International “Broadening Experiences”: A Method for Integrating International Opportunities for Physical Therapist Students

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSEHealth care providers in the United States must be prepared to work with patients and clients from a wide variety of backgrounds, experiences, and places. Educators are charged with providing opportunities for students to develop skills such as cultural competence, social facility, cross-cultural understanding, and a wider word view-both figuratively and literally. Providing students with information about health professional education and practice around the world is also helpful. Opportunities for students to experience diversity should be available both inside and outside the classroom. International opportunities to learn about diversity, social determinants of health, physical therapist practice, and global health care can provide students with new ways of seeing the world. Such opportunities facilitate the growth and development of practitioners who have greater cultural awareness, global knowledge and understanding, knowledge of global health care issues, and knowledge of education and practice outside the United States. These future professionals will have a greater ability to relate to the wide variety of people they will encounter in their careers. Further, international opportunities often provide chances for professional networking and collaboration.Many physical therapist education programs are adding international opportunities1-4 In 2009, Pechak and Thompson4 examined the prominence and development of international opportunities in physical therapist education programs and found that nearly 43% of programs in the United States and Canada had international opportunities and that another 14% reported that such opportunities would be added in the near future. In that study, the faculty reported that international opportunities were beneficial for themselves and for students and that such opportunities enhanced the physical therapists' role in the global health arena. In the United States, this focus on international initiatives and the associated literature seems to be driven and supported by American Physical Therapy Association core values5 and by the accreditation standards of the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education.6 Each of these documents includes the professional values of social responsibility, altruism, professionalism, and professional duty in practice and in the education of physical therapist students. These core values are closely connected to the cross-cultural and professional benefits of international experiences. The personal and professional value and importance of such experiences have been emphasized in the literature. International collaborations in academic and clinical settings have been found to result in global connectedness3 and rich and rewarding experiences that are life changing.7In physical therapist education programs across the United States, various models exist for providing international experiences for students. Aside from international clinical placements, other international programs include the use of service learning experiences; program-affiliated pro bono efforts, such as clinics; community partnerships for student exposure to various groups of patients/clients; and volunteerism.4,8 What is missing in the literature is a method for maximizing global opportunities for large groups of students without stretching already thin faculty resources.The general importance of providing international opportunities for students in higher education has been described by multiple authors.9-14 Rightly, the literature related to international experiences is often concerned with student outcomes. Although much of this research tends to be limited by small sample sizes, positive outcomes related to self-examination, intellectual growth and maturity, and skills in relationship and rapport building have been reported. These factors ultimately result in improved cultural competence after international experiences. International experiences have been reported to offer greater benefits in developing cultural competency skills than classroom education alone. …