International Education Day is an initiative started by the United Nations General Assembly that celebrates the role that education plays in global development and peace. Each year, International Education Day is celebrated on January 24. 2023 marks the fifth annual celebration and follows the theme “to invest in people, prioritize education.”
Learn more about International Education Day here.
Medical Education on an International Scale
At AMOpportunities, international education is at the core of the work we do every day. Although we focus on providing clinical training opportunities to medical students, the work is so much more.
The physician shortage is (and will continue to have) a global impact. It is already leading to inequitable health outcomes, “including higher rates of preventable hospitalizations, higher mortalities from preventable chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, and higher incidence of mental illness” according to one study.
This makes it vital to do more than just provide clinical training. Instead, our mission is to also focus on reducing the barriers that prevent medical students around the world from accessing the clinical training they need to complete their medical education and to work with clinical sites to expand their clinical training capacity.
AMO Trainees After AMO
Working with global medical trainees helps resolve the inequities caused by limited access to education on two fronts. While many AMO trainees choose to pursue medical careers in the United States after their rotations, many also return to their home countries with expanded skills and knowledge learned in a different health system.
International trainees that pursue careers in the U.S. often go on to provide care in rural areas, where the impacts of the physician shortage are the most immediate. However, the effectiveness of this is based on how friendly policies are toward international-trained medical graduates.
Building a world that has deeper recognition of different countries’ approaches to education is an important goal. It leads to policies that are more globally friendly. It is why the work of International Education Day is so important.
