical and curricular guidelines in global health: attitudinal development on international service-learning trips.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health professionals from high-income countries are increasingly becoming involved in international service-learning trips in low and low/middle-income countries. While much has been written about the ethics and curricular guidelines related to such endeavors, scant attention has been paid to the attitudes with which trainees and clinicians enter into or return from them. In this essay the authors explore how attitudes contribute to the success or failure of international service-learning trips.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors submit that the attitudes with which visiting health professionals approach international service-learning trips are much more critical to the success of these experiences than their demonstrated knowledge base or specialized skill sets. They list five attitudes that can aid those participating in international service-learning trips. They list five troubling attitudes that, while common, those participating in international service-learning trips can learn to recognize and avoid. They suggest five strategies key to learning respectful attitudes that can foster success in such cross-cultural activities. Lastly, the authors review several concepts related to attitude development in short or long-term global health work.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The attitudes with which visiting health professionals approach international service-learning activities can be important components of the success or failure of the experiences. Through thoughtful consideration of attitudes and approaches, participants on such trips can build a framework for rich and rewarding experiences in global medicine and global health.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Studies in History, Anthropology and Archeology, University of El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador. wventres@gmail.com.|Department of Family Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA. wventres@gmail.com.|, Urbanización Buenos Aires III, Block H, Calle Los Maquilishuat, N° 3-A, San Salvador, El Salvador. wventres@gmail.com.
authors.forename: William B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Ventres
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA. cal.wilson@ucdenver.edu.
authors.forename: Calvin L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D007393:International Educational Exchange