Dual benefits derived from international experiential placements
Keywords:
Experiential Education, International Collaboration, PharmacyAbstract
Introduction: International experiential placements and a twinning partnership between a United States (US) and a South African school of pharmacy resulted in dual benefits for the institutions.
Description of innovation: Supported by donor funding, bidirectional faculty exchanges occurred between the two institutions.
Evaluation: Benefits and challenges, for both institutions, have accrued from the twinning partnership. The benefits for the US partners included, amongst others, student and faculty exposure to health conditions not commonly encountered in the US and the awareness of alternative health systems. For the South African partners benefits included strengthening of the externship component of the programme as well as the development of student exchanges to the US.
Recommendations: Reviewing this successful exchange the partners recommend the following to support such an exchange: bidirectional exchange visits by faculty to both partnership countries; immersion into each country’s pharmacy system; involvement of experiential faculty; frequent communication; and clear goals, objectives and deadlines driven by a designated point person at each institution.
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