qualitative studies in education journal

Qualitative research in education : Journals

• Journal of ethnographic & qualitative research "Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research (JEQR) is a quarterly, peer-reviewed periodical, publishing scholarly articles that address topics relating directly to empirical qualitative research and conceptual articles addressing topics related to qualitative."
• Qualitative research : QR "Qualitative Research (QRJ) is a bimonthly peer reviewed journal that publishes original research and review articles on the methodological diversity and multi-disciplinary focus of qualitative research."
• << Previous: Recent print books
• Next: Databases >>
• Background information
• Recent e-books
• Recent print books
• Connect to Stanford e-resources
• Related guides
• Last Updated: Jul 30, 2024 1:17 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.stanford.edu/qualitative_research_in_ed

Qualitative Inquiry in Education: Theory & Practice

About the Journal

Qualitative Inquiry in Education: Theory and Practice (QIETP) is a biannual peer-reviewed journal focusing on qualitative research methods, theories, and applications in the field of education. The main purpose of the journal is to contribute to the expansion and deepening of knowledge, discussions, and applications of qualitative research in education.

The QIETP provides current and significant qualitative research studies for researchers, academics, teachers, education policy-makers, and practitioners working in educational sciences and interdisciplinary fields. The journal publishes original and contributory research on the development, application, and evaluation of qualitative research methods and theories.

The scope of the journal includes:

• Qualitative research methods, theories, and applications in education
• Development and evaluation of qualitative research methods and theories in education
• Interdisciplinary connections and impacts of qualitative research in education
• Qualitative research on education policies and practices
• Qualitative research on teacher education and professional development
• Qualitative research on educational technology and digital environments
• Qualitative research on the impact of cultural, social, and societal factors on education

QIETP aims to be a reliable and enduring platform dedicated to qualitative research in education, adhering to high ethical and scientific standards. In this direction, the journal continuously develops and renews itself to meet the needs and expectations of researchers, academics, and professionals in the field of education.

In this context, QIETP  aims to emphasize the importance and value of qualitative research in education, encouraging knowledge sharing and collaboration between different disciplines, cultures, and geographies. The journal supports studies aimed at revealing the future directions of educational research and the impact of qualitative research methods in the field of education, providing valuable insights. Qualitative Inquiry in Education: Theory and Practice continues to pursue its goal of being an essential resource at both academic and applied levels by contributing to the ongoing development of qualitative research in education.

Current Issue

• FULL ISSUE (PDF)

Research Article

A heuristic inquiry into the experience of not realizing our ideal teaching, investigation of activities related to specific days and weeks in life science course in the context of classroom teachers' opinions, review article, reinterpreting the member checking validation strategy in qualitative research through the hermeneutics lens, content and thematic analysis techniques in qualitative research: purpose, process and features, development and use of the alphabetical analysis technique in qualitative research, make a submission, information.

• For Readers
• For Authors
• For Librarians

Qualitative Research Journal

• Submit your paper
• Author guidelines
• Editorial team
• Indexing & metrics
• Calls for papers & news

Before you start

For queries relating to the status of your paper pre decision, please contact the Editor or Journal Editorial Office. For queries post acceptance, please contact the Supplier Project Manager. These details can be found in the Editorial Team section.

Author responsibilities

Our goal is to provide you with a professional and courteous experience at each stage of the review and publication process. There are also some responsibilities that sit with you as the author. Our expectation is that you will:

• Respond swiftly to any queries during the publication process.
• Be accountable for all aspects of your work. This includes investigating and resolving any questions about accuracy or research integrity .
• Treat communications between you and the journal editor as confidential until an editorial decision has been made.
• Include anyone who has made a substantial and meaningful contribution to the submission (anyone else involved in the paper should be listed in the acknowledgements).
• Exclude anyone who hasn’t contributed to the paper, or who has chosen not to be associated with the research.
• In accordance with COPE’s position statement on AI tools , Large Language Models cannot be credited with authorship as they are incapable of conceptualising a research design without human direction and cannot be accountable for the integrity, originality, and validity of the published work. The author(s) must describe the content created or modified as well as appropriately cite the name and version of the AI tool used; any additional works drawn on by the AI tool should also be appropriately cited and referenced. Standard tools that are used to improve spelling and grammar are not included within the parameters of this guidance. The Editor and Publisher reserve the right to determine whether the use of an AI tool is permissible.
• If your article involves human participants, you must ensure you have considered whether or not you require ethical approval for your research, and include this information as part of your submission. Find out more about informed consent .

Generative AI usage key principles

• Copywriting any part of an article using a generative AI tool/LLM would not be permissible, including the generation of the abstract or the literature review, for as per Emerald’s authorship criteria, the author(s) must be responsible for the work and accountable for its accuracy, integrity, and validity.
• The generation or reporting of results using a generative AI tool/LLM is not permissible, for as per Emerald’s authorship criteria, the author(s) must be responsible for the creation and interpretation of their work and accountable for its accuracy, integrity, and validity.
• The in-text reporting of statistics using a generative AI tool/LLM is not permissible due to concerns over the authenticity, integrity, and validity of the data produced, although the use of such a tool to aid in the analysis of the work would be permissible.
• Copy-editing an article using a generative AI tool/LLM in order to improve its language and readability would be permissible as this mirrors standard tools already employed to improve spelling and grammar, and uses existing author-created material, rather than generating wholly new content, while the author(s) remains responsible for the original work.
• The submission and publication of images created by AI tools or large-scale generative models is not permitted.

Research and publishing ethics

Our editors and employees work hard to ensure the content we publish is ethically sound. To help us achieve that goal, we closely follow the advice laid out in the guidelines and flowcharts on the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) website .

We have also developed our research and publishing ethics guidelines . If you haven’t already read these, we urge you to do so – they will help you avoid the most common publishing ethics issues.

A few key points:

• Any manuscript you submit to this journal should be original. That means it should not have been published before in its current, or similar, form. Exceptions to this rule are outlined in our pre-print and conference paper policies .  If any substantial element of your paper has been previously published, you need to declare this to the journal editor upon submission. Please note, the journal editor may use  Crossref Similarity Check  to check on the originality of submissions received. This service compares submissions against a database of 49 million works from 800 scholarly publishers.
• Your work should not have been submitted elsewhere and should not be under consideration by any other publication.
• If you have a conflict of interest, you must declare it upon submission; this allows the editor to decide how they would like to proceed. Read about conflict of interest in our research and publishing ethics guidelines .
• By submitting your work to Emerald, you are guaranteeing that the work is not in infringement of any existing copyright.
• If you have written about a company/individual/organisation in detail using information that is not publicly available, have spent time within that company/organisation, or the work features named/interviewed employees, you will need to clear permission by using the  consent to publish form ; please also see our permissions guidance  for full details.
• You have an ethical obligation and responsibility to conduct your research in adherence to national and international research ethics guidelines, as well as the ethical principles outlined by your discipline and any relevant authorities, and to be transparent about your research methods in such a way that all involved in the publication process may fairly and appropriately evaluate your work. For all research involving human participants, you must ensure that you have obtained informed consent, meaning that you must inform all participants in your work (or their legal representative) as to why the research is being conducted, whether their anonymity is protected, how their data will be stored and used, and whether there are any associated risks from participation in the study; the submitted work must confirm that informed consent was obtained and detail how this was addressed in accordance with our policy on informed consent .  
• Where appropriate, you must provide an ethical statement within the submitted work confirming that your research received institutional and national (or international) ethical approval, and that it complies with all relevant guidelines and regulations for studies involving humans, whether that be data, individuals, or samples. Specifically, the statement should contain the name and location of the institutional ethics reviewing committee or review board, the approval number, the date of approval, and the details of the national or international guidelines that were followed, as well as any other relevant information. You should also include details of how the work adheres to relevant consent guidelines along with confirming that informed consent was secured for all participants. The details of these statements should ensure that author and participant anonymity is not compromised. Any work submitted without a suitable ethical statement and details of informed consent for all participants, where required, will be returned to the authors and will not be considered further until appropriate and clear documentation is provided. Emerald reserves the right to reject work without sufficient evidence of informed consent from human participants and ethical approval where required.

Third party copyright permissions

Prior to article submission, you need to ensure you’ve applied for, and received, written permission to use any material in your manuscript that has been created by a third party. Please note, we are unable to publish any article that still has permissions pending. The rights we require are:

• Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the article or book chapter.
• Print and electronic rights.
• Worldwide English-language rights.
• To use the material for the life of the work. That means there should be no time restrictions on its re-use e.g. a one-year licence.

We are a member of the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM) and participate in the STM permissions guidelines , a reciprocal free exchange of material with other STM publishers.  In some cases, this may mean that you don’t need permission to re-use content. If so, please highlight this at the submission stage.

Please take a few moments to read our guide to publishing permissions  to ensure you have met all the requirements, so that we can process your submission without delay.

Open access submissions and information

All our journals currently offer two open access (OA) publishing paths; gold open access and green open access.

If you would like to, or are required to, make the branded publisher PDF (also known as the version of record) freely available immediately upon publication, you can select the gold open access route once your paper is accepted. 

If you’ve chosen to publish gold open access, this is the point you will be asked to pay the APC (article processing charge) . This varies per journal and can be found on our APC price list or on the editorial system at the point of submission. Your article will be published with a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 user licence , which outlines how readers can reuse your work.

Alternatively, if you would like to, or are required to, publish open access but your funding doesn’t cover the cost of the APC, you can choose the green open access, or self-archiving, route. As soon as your article is published, you can make the author accepted manuscript (the version accepted for publication) openly available, free from payment and embargo periods.

You can find out more about our open access routes, our APCs and waivers and read our FAQs on our open research page. 

Find out about open

Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines

We are a signatory of the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines , a framework that supports the reproducibility of research through the adoption of transparent research practices. That means we encourage you to:

• Cite and fully reference all data, program code, and other methods in your article.
• Include persistent identifiers, such as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), in references for datasets and program codes. Persistent identifiers ensure future access to unique published digital objects, such as a piece of text or datasets. Persistent identifiers are assigned to datasets by digital archives, such as institutional repositories and partners in the Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences (Data-PASS).
• Follow appropriate international and national procedures with respect to data protection, rights to privacy and other ethical considerations, whenever you cite data. For further guidance please refer to our  research and publishing ethics guidelines . For an example on how to cite datasets, please refer to the references section below.

Prepare your submission

Manuscript support services.

We are pleased to partner with Editage, a platform that connects you with relevant experts in language support, translation, editing, visuals, consulting, and more. After you’ve agreed a fee, they will work with you to enhance your manuscript and get it submission-ready.

This is an optional service for authors who feel they need a little extra support. It does not guarantee your work will be accepted for review or publication.

Visit Editage

Manuscript requirements

Before you submit your manuscript, it’s important you read and follow the guidelines below. You will also find some useful tips in our structure your journal submission how-to guide.

Submit your manuscript

There are a number of key steps you should follow to ensure a smooth and trouble-free submission.

Double check your manuscript

Before submitting your work, it is your responsibility to check that the manuscript is complete, grammatically correct, and without spelling or typographical errors. A few other important points:

• Give the journal aims and scope a final read. Is your manuscript definitely a good fit? If it isn’t, the editor may decline it without peer review.
• Does your manuscript comply with our research and publishing ethics guidelines ?
• Have you cleared any necessary publishing permissions ?
• Have you followed all the formatting requirements laid out in these author guidelines?
• If you need to refer to your own work, use wording such as ‘previous research has demonstrated’ not ‘our previous research has demonstrated’.
• If you need to refer to your own, currently unpublished work, don’t include this work in the reference list.
• Any acknowledgments or author biographies should be uploaded as separate files.
• Carry out a final check to ensure that no author names appear anywhere in the manuscript. This includes in figures or captions.

You will find a helpful submission checklist on the website Think.Check.Submit .

The submission process

All manuscripts should be submitted through our editorial system by the corresponding author.

The only way to submit to the journal is through the journal’s ScholarOne site as accessed via the Emerald website, and not by email or through any third-party agent/company, journal representative, or website. Submissions should be done directly by the author(s) through the ScholarOne site and not via a third-party proxy on their behalf.

A separate author account is required for each journal you submit to. If this is your first time submitting to this journal, please choose the Create an account or Register now option in the editorial system. If you already have an Emerald login, you are welcome to reuse the existing username and password here.

Please note, the next time you log into the system, you will be asked for your username. This will be the email address you entered when you set up your account.

Don't forget to add your  ORCiD ID during the submission process. It will be embedded in your published article, along with a link to the ORCiD registry allowing others to easily match you with your work.

Don’t have one yet? It only takes a few moments to register for a free ORCiD identifier .

Visit the ScholarOne support centre  for further help and guidance.

What you can expect next

You will receive an automated email from the journal editor, confirming your successful submission. It will provide you with a manuscript number, which will be used in all future correspondence about your submission. If you have any reason to suspect the confirmation email you receive might be fraudulent, please contact the journal editor in the first instance.

Post submission

Review and decision process.

Each submission is checked by the editor. At this stage, they may choose to decline or unsubmit your manuscript if it doesn’t fit the journal aims and scope, or they feel the language/manuscript quality is too low.

If they think it might be suitable for the publication, they will send it to at least two independent referees for double anonymous peer review.  Once these reviewers have provided their feedback, the editor may decide to accept your manuscript, request minor or major revisions, or decline your work.

While all journals work to different timescales, the goal is that the editor will inform you of their first decision within 60 days.

During this period, we will send you automated updates on the progress of your manuscript via our submission system, or you can log in to check on the current status of your paper.  Each time we contact you, we will quote the manuscript number you were given at the point of submission. If you receive an email that does not match these criteria, it could be fraudulent and we recommend you contact the journal editor in the first instance.

Manuscript transfer service

Emerald’s manuscript transfer service takes the pain out of the submission process if your manuscript doesn’t fit your initial journal choice. Our team of expert Editors from participating journals work together to identify alternative journals that better align with your research, ensuring your work finds the ideal publication home it deserves. Our dedicated team is committed to supporting authors like you in finding the right home for your research.

If a journal is participating in the manuscript transfer program, the Editor has the option to recommend your paper for transfer. If a transfer decision is made by the Editor, you will receive an email with the details of the recommended journal and the option to accept or reject the transfer. It’s always down to you as the author to decide if you’d like to accept. If you do accept, your paper and any reviewer reports will automatically be transferred to the recommended journals. Authors will then confirm resubmissions in the new journal’s ScholarOne system.

Our Manuscript Transfer Service page has more information on the process.

If your submission is accepted

Open access.

Once your paper is accepted, you will have the opportunity to indicate whether you would like to publish your paper via the gold open access route.

If you’ve chosen to publish gold open access, this is the point you will be asked to pay the APC (article processing charge).  This varies per journal and can be found on our APC price list or on the editorial system at the point of submission. Your article will be published with a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 user licence , which outlines how readers can reuse your work.

For UK journal article authors - if you wish to submit your work accepted by Emerald to REF 2021, you must make a ‘closed deposit’ of your accepted manuscript to your respective institutional repository upon acceptance of your article. Articles accepted for publication after 1st April 2018 should be deposited as soon as possible, but no later than three months after the acceptance date. For further information and guidance, please refer to the REF 2021 website.

All accepted authors are sent an email with a link to a licence form.  This should be checked for accuracy, for example whether contact and affiliation details are up to date and your name is spelled correctly, and then returned to us electronically. If there is a reason why you can’t assign copyright to us, you should discuss this with your journal content editor. You will find their contact details on the editorial team section above.

Proofing and typesetting

Once we have received your completed licence form, the article will pass directly into the production process. We will carry out editorial checks, copyediting, and typesetting and then return proofs to you (if you are the corresponding author) for your review. This is your opportunity to correct any typographical errors, grammatical errors or incorrect author details. We can’t accept requests to rewrite texts at this stage.

When the page proofs are finalised, the fully typeset and proofed version of record is published online. This is referred to as the EarlyCite version. While an EarlyCite article has yet to be assigned to a volume or issue, it does have a digital object identifier (DOI) and is fully citable. It will be compiled into an issue according to the journal’s issue schedule, with papers being added by chronological date of publication.

How to share your paper

Visit our author rights page  to find out how you can reuse and share your work.

To find tips on increasing the visibility of your published paper, read about  how to promote your work .

Correcting inaccuracies in your published paper

Sometimes errors are made during the research, writing and publishing processes. When these issues arise, we have the option of withdrawing the paper or introducing a correction notice. Find out more about our  article withdrawal and correction policies .

Need to make a change to the author list? See our frequently asked questions (FAQs) below.

Frequently asked questions

Editor-in-Chief

• Dr Mark Vicars Victoria University and Honorary Adjunct Professor at Mahidol University - Australia and Thailand [email protected]
• Dr Jeanne Marie Iorio The University of Melbourne [email protected]

Commissioning Editor

• Danielle Crow Emerald Publishing - UK [email protected]

Journal Editorial Office (For queries related to pre-acceptance)

• Prashant Bangera Emerald Publishing [email protected]

Supplier Project Manager (For queries related to post-acceptance)

• Sivakeerthika Saravanan Emerald Publishing [email protected]

Editorial Advisory Board

• Professor Victoria Carrington University of Tasmania - Australia
• Dr Antonia Darder Loyola Marymount University - USA
• Professor Norman Denzin University of Illinois - USA
• Dr Yvonne Downs Independent Scholar - UK
• Dr Ken Gale Glasgow University - UK
• Professor William Gaudelli Lehigh University - USA
• Professor Dan Goodley Sheffield University - UK
• Professor Ivor Goodson University of Brighton - UK
• Professor Gabriele Griffin Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University - Sweden
• Dr Aaron Koh The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
• Dr Rebecca Lawthom Sheffield University - UK
• Dr Ligia (Licho) Lopez Lopez The University of Melbourne - Australia
• Professor Kate Pahl Manchester Metropolitan University - UK
• Professor Will Parnell Portland State University - USA
• Professor Ronald Pelias Southern University, Illinois - USA
• Professor Laurel Richardson Ohio State University - USA
• Dr Reshmi Roy Federation University - Australia
• Professor Pat Sikes University of Sheffield - UK
• Professor Andrew Sparkes Leeds Beckett University - UK
• Professor Elizabeth St. Pierre University of Georgia - USA
• Prof Shirley R. Steinberg University of Calgary, Canada and University of the West of Scotland - UK
• Dr Allison Sterling Henward Penn State College of Education - USA
• Professor Maria Tamboukou University of East London - UK

Citation metrics

CiteScore 2023

Further information

CiteScore is a simple way of measuring the citation impact of sources, such as journals.

Calculating the CiteScore is based on the number of citations to documents (articles, reviews, conference papers, book chapters, and data papers) by a journal over four years, divided by the number of the same document types indexed in Scopus and published in those same four years.

For more information and methodology visit the Scopus definition

CiteScore Tracker 2024

(updated monthly)

CiteScore Tracker is calculated in the same way as CiteScore, but for the current year rather than previous, complete years.

The CiteScore Tracker calculation is updated every month, as a current indication of a title's performance.

2023 Impact Factor

The Journal Impact Factor is published each year by Clarivate Analytics. It is a measure of the number of times an average paper in a particular journal is cited during the preceding two years.

For more information and methodology see Clarivate Analytics

5-year Impact Factor (2023)

A base of five years may be more appropriate for journals in certain fields because the body of citations may not be large enough to make reasonable comparisons, or it may take longer than two years to publish and distribute leading to a longer period before others cite the work.

Actual value is intentionally only displayed for the most recent year. Earlier values are available in the Journal Citation Reports from Clarivate Analytics .

Publication timeline

Time to first decision

Time to first decision , expressed in days, the "first decision" occurs when the journal’s editorial team reviews the peer reviewers’ comments and recommendations. Based on this feedback, they decide whether to accept, reject, or request revisions for the manuscript.

Data is taken from submissions between 1st June 2023 and 31st May 2024

Acceptance to publication

Acceptance to publication , expressed in days, is the average time between when the journal’s editorial team decide whether to accept, reject, or request revisions for the manuscript and the date of publication in the journal. 

Data is taken from the previous 12 months (Last updated July 2024)

Acceptance rate

The acceptance rate is a measurement of how many manuscripts a journal accepts for publication compared to the total number of manuscripts submitted expressed as a percentage %

Data is taken from submissions between 1st June 2023 and 31st May 2024 .

This figure is the total amount of downloads for all articles published early cite in the last 12 months

(Last updated: July 2024)

This journal is abstracted and indexed by

• American Sociological Association Publishing Options database
• BFI (Denmark)
• British Library
• The Publication Forum (Finland)

Reviewer information

Peer review process.

This journal engages in a double-anonymous peer review process, which strives to match the expertise of a reviewer with the submitted manuscript. Reviews are completed with evidence of thoughtful engagement with the manuscript, provide constructive feedback, and add value to the overall knowledge and information presented in the manuscript.

The mission of the peer review process is to achieve excellence and rigour in scholarly publications and research.

Our vision is to give voice to professionals in the subject area who contribute unique and diverse scholarly perspectives to the field.

The journal values diverse perspectives from the field and reviewers who provide critical, constructive, and respectful feedback to authors. Reviewers come from a variety of organizations, careers, and backgrounds from around the world.

All invitations to review, abstracts, manuscripts, and reviews should be kept confidential. Reviewers must not share their review or information about the review process with anyone without the agreement of the editors and authors involved, even after publication. This also applies to other reviewers’ “comments to author” which are shared with you on decision.

Resources to guide you through the review process

Discover practical tips and guidance on all aspects of peer review in our reviewers' section. See how being a reviewer could benefit your career, and discover what's involved in shaping a review.

More reviewer information

Calls for papers

Decentring the human in qualitative research: exploring diverse approaches by creating online communities.

Introduction This special issue emerged from the Australian Association for Research in Education Qualitative Research Methodologies Special Interest Group Seminar Series on Decentring the Human in Qualitative Research (cl...

Thank you to the 2022 Reviewers of Qualitative Research Journal

The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2022 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has been able to publish such high...

Thank you to the 2021 Reviewers of Qualitative Research Journal

The publishing and editorial teams would like to thank the following, for their invaluable service as 2021 reviewers for this journal. We are very grateful for the contributions made. With their help, the journal has ...

Literati awards

Qualitative Research Journal - Literati Award Winners 2023

We are pleased to announce our 2023 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Papers Extended Qualitative Content Analysis: ...

Qualitative Research Journal - Literati Award Winners 2021

We are pleased to announce our 2021 Literati Award winners. Outstanding Paper Collaborative autoethnography:...

Qualitative Research Journal is an international journal dedicated to communicating the theory and practice of qualitative research in the human sciences. Interdisciplinary and eclectic, QRJ covers all methodologies that can be described as qualitative.

Aims and scope

Qualitative Research Journal (QRJ) deals comprehensively with the collection, analysis and presentation of qualitative data in the human sciences as well as theoretical and conceptual inquiry and provides an international forum for researchers and practitioners to advance knowledge and promote good qualitative research practices.

Latest articles

These are the latest articles published in this journal (Last updated: July 2024)

So, You Think You're a Leader? Qualitative Study to Understand Patterns ofPresentation and Symmetry Among Dimensions of Leader Identity

“oh my phone, i can't live without you”: a phenomenological study of nomophobia among college students, the opportunity of struggle: a case study on developing a maori-centric nursing course, top downloaded articles.

These are the most downloaded articles over the last 12 months for this journal (Last updated: July 2024)

Factors that enhance and limit youth empowerment, according to social educators

Visual tools for supporting interviews in qualitative research: new approaches, women leaders' lived experiences of bravery in leadership.

These are the top cited articles for this journal, from the last 12 months according to Crossref (Last updated: July 2024)

Culturally Responsive and Communicative Teaching for Multicultural Integration: Qualitative Analysis from Public Secondary School

Creating spaces of wellbeing in academia to mitigate academic burnout: a collaborative autoethnography, children's voices through play-based practice: listening, intensities and critique., related journals.

This journal is part of our Education collection. Explore our Education subject area to find out more.  

See all related journals

Social Studies Research and Practice

Social Studies Research and Practice (SSRP) is a quality peer-reviewed, electronic journal. Research and practice...

On the Horizon: The International Journal of Learning Futures

On the Horizon: The International Journal of Learning Futures (OTH) is a strategic planning resource for decision makers...

International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies

The first journal of its kind, the International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies publishes lesson and learning...

This journal is aligned with our quality education for all goal

We believe in quality education for everyone, everywhere and by highlighting the issue and working with experts in the field, we can start to find ways we can all be part of the solution.

Qualitative Research in Education

Subject Area and Category

• Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
• Developmental and Educational Psychology

Hipatia Editorial

Publication type

Information.

How to publish in this journal

[email protected]

The set of journals have been ranked according to their SJR and divided into four equal groups, four quartiles. Q1 (green) comprises the quarter of the journals with the highest values, Q2 (yellow) the second highest values, Q3 (orange) the third highest values and Q4 (red) the lowest values.

The SJR is a size-independent prestige indicator that ranks journals by their 'average prestige per article'. It is based on the idea that 'all citations are not created equal'. SJR is a measure of scientific influence of journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journals where such citations come from It measures the scientific influence of the average article in a journal, it expresses how central to the global scientific discussion an average article of the journal is.

Evolution of the number of published documents. All types of documents are considered, including citable and non citable documents.

This indicator counts the number of citations received by documents from a journal and divides them by the total number of documents published in that journal. The chart shows the evolution of the average number of times documents published in a journal in the past two, three and four years have been cited in the current year. The two years line is equivalent to journal impact factor ™ (Thomson Reuters) metric.

Evolution of the total number of citations and journal's self-citations received by a journal's published documents during the three previous years. Journal Self-citation is defined as the number of citation from a journal citing article to articles published by the same journal.

Evolution of the number of total citation per document and external citation per document (i.e. journal self-citations removed) received by a journal's published documents during the three previous years. External citations are calculated by subtracting the number of self-citations from the total number of citations received by the journal’s documents.

International Collaboration accounts for the articles that have been produced by researchers from several countries. The chart shows the ratio of a journal's documents signed by researchers from more than one country; that is including more than one country address.

Not every article in a journal is considered primary research and therefore "citable", this chart shows the ratio of a journal's articles including substantial research (research articles, conference papers and reviews) in three year windows vs. those documents other than research articles, reviews and conference papers.

Ratio of a journal's items, grouped in three years windows, that have been cited at least once vs. those not cited during the following year.

Evolution of the percentage of female authors.

Evolution of the number of documents cited by public policy documents according to Overton database.

Evoution of the number of documents related to Sustainable Development Goals defined by United Nations. Available from 2018 onwards.

Leave a comment

Name * Required

Email (will not be published) * Required

* Required Cancel

The users of Scimago Journal & Country Rank have the possibility to dialogue through comments linked to a specific journal. The purpose is to have a forum in which general doubts about the processes of publication in the journal, experiences and other issues derived from the publication of papers are resolved. For topics on particular articles, maintain the dialogue through the usual channels with your editor.

Follow us on @ScimagoJR Scimago Lab , Copyright 2007-2024. Data Source: Scopus®

Cookie settings

Cookie Policy

Legal Notice

Privacy Policy

University Libraries

Edci 6280: qualitative research in education: suggested journals.

• Introduction
• Required Readings
• Suggested Journals
• Suggested Electronic Resources

Suggested Journals for EDCI 6280

Qualitative

International Journal of Qualitative Methods 

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education

Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research

Qualitative Inquiry

Qualitative Research

The Qualitative Report

International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Mixed Methods

Journal of Mixed Methods Research

Education Research

Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice & Research

American Educational Research Journal

Education policy analysis archives

Educational Research

Educational Research Review

Educational Researcher

Educational Research Quarterly

International Journal of Educational Research

Issues in Educational Research

Journal of Educational Practice & Research

Journal of Educational Research

Journal of Educational Research and Policy

Journal of Planning Education and Research

Journal of Research in Childhood Education

Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs

Journal of Research on Leadership Education

Journal of Special Education Research

Review of Educational Research

Theory and Research in Education

Theory and Research in Social Education

Universal Journal of Educational Research

Journal of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (publisher website only)

Subject Guide

• << Previous: Required Readings
• Next: Suggested Electronic Resources >>
• Last Updated: Feb 12, 2024 10:29 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.unt.edu/edci6280

Additional Links

UNT: Apply now UNT: Schedule a tour UNT: Get more info about the University of North Texas

UNT: Disclaimer | UNT: AA/EOE/ADA | UNT: Privacy | UNT: Electronic Accessibility | UNT: Required Links | UNT: UNT Home

• Open access
• Published: 08 August 2024

Medical students’ experience and learning outcomes of overseas community involvement project: a qualitative study

• Gayathri Devi Nadarajan 1 , 2 ,
• Kumaran Rasappan 3 ,
• Jonathan Shen You Ng 4 ,
• Melvin Lim Junchen 4 &
• Sungwon Yoon 5  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  854 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

135 Accesses

Metrics details

Medical students in Singapore engage in short term medical missions, locally known as Overseas Community Involvement Projects (OCIPs). Little is known about the learning outcomes of an OCIP and how this complements their medical education back home. Understanding this can help the medical educators structure the OCIP to optimise its learning value.

This study aims to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences and learning outcomes of the medical students who participated in the OCIP.

This was a qualitative study involving Singaporean students from one medical school travelling to Nepal. Data was collected from reflective journals, overall group reflections and two focus group discussions. The data was thematically analysed using the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical (ACGME) core competencies for medical professionals.

The data could be classified under various themes within the six domains of the ACGME framework. The study revealed themes of: humanism, socioeconomic and cultural determinants of health under the domain of patient care, application of medical knowledge, investigating and evaluating the needs of a population and feedback to drive improvement under the domain of practice-based learning and improvement, use of non-verbal cues and communicating across language barriers under the domain of interpersonal and communication skills, healthcare systems and delivery, resourcefulness and adaptability, health equity and accessibility under the domain of systems-based practice, ethics, role-modelling, teamwork and leadership skills, interprofessional skills and resilience under the domain of professionalism. Understanding the students’ motivations, utilising reflections, and following the patients’ journey facilitated attainment of these outcomes.

Conclusions

This OCIP experience translated to learning outcomes aligned with the ACGME framework. There is great potential for the experiential learning from a well-structured OCIP to help with personal and professional development and global health education.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Globalisation provides opportunities and challenges to medical education. There is an increasing interest in overseas service trips and global health education where medical students engage in Overseas Community Involvement Project (OCIP). These trips involve medical students, usually from high income regions, travelling to a lower resource setting. The trips, ranging from 1 week to 3 weeks in duration, are student-led, supervised by a physician mentor who may not necessarily accompany them. Such trips were more common prior to the COVID-19 pandemic related travel restrictions. Currently, it is picking up pace once again as the world is steadily recovering from the pandemic.

As this overseas service activity begins to resume, it is time to re-think how it can be approached. These trips raise ethical issues such as sustainability of student involvement or a lack of follow-up of patients after a diagnosis of a chronic illness during the trip [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. In addition, when students volunteer, significant resources are dedicated to this activity including time, money and even utilisation of the receiving countries’ scarce resources. Safety of all involved is also an issue as there are no regulations about personal protective equipment or operating protocols should the students encounter an infectious disease outbreak. Hence, it is now more important than ever to be clear on the risks and benefits of such trips.

If the risks and benefits are well taken into consideration when planning an OCIP, these trips may have the potential to benefit the community in low-income settings through collaborative partnerships [ 5 , 6 ]. For the students, the OCIP may serve as an educational tool or pedagogy in medical education. The experience can be very rich and may stimulate learning of important but often neglected topics within medical education which are also challenging to teach such as health systems and socioeconomic and cultural determinants of health [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. The OCIP also provides students with early exposure to community health [ 10 ] and may potentially be a valuable source of experiential learning.

While a few studies [ 11 , 12 , 13 ] described the benefits and issues around volunteerisms in global health, very little medical education research has been conducted to demonstrate the possible learning outcomes of an OCIP. Specifically, there is a gap in understanding how the OCIP experience relates to medical education competencies. Furthermore, the literature on the experience of Asian medical students volunteering in overseas community projects is sparse. As global health issues are increasingly incorporated into medical education with growing interest in OCIP, it is important to understand what Asian medical students learn and how this complements their medical education back home. This in turn can help the medical educators structure the OCIP to optimise its learning value. Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences and learning outcomes of the medical students who participated in the OCIP.

Study design

A qualitative study design was chosen as the study requires an in-depth understanding of students’ experiences.

Setting and participants

This study was based in one medical school in Singapore, a metropolitan city state. Each of the three medical schools in Singapore have multiple OCIPs which are student-led with physician oversight. Such OCIPs have been in existence in each of these schools since their setup and is voluntary. It is currently not part of the medical curriculum but is available for anyone to join in medical school. The term OCIP is used rather than short term experiences in global health (STEGH) because the objective of such trips is to provide service to an underserved community rather than a ‘global health experience’. The OCIP group usually revisits the same location to ensure continuity of care. The OCIP activities typically include screening camps, health education or training to equip the community with a certain set of skills. Project Aasha is an annual OCIP where participants spend two weeks in the rural, mountainous region of Nepal. Landlocked between India and China in Asia, Nepal has a population of about 30 million, spread across the valley of Kathmandu (its capital) and unique terrains comprising of the world’s highest mountains and terai (lowland region). Though healthcare is heavily subsidised for the poor, the challenging terrains affects accessibility, and the poor health literacy and volatile politics makes implementation of policies difficult. Hence, universal health coverage and equitable health provision is still a struggle. The trip was based in Bung village in the Himalaya mountains in North-eastern Nepal at an elevation of 1800 m and Biratnagar city, a terai in Eastern Nepal. The health service consisted of first aid training and women’s health education for school students, health screening and cataract surgery for the villagers. This trip rooted from the local community leaders approaching the physician mentor of Project Aasha. They were concerned of the general poor state of health of the villagers- where many of them do not continue with follow up care for their chronic conditions, there was poor health literacy and there was a major concern about injuries and the lack of first aid knowledge as the nearest hospital was a day’s walk away. Following contact with the community leader, and prior to this trip, Project Aasha members did a separate trip for a needs analysis (by performing a door-to-door survey) and also proceeded to apply for permits to allow the team to practice in the village of Bung.

The OCIP team consisted of a physiotherapy group (four students and a mentor) an ultrasonographer, five doctors (from specialties of Ophthalmology, Emergency Medicine, Orthopaedics and Surgery), fourteen medical students and two Nepalese student translators. Pre-trip, the students were involved in researching about the community they would be visiting in Nepal, preparing the logistics for the team’s stay, trip itinerary, medical equipment, medications and training materials for the community. There was also a sharing session in which the teams that had previously went to Nepal shared their experiences. Once in Nepal, the team reached their destination by jeep on partially built gravel roads and trekking through the mountainous terrain. The team took the same route that the villagers would take to reach secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities. This gave them the opportunity to meet the various stakeholders in the clinics and hospitals, with the aim of understanding the local health system. The mentors accompanying the students utilised reflections [ 14 ] to consolidate students’ daily experiences. Reflective learning, where a deliberate attempt is made to share and reflect on one’s experiences from the day [ 15 ] is key to Project Aasha as it helps shape the experiences into learning moments. Participants for this study were 14 medical students who took part in the trip.

Data collection

At the start, the students were asked to share verbally within the group and in a reflective log on their motivations to participate in the OCIP. On each of the four service days, they were also asked to fill a personal daily reflective log. The end of each service day consisted of a daily debrief, where operational issues of the day will be discussed followed by a group reflective session, where the supervising seniors (doctors and physiotherapists in this trip) also shared their reflections. The reflective log asked all the students to pen down their experience and learning points for the day while the group reflective session asked some of them to share their experiences from the day. This was recorded and transcribed verbatim. At the end of the trip, two focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted on-site where the students were asked to share their overall experience from the trip and what they have learnt. They were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Hence, the data collection comprised three different sources- reflective journals, overall group reflections and the two FGDs.

Data analysis

The transcribed data and written materials were thematically analysed by two coders (GN, MN). GN and MN are both medical doctors with public health training. Disagreements were resolved by a third coder (SY) who is an academic faculty member with expertise in global health and health services research through iterative meetings. Following the initial thematic analysis, compiled themes and sub-themes were subsequently mapped onto the ‘Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical (ACGME) core competencies for medical professionals’ since it is a commonly used framework to measure the competencies of the medical doctors in Singapore. Themes and sub-themes that did not fall within the ACGME categories but emerged from data were also compiled. Therefore, our analysis involved both inductive and deductive approaches. To bolster the strength of our qualitative analysis, we employed data triangulation by incorporating multiple data sources including on-site reflective journals, recorded group reflections and focus groups. These sources allowed us to capture comprehensive exploration of students’ experiences. The analysis involved two independent coders, each responsible for examining the three sources of data. By comparing interpretations of the coding, we assessed the extent of convergence across various data and between coders while also identifying any divergences. This approach ensured a rigorous examination of the experiences and learning outcomes. Through analysis, a conceptual diagram for the learning outcomes from OCIP was generated.

The study was declared to have exempt status and ethical waiver by the SingHealth Centralised Institutional Review Board (Ref no. 2018/3226).

Table  1 shows the characteristics of participants and their motivations to join the trip. There was a balanced number of male and female participants from both year one and two of the same medical school, with an average age of 20 years old. Approximately three quarters (75%) did not have a prior OCIP experience. The majority of students (50%) stated that the experience of healthcare in a low resource setting was the main motivation to join the trip, followed by the experience of healthcare within a different culture, learning how to plan for medical mission trips, wanting to join a sustainable OCIP project and an interest in serving an underserved population.

Learning points during the preparation phase of the trip

Table  2 shows what participants learnt during the pre-trip preparation phase. Three themes were identified – organisational skills, teaching skills and the ability to take into context the culture of the recipient community when developing health education materials. As this is a student-led trip, the students organised all aspects of the trip for the team as well as for the Nepalese community. Consequently, many reflected on acquisition of organisational skills during the preparation phase.

The students also prepared teaching materials for first aid, hand hygiene and women’s health under the physician’s guidance. The initial teaching materials were adopted from the internet, which lacked localisation and thus appeared to be unsuitable for the villagers. For example, for menstrual hygiene, the menstrual cup was seen to be too invasive and culturally inappropriate, and the sanitary napkins were viewed as environmentally unfriendly as compared to using a cloth. Through feedback from the physicians as well as sharing from their predecessors who had visited the village the year before, they learnt to tailor the teaching materials accordingly to the local culture, beliefs and practices.

OCIP experience and learning outcomes according to ACGME framework

Participants’ experiences and reflections engendered various themes under the six domains of the ACGME framework. These quotes for the themes are summarised in Table  3 .

Patient care (PC)

Their reflections depicted the experience of humanism . Besides attending to the patients, the students observed how the doctors, translators and physiotherapists interacted with the patients. This allowed them to appreciate different facets of patient care such as understanding patients’ unique concerns besides the medical complaints and seeing them as an individual rather than a collection of symptoms and signs. Socioeconomic and cultural determinants of health were another two emerging themes of this domain. As one student reflected, “an elderly couple with social issues that greatly outweighed their medical ones, leading me to rethink how to we treat patients”. Seeing them in-situ within their villages and communities allowed the students to appreciate how their lifestyle, habitat and beliefs could influence their presenting medical complaints and health behaviors. For example, students noticed that despite medical advances and awareness, villagers preferred to follow the practice of being isolated during the menstrual cycle or deliver at home instead of using a birthing center due to their own cultural beliefs.

Medical knowledge (MK)

Besides clerking for the patients, the students took on the roles of a pharmacist and a triage nurse which helped them improve the understanding of the patient’s healthcare journey and narratives. Students also worked closely with the doctors who would supervise all the cases they saw. This opportunity allowed them to “use medical knowledge to correlate the clinical presentation with the disease” and apply their medical knowledge in a safe, protected environment.

Practice based learning and improvement (PBLI)

Interactions with the stakeholders especially enabled the students to appreciate the role of PBLI in striving for quality care for the villagers. As this OCIP doesn’t involve any NGOs, the students had the chance to directly interact with the village leaders and clinic leads to understand the healthcare issues in the village and brainstorm on solutions. Through conversations with these stakeholders, they were able to “understand the situation better and design programmes that will benefit the communities the most.” In this process, they learnt how best to investigate and evaluate the needs of the population and the importance of regular feedback to improve the system .

Interpersonal and communication skills

During the OCIP, the patients mainly spoke the Nepali language which indeed created a challenging language barrier . When the students had to work around this barrier, it allowed them to appreciate the importance of non-verbal communication as well as accuracy in understanding the patients’ narrative when taking a history from them. As one student described, students learned “how to make patients feel engaged and connected to you even though I was speaking through a translator.” During the daily reflections sharing, the physicians shared their communication challenges back in multiracial Singapore where knowing English alone is insufficient as each of the elderly patients speak their ethnic dialect. This reflection allowed the students to relate the experience to the situation In Singapore and reflect on how they would communicate across language barriers .

Systems based practice (SBP)

This OCIP was designed in a way that the team has to trek through the mountains from the nearest town to reach the villages for medical service provision and training. This follows the villagers’ journey should they need to travel to a tertiary hospital as the roads are not conducive for vehicular travel. The experience made the students realize how such a system can especially impact the speed of treatment in times of emergencies. During reflections, the physicians also shared that although Singapore is a developed country, for an elderly or disabled patient, their frequents trips to the hospital for multiple medical appointments is comparable. Hence, an ideal situation may be to have a strong primary healthcare facility near their homes, staffed by health professionals who have built a good rapport with the villagers and can manage common chronic conditions. It was commonly reflected that such experiences and sharing enabled them to understand healthcare delivery in low resource settings and relate it back to practice at home. Many reflected on health inequity as they saw how those living in the mountains were disadvantaged due to inaccessibility by virtue of the terrain or when they were unable to afford transport via helicopter to reach a tertiary hospital when time critical care is needed. In addition, the health post at these mountainous villages were often left unattended unlike those along more popular trekking routes like the Everest Base Camp trek or in the city. This created an unreliable system and affected the confidence the villagers have on the healthcare providers. Birthing centres were also present, but they were located on the top of a hill which was challenging for pregnant ladies to travel to. Hence people defaulted antenatal follow-ups and delivered at home. Such experiences brought about reflections on healthcare systems, accessibility and delivery. Specifically, students highlighted the importance of “understanding the bigger picture of the healthcare system in the management of patients.”

Professionalism

Many themes emerged under the domain of professionalism, such as the ethics around such short-term mission trips as well as role modelling when the students saw how the local doctors worked hard for the underprivileged population. Students reflected that healthcare is all “about heart” and they should “always reach out to those in need of greater help.” Experiencing healthcare in a low-income setting also brought about a sense of gratitude . Concurrently, organizing and conducting the trip together with different healthcare professionals provided the platform for the development of teamwork, leadership and interprofessional skills . Lastly, through their experience and reflections, the students reflected on their self-resilience as well as the resilience of the Nepalese people in managing with the minimum. Students observed that witnessing how Nepalese people navigate challenges despite limitations in healthcare infrastructure provided them with “a better insight into what it means to be resilient and how to cope with difficult situations.”

The ACGME framework is broad enough to encompass the various themes from the students’ reflections. Interestingly, these themes refer to the soft or non-technical skills (NTS) in the medical curriculum. These themes also fall within the domains of global health education (socioeconomic and cultural determinants of health, PBLI, SBP), personal (teamwork & leadership skills, resilience) and professional (humanism, MK, ICS, interprofessional skills) development. Teaching the NTS is challenging and may sometimes be perceived as less important by the students. Hence, we propose an alternative conceptual model (Fig.  1 ) to highlight learning outcomes from OCIPs. It aims to help the facilitator and learner in reflecting on their experiences, converting them into learning moments and effectively consolidating learning outcomes in an OCIP. Our framework takes the form of a pyramid, with “Personal Development” forming its base, “Professional Development” building upon that foundation and ultimately capped with “Global Health Awareness”. It is structured as such because it is imperative for the learner to develop personal competencies and attributes to be in a comfortable zone, to glean the higher-order professional and global health skills offered by an OCIP experience. For example, without addressing personal competencies such as teamwork or adaptability to the challenging environment, students may struggle to progress to the next stage of learning professional competencies. Only by adequately addressing these two foundational skills, can students develop a deeper appreciation for global health principles, such as social determinants of health. Understanding the students’ motivations pre-trip can set the learners’ agendas and shape the experiential learning outcomes. Lastly, reflections during the trip and a healthcare journey approach can meaningfully contribute to reaching these outcomes.

Framework for OCIP learning outcomes

This study sought to understand Singaporean medical students experience and learning outcomes of the OCIP. While findings from this study echo the benefits of global health experience published elsewhere [ 8 , 10 , 16 ], this is the first study to show how the OCIP experience could translate to various facets of ACGME domains. Our results demonstrate that OCIP is relevant to undergraduate medical education and could be a pedagogical tool for acquiring ACGME competencies as well as skills relevant to their personal, professional development and global health understanding.

The OCIP provides the opportunity to utilize both experiential learning [ 17 , 18 ] and reflections, which are powerful pedagogical tools in medical education and part of the Kolb’s learning cycle. It provides the space to experience medicine in a more relaxed setting. The dedicated sharing time allows them to reflect and conceptualise the experience and eventually test out what they have learnt the following day [ 17 ]. The experience, reflection, abstract conceptualisation and experimentation are all part of the Kolb’s cycle.

The OCIP also contributes to the transformative learning process [ 19 ]. The students had certain assumptions at the start of the OCIP, which were challenged during the trip. Some of the self and group reflections evoked deep discussions which brought about a change in their perspectives. This is similar to studies which show that critical reflection of experiences serve as a pedagogical approach to learn complex concepts [ 20 , 21 ]. For example, a successful physician is seen as one who can diagnose a patient’s problem and prescribe the appropriate management. However, in the low-resource setting, there was the realization that such skill would not suffice in the optimal long-term management, due to the scarcity of treatment or the inability of villagers to travel regularly to tertiary hospital for continued treatment. Thus, a “health systems” thinking process would be required to address the patient’s problems. Upstream problems (e.g., sanitation, diet) need to be addressed and active effort needs to be made for effective health education and preventative health. Allied healthcare may need to be stationed at the village health posts. The physician should be able to effectively communicate a diagnosis to the villagers and help them understand the impact of illness and treatment noncompliance on their lives such that they follow up on their treatment. And most importantly there should be a system to ensure continuity of care after the departure of overseas physicians. From this experience, it became evident that a successful physician should possess strong leadership skills and ability to bring all of these together.

Such an experience showed the students that a successful physician also needs to have NTS. The Lancet Commissions have proposed a new approach in medical education that focuses on teaching NTS to address health inequity [ 22 ]. These topics are also important to develop a future generation of doctors who are community and socially responsible [ 20 , 23 ]. However, these are challenging topics to teach. The OCIP experience generated the importance of NTS - such as PC, ICS, SBP and professionalism. A well designed OCIP can facilitate the learning of these challenging concepts [ 24 ].

Findings from this study can pave the way for adoption of more relevant competencies to measure the impact of an OCIP. For example, cultural competence or humility has been one of the commonly used learning outcomes. However, the limitations of using this term as a learning outcome are being recognised, as it has not succeeded in reducing health disparities. In response, some have proposed a transnational [ 23 , 24 ] approach to medical education and a global health curriculum to complement OCIPs. The transnational approach comprises both of medical and social competencies that allow the physician to manage patients in various settings. Some of the learning themes identified in this study fall within the transnational framework [ 24 ] and hence, these outcomes (e.g., health systems understanding) may be used to measure the educational effectiveness of an OCIP. Adopting a transnational approach may potentially result in incorporating new competencies into medical education to cultivate socially responsible physicians.

Our findings underscore the need to develop a curriculum for physicians leading OCIPs on how to facilitate the experiential learning through reflections [ 20 ]. A curriculum covering topics relevant to the practical and medical education aspects of an OCIP is much needed [ 4 ]. Although there are existing guidelines on global health ethics [ 2 ], infectious diseases, tropical and travel medicine, currently, there is no guideline on how to facilitate the experiential learning process of medical students during an OCIP. Our findings serve to act as an impetus to develop a more structured approach to OCIPs to ensure that its educational benefits are appropriately assessed.

This study has a few limitations. The study was based on a single OCIP group in Singapore which may limit the transferability of the findings. The physician leads of the OCIP group utilized reflections to facilitate learnings from the OCIP experience and hence there is uncertainty if similar learning outcomes will be achieved if an OCIP didn’t consist of reflective practice. This study explored the OCIP’s benefits solely from the perspectives of the medical student volunteers, leaving the viewpoints of local translators or local population unaccounted for. Further research work is warranted to include the perspectives of the community receiving help [ 25 ] to understand the OCIP’s experiential learning in a more holistic manner.

The rich experience of an OCIP can provide valuable lessons that classroom or bedside teaching may not achieve. In today’s globalized world, as patient care becomes more complex, it is essential to be an all-rounded physician. The experiential learning from OCIPs can facilitate this development. Future steps should focus on how to make such trips more impactful and relevant for the community it serves and to develop a pre-trip checklist of competencies that encompasses the essential NTS required for such trips.

(3897 words)

Data availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript.

Crump JA, Sugarman J. Ethical considerations for short-term experiences by trainees in global health. JAMA - J Am Med Assoc. 2008;300(12):1456–8.

Article   Google Scholar  

Shah S, Wu T. The medical student global health experience: professionalism and ethical implications. J Med Ethics. 2008;34(5):375–8.

Pinto AD, Upshur REG. Global health ethics for students. Dev World Bioeth. 2009;9(1):1–10.

Elit L, Hunt M, Redwood-Campbell L, Ranford J, Adelson N, Schwartz L. Ethical issues encountered by medical students during international health electives. Med Educ. 2011;45(7):704–11.

Hayes F, Clark J, McCauley M. Healthcare providers’ and managers’ knowledge, attitudes and perceptions regarding international medical volunteering in Uganda: a qualitative study. BMJ Open. 2020;10(12):e039722.

McCauley M, Raven J, van den Broek N. Experiences and impact of international medical volunteering: a multi-country mixed methods study. BMJ Open. 2021;11(3):e041599.

Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta ZA, Cohen J, Crisp N, Evans T, et al. Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet. 2010;376(9756):1923–58.

Holmes D, Zayas LE, Koyfman A. Student objectives and learning experiences in a global health elective. J Community Health. 2012;37(5):927–34.

Elam CL, Sauer MJ, Stratton TD, Skelton J, Crocker D, Musick DW. Service Learning in the Medical Curriculum: developing and evaluating an elective experience. Teach Learn Med. 2003;15(3):194–203.

Dornan T, Littlewood S, Margolis SA, Scherpbier A, Spencer J, Dornan T et al. How can experience in clinical and community settings contribute to early medical education a BEME systematic review how can experience in clinical and community settings contribute to early medical education a BEME systematic review. 2009.

Wolfberg AJ. Volunteering Overseas — lessons from Surgical brigades. N Engl J Med. 2006;354(5):443–5.

Withers M, Browner CH, Aghaloo T. Promoting volunteerism in Global Health: lessons from a medical mission in Northern Mexico. J Community Health. 2013;38(2):374–84.

Reasoner K, Desai MJ, Lee DH. A helping hand: the Case for Volunteerism. J Hand Surg. 2018;43(10):941–4.

Chan YC, Tan CH, Donkers J. Impact of reflective writings on learning of core competencies in medical residents. Asia Pac Sch. 2021;6(4):65–79.

Sandars J. The use of reflection in medical education: AMEE Guide 44. Med Teach. 2009;31(8):685–95.

Haq C, Rothenberg D, Gjerde C, Bobula J, Wilson C, Bickley L et al. New World Views: Preparing Physicians. 2000;(October).

Kolb David. In: Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. FT.

Dunn D, Saintonge MC. Experiential learning. Med Educ. 1997;31:25–8.

Van Schalkwyk SC, Hafler J, Brewer TF, Maley MA, Margolis C, McNamee L, et al. Transformative learning as pedagogy for the health professions: a scoping review. Med Educ. 2019;53(6):547–58.

Dharamsi S, Richards M, Louie D, Murray D, Berland A, Whitfield M, et al. Enhancing medical students’ conceptions of the CanMEDS Health Advocate role through international service-learning and critical reflection: a phenomenological study. Med Teach. 2010;32(12):977–82.

Peluso MJ, van Schalkwyk S, Kellett A, Brewer TF, Clarfield AM, Davies D, et al. Reframing undergraduate medical education in global health: Rationale and key principles from the Bellagio Global Health Education Initiative. Med Teach. 2017;39(6):639–45.

Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta ZA, Cohen J, Crisp N, Evans T, et al. Health professionals for a new century: Ttransforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet. 2010;376(9756):1923–58.

H. RM. International medical education and future directions: a global perspective. Acad Med. 2006;81(12 SUPPL):S22–9.

Google Scholar  

K PH. Medical education for a changing world: moving beyond cultural competence into transnational competence. Acad Med. 2006;81(6):548–56.

Kraeker C, Chandler C. We learn from them, they learn from us. Acad Med. 2013;88(4):483–7.

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Project Aasha students who participated in this study.

This work has not received any external funding.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

Gayathri Devi Nadarajan

SingHealth Duke Global Health Institute, Singapore, Singapore

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, National University Health Systems, Singapore, Singapore

Kumaran Rasappan

Ministry of Health Holdings, Singapore, Singapore

Jonathan Shen You Ng & Melvin Lim Junchen

Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore

Sungwon Yoon

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Gayathri Devi Nadarajan (GDN) and Sungwoon Yoon (SY) conceptualised the article, contributed to article sections, and reviewed and revised manuscript based on suggestions from the other authors. GDN, SY and Melvin Lim Junchen (ML) undertook the thematic analysis and contributed to the result section. Kumaran Rasappan and Jonathan Shen You Ng contributed to the article sections. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript. GDN takes full responsibility for the article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kumaran Rasappan .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

The SingHealth Centralised Institutional Review Board (CIRB) granted an exemption for informed consent and ethical waiver, CIRB Ref. 2018/3226. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations for this study. This study was conducted and completed at National University Hospital, Singapore (primary site) and SingHealth.

Consent for publication

Not applicable as not an experiment involving human participants nor does the manuscript contain information or images leading to identification of participants.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Material 1

Rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Nadarajan, G.D., Rasappan, K., Ng, J.S.Y. et al. Medical students’ experience and learning outcomes of overseas community involvement project: a qualitative study. BMC Med Educ 24 , 854 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05560-6

Download citation

Received : 05 May 2023

Accepted : 15 May 2024

Published : 08 August 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05560-6

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Medical mission
• Medical volunteerism
• Humanitarian medicine
• Experiential learning
• Reflective learning
• Transformative learning

BMC Medical Education

ISSN: 1472-6920

• Submission enquiries: [email protected]
• General enquiries: [email protected]

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Heatwaves impact on prehospital emergency medicine: a qualitative study to improve sustainability and disaster preparedness in veneto region, northern italy.

1. Introduction

2.1. context, 2.2. design and population of the study, 2.3. data collection, 2.4. data analysis and reporting, 2.5. ethical considerations, 3.1. perception of heatwaves, 3.2. clinical impact of heatwaves, 3.3. social factors and heatwaves, 3.4. heatwaves and ems, 3.4.1. gaps and vulnerability factors, 3.4.2. strengths, 3.4.3. potential solutions to mitigate the impact, 4. discussion, limitations, 5. conclusions, supplementary materials, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

• Watts, N.; Amann, M.; Ayeb-Karlsson, S.; Belesova, K.; Bouley, T.; Boykoff, M.; Byass, P.; Cai, W.; Campbell-Lendrum, D.; Chambers, J.; et al. The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: From 25 years of inaction to a global transformation for public health. Lancet 2018 , 391 , 581–630. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• United Nations. Report of the Conference of the Parties on Its Twenty-First Session, Held in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015. Addendum. Part Two: Action Taken by the Conference of the Parties at Its Twenty-First Session ; United Nations: San Francisco, CA, USA, 2016. [ Google Scholar ]
• Valente, M.; Trentin, M.; Farah Dell’Aringa, M.; Bahattab, A.; Lamine, H.; Linty, M.; Ragazzoni, L.; Della Corte, F.; Barone-Adesi, F. Dealing with a changing climate: The need for a whole-of-society integrated approach to climate-related disasters. Int. J. Disaster Risk Reduct. 2022 , 68 , 102718. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Smeeth, L.; Haines, A. COP 28: Ambitious climate action is needed to protect health. BMJ 2023 , 383 , p2938. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Brown, P.T.; Caldeira, K. Greater future global warming inferred from Earth’s recent energy budget. Nature 2017 , 552 , 45–50. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gütschow, J.; Jeffery, M.L.; Schaeffer, M.; Hare, B. Extending Near-Term Emissions Scenarios to Assess Warming Implications of Paris Agreement NDCs. Earths Future 2018 , 6 , 1242–1259. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2021—The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 1st ed.; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2023; ISBN 978-1-00-915789-6.
• Tin, D.; Cheng, L.; Le, D.; Hata, R.; Ciottone, G. Natural disasters: A comprehensive study using EMDAT database 1995–2022. Public Health 2023 , 226 , 255–260. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Conti, A.; Valente, M.; Paganini, M.; Farsoni, M.; Ragazzoni, L.; Barone-Adesi, F. Knowledge Gaps and Research Priorities on the Health Effects of Heatwaves: A Systematic Review of Reviews. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022 , 19 , 5887. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Xu, Z.; FitzGerald, G.; Guo, Y.; Jalaludin, B.; Tong, S. Assessing heatwave impacts on cause-specific emergency department visits in urban and rural communities of Queensland, Australia. Environ. Res. 2019 , 168 , 414–419. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Davis, R.E.; Novicoff, W.M. The impact of heat waves on emergency department admissions in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018 , 15 , 1436. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Paganini, M.; Valente, M.; Conti, A.; Ragazzoni, L.; Barone-Adesi, F. Emergency medical care overload during heatwaves: A neglected topic. Eur. J. Emerg. Med. 2023 , 30 , 5–6. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Morley, C.; Unwin, M.; Peterson, G.M.; Stankovich, J.; Kinsman, L. Emergency department crowding: A systematic review of causes, consequences and solutions. PLoS ONE 2018 , 13 , e0203316. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Frasso, R.; Keddem, S.; Golinkoff, J.M. Qualitative Methods: Tools for Understanding and Engaging Communities. In Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations in the 21st Century ; Cnaan, R.A., Milofsky, C., Eds.; Springer International Publishing: Cham, Switzerland, 2018; pp. 527–549. ISBN 978-3-319-77416-9. [ Google Scholar ]
• Bertollo, P. Assessing Landscape Health: A Case Study from Northeastern Italy. Environ. Manag. 2001 , 27 , 349–365. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Gioia, E.; Casareale, C.; Colocci, A.; Zecchini, F.; Marincioni, F. Citizens’ Perception of Geohazards in Veneto Region (NE Italy) in the Context of Climate Change. Geosciences 2021 , 11 , 424. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Paganini, M.; Lamine, H.; Della Corte, F.; Hubloue, I.; Ragazzoni, L.; Barone-Adesi, F. Factors causing emergency medical care overload during heatwaves: A Delphi study. PLoS ONE 2023 , 18 , e0295128. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Tong, A.; Sainsbury, P.; Craig, J. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ): A 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. Int. J. Qual. Health Care 2007 , 19 , 349–357. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Guest, G.; Bunce, A.; Johnson, L. How Many Interviews Are Enough?: An Experiment with Data Saturation and Variability. Field Methods 2006 , 18 , 59–82. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sim, J.; Saunders, B.; Waterfield, J.; Kingstone, T. Can sample size in qualitative research be determined a priori? Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 2018 , 21 , 619–634. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Braun, V.; Clarke, V. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 2006 , 3 , 77–101. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kelen, G.D.; McCarthy, M.L. The Science of Surge. Acad. Emerg. Med. 2006 , 13 , 1089–1094. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Anesi, G.L.; Lynch, Y.; Evans, L. A Conceptual and Adaptable Approach to Hospital Preparedness for Acute Surge Events Due to Emerging Infectious Diseases. Crit. Care Explor. 2020 , 2 , e0110. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Toerper, M.F.; Kelen, G.D.; Sauer, L.M.; Bayram, J.D.; Catlett, C.; Levin, S. Hospital Surge Capacity: A Web-Based Simulation Tool for Emergency Planners. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2018 , 12 , 513–522. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Campbell, S.; Remenyi, T.A.; White, C.J.; Johnston, F.H. Heatwave and health impact research: A global review. Health Place 2018 , 53 , 210–218. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Patel, D.; Jian, L.; Xiao, J.; Jansz, J.; Yun, G.; Lin, T.; Robertson, A. Joint effects of heatwaves and air quality on ambulance services for vulnerable populations in Perth, western Australia. Environ. Pollut. 2019 , 252 , 532–542. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Sun, X.; Sun, Q.; Yang, M.; Zhou, X.; Li, X.; Yu, A.; Geng, F.; Guo, Y. Effects of temperature and heat waves on emergency department visits and emergency ambulance dispatches in Pudong New Area, China: A time series analysis. Environ. Health 2014 , 13 , 76. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Schaffer, A.; Muscatello, D.; Broome, R.; Corbett, S.; Smith, W. Emergency department visits, ambulance calls, and mortality associated with an exceptional heat wave in Sydney, Australia, 2011: A time-series analysis. Environ. Health 2012 , 11 , 3. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Oberai, M.; Xu, Z.; Bach, A.J.E.; Phung, D.; Watzek, J.T.; Rutherford, S. Preparing for a hotter climate: A systematic review and meta-analysis of heatwaves and ambulance callouts in Australia. Aust. N. Z. J. Public Health 2024 , 48 , 100115. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Mayner, L.; Arbon, P.; Usher, K. Emergency department patient presentations during the 2009 heatwaves in Adelaide. Collegian 2010 , 17 , 175–182. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Patel, D.; Jian, L.; Xiao, J.; Jansz, J.; Yun, G.; Robertson, A. Joint effect of heatwaves and air quality on emergency department attendances for vulnerable population in Perth, Western Australia, 2006 to 2015. Environ. Res. 2019 , 174 , 80–87. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Toloo, G.; Yu, W.; Aitken, P.; FitzGerald, G.; Tong, S. The impact of heatwaves on emergency department visits in Brisbane, Australia: A time series study. Crit. Care 2014 , 18 , R69. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Knowlton, K.; Rotkin-Ellman, M.; King, G.; Margolis, H.G.; Smith, D.; Solomon, G.; Trent, R.; English, P. The 2006 California Heat Wave: Impacts on Hospitalizations and Emergency Department Visits. Environ. Health Perspect. 2009 , 117 , 61–67. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chen, T.; Sarnat, S.E.; Grundstein, A.J.; Winquist, A.; Chang, H.H. Time-series Analysis of Heat Waves and Emergency Department Visits in Atlanta, 1993 to 2012. Environ. Health Perspect. 2017 , 125 , 057009. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Oray, N.C.; Oray, D.; Aksay, E.; Atilla, R.; Bayram, B. The impact of a heat wave on mortality in the emergency department. Medicine 2018 , 97 , e13815. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• United Nations Office for Disaser Risk Reduction Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Available online: https://www.undrr.org/publication/sendai-framework-disaster-risk-reduction-2015-2030 (accessed on 23 February 2023).
• English, T.; Larkin, M.; Vasquez Hernandez, A.; Hutton, J.; Currie, J. Heat Illness Requiring Emergency Care for People Experiencing Homelessness: A Case Study Series. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health 2022 , 19 , 16565. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bonafede, M.; Marinaccio, A.; Asta, F.; Schifano, P.; Michelozzi, P.; Vecchi, S. The association between extreme weather conditions and work-related injuries and diseases. A systematic review of epidemiological studies. Ann. Ist. Super. Sanita 2016 , 52 , 357–367. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Levi, M.; Kjellstrom, T.; Baldasseroni, A. Impact of climate change on occupational health and productivity: A systematic literature review focusing on workplace heat. Med. Lav. 2018 , 109 , 163–179. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Epstein, Y.; Yanovich, R. Heatstroke. N. Engl. J. Med. 2019 , 380 , 2449–2459. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Carenzo, L.; Ghio, F.E.; Mariani, N.; Adami, P.E.; Cecconi, M.; Bonizzato, S. An unusual case of marathon-related exercise associated collapse: Case report and some considerations for medical care at endurance mass participation events. J. Sci. Med. Sport 2023 , 27 , 20–24. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Poggiali, E.; Cervellin, G.; Valenti, G.; Barcella, B.; Stomeo, N.; Biagi, A.; Corvi, A.; Vercelli, A.; Rossi, L. Reversible supraventricular tachycardia and left bundle branch block in a marathon runner with exertional heat stroke in the Po Valley. Acta Biomed 2023 , 94 , e2023224. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Périard, J.D.; DeGroot, D.; Jay, O. Exertional heat stroke in sport and the military: Epidemiology and mitigation. Exp. Physiol. 2022 , 107 , 1111–1121. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Stergiou, G.S.; Palatini, P.; Modesti, P.A.; Asayama, K.; Asmar, R.; Bilo, G.; De La Sierra, A.; Dolan, E.; Head, G.; Kario, K.; et al. Seasonal variation in blood pressure: Evidence, consensus and recommendations for clinical practice. Consensus statement by the European Society of Hypertension Working Group on Blood Pressure Monitoring and Cardiovascular Variability. J. Hypertens. 2020 , 38 , 1235–1243. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ramadan, A.M.H.; Ataallah, A.G. Are climate change and mental health correlated? Gen. Psychiatry 2021 , 34 , e100648. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mayrhuber, E.A.-S.; Dückers, M.L.A.; Wallner, P.; Arnberger, A.; Allex, B.; Wiesböck, L.; Wanka, A.; Kolland, F.; Eder, R.; Hutter, H.-P.; et al. Vulnerability to heatwaves and implications for public health interventions—A scoping review. Environ. Res. 2018 , 166 , 42–54. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Riley, K.; Delp, L.; Cornelio, D.; Jacobs, S. From agricultural fields to urban asphalt: The role of worker education to promote California’s heat illness prevention standard. New Solut. J. Environ. Occup. Health Policy 2012 , 22 , 297–323. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kim, Y.; Lee, W.; Kim, H.; Cho, Y. Social isolation and vulnerability to heatwave-related mortality in the urban elderly population: A time-series multi-community study in Korea. Environ. Int. 2020 , 142 , 105868. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bolitho, A.; Miller, F. Heat as emergency, heat as chronic stress: Policy and institutional responses to vulnerability to extreme heat. Local Environ. 2017 , 22 , 682–698. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lowe, D.; Ebi, K.L.; Forsberg, B. Heatwave Early Warning Systems and Adaptation Advice to Reduce Human Health Consequences of Heatwaves. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011 , 8 , 4623–4648. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• O’Neill, M.S.; Carter, R.; Kish, J.K.; Gronlund, C.J.; White-Newsome, J.L.; Manarolla, X.; Zanobetti, A.; Schwartz, J.D. Preventing heat-related morbidity and mortality: New approaches in a changing climate. Maturitas 2009 , 64 , 98–103. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Davey, S.L.; Lee, B.J.; Robbins, T.; Randeva, H.; Thake, C.D. Heat stress and PPE during COVID-19: Impact on healthcare workers’ performance, safety and well-being in NHS settings. J. Hosp. Infect. 2021 , 108 , 185–188. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bonell, A.; Nadjm, B.; Samateh, T.; Badjie, J.; Perry-Thomas, R.; Forrest, K.; Prentice, A.M.; Maxwell, N.S. Impact of Personal Cooling on Performance, Comfort and Heat Strain of Healthcare Workers in PPE, a Study from West Africa. Front. Public Health 2021 , 9 , 712481. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Smith, S.; Elliot, A.; Hajat, S.; Bone, A.; Bates, C.; Smith, G.; Kovats, S. The Impact of Heatwaves on Community Morbidity and Healthcare Usage: A Retrospective Observational Study Using Real-Time Syndromic Surveillance. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016 , 13 , 132. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Willson, K.A.; Lim, D.; Toloo, G.-S.; FitzGerald, G.; Kinnear, F.B.; Morel, D.G. Potential role of general practice in reducing emergency department demand: A qualitative study. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2022 , 34 , 717–724. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Michelozzi, P.; de’ Donato, F.K.; Bargagli, A.M.; D’Ippoliti, D.; De Sario, M.; Marino, C.; Schifano, P.; Cappai, G.; Leone, M.; Kirchmayer, U.; et al. Surveillance of summer mortality and preparedness to reduce the health impact of heat waves in Italy. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2010 , 7 , 2256–2273. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Belval, L.N.; Casa, D.J.; Adams, W.M.; Chiampas, G.T.; Holschen, J.C.; Hosokawa, Y.; Jardine, J.; Kane, S.F.; Labotz, M.; Lemieux, R.S.; et al. Consensus Statement- Prehospital Care of Exertional Heat Stroke. Prehosp. Emerg. Care 2018 , 22 , 392–397. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lefevre, C.E.; Bruine de Bruin, W.; Taylor, A.L.; Dessai, S.; Kovats, S.; Fischhoff, B. Heat protection behaviors and positive affect about heat during the 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom. Soc. Sci. Med. 2015 , 128 , 282–289. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Boni, Z.; Bieńkowska, Z.; Chwałczyk, F.; Jancewicz, B.; Marginean, I.; Serrano, P.Y. What is a heat(wave)? An interdisciplinary perspective. Clim. Chang. 2023 , 176 , 129. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Share and Cite

Paganini, M.; Markou-Pappas, N.; Della Corte, F.; Rosi, P.; Trillò, G.; Ferramosca, M.; Paoli, A.; Politi, F.; Valerio, A.; Favaro, A.; et al. Heatwaves Impact on Prehospital Emergency Medicine: A Qualitative Study to Improve Sustainability and Disaster Preparedness in Veneto Region, Northern Italy. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 6911. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16166911

Paganini M, Markou-Pappas N, Della Corte F, Rosi P, Trillò G, Ferramosca M, Paoli A, Politi F, Valerio A, Favaro A, et al. Heatwaves Impact on Prehospital Emergency Medicine: A Qualitative Study to Improve Sustainability and Disaster Preparedness in Veneto Region, Northern Italy. Sustainability . 2024; 16(16):6911. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16166911

Paganini, Matteo, Nikolaos Markou-Pappas, Francesco Della Corte, Paolo Rosi, Giulio Trillò, Marialuisa Ferramosca, Andrea Paoli, Federico Politi, Adriano Valerio, Andrea Favaro, and et al. 2024. "Heatwaves Impact on Prehospital Emergency Medicine: A Qualitative Study to Improve Sustainability and Disaster Preparedness in Veneto Region, Northern Italy" Sustainability 16, no. 16: 6911. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16166911

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, supplementary material.

ZIP-Document (ZIP, 431 KiB)

Further Information

Mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals