Frist Program Partners with DGHI, Duke Physician Assistant Program to Fund Student Global Health Rotations

New scholarship funding is available to Duke Physician Assistant students to pursue a global health clinical rotation as a result of a new partnership between the Frist Global Health Leaders Program, the Duke School of Medicine Physician Assistant (PA) Program and the Duke Global Health Institute.

Through the immersive international clinical rotation, second-year PA students are able to experience firsthand the various health challenges that exist in an international setting, as well as gain a deeper understanding of the determinants of health and challenges of delivering care. The international training opportunity is jointly funded by the Duke PA Program and the Frist Global Health Leaders Program, which is part of Senator Bill Frist’s Hope Through Healing Hands’ nonprofit organization and a collaborator of the Duke Global Health Institute. Sen. Frist is a founding board member of the Duke Global Health Institute.

“The Frist Global Health Leaders program provides support for students to provide care in underserved communities around the world,” said Frist. “With this investment, we increase capacity for patient care abroad, stimulate interest in the health care of developing nations, and build advocacy efforts among young health care professionals. Duke Global Health Institute’s cutting edge research and programs makes Duke University an ideal partner. We look forward to hearing about the students’ experiences.”

“The Duke PA Program is excited to have the opportunity to partner with DGHI and the Frist Global Health Leaders Program to support PA students’ participation in international elective rotations,” said Nick Hudak, PA program faculty coordinator of international clinical rotations at Duke. “This collaboration is meaningful to our students as well as to the Duke PA Program and its mission to educate caring, competent, culturally-sensitive Physician Assistants.”

Duke PA students Tracy Curtis and Holly Stump, who each have a strong interest in pursuing global health clinical work, have been selected as the first Frist Fellows at Duke. This winter, they will spend four weeks completing an international clinical rotation at Ruhuna University Faculty of Medicine in Galle, Sri Lanka, a partnership location of the Duke Global Health Institute.

“An elective rotation of this caliber is a life-changing experience,” said Stump. “I anticipate coming home with a greater understanding of the inequities in health care worldwide and the positive impact of an improvement on Sri Lanka’s standard of care.”

Working with a team of other trainees and local medical providers, Curtis and Stump will be able to gain a greater understanding of assessment and management of various patient populations across community clinic, hospital and surgery settings. They will also learn how to adapt their patient assessment skills to an international setting where there are different, and often limited, resources available compared to those in the US.

“I am most looking forward to enhancing my diagnostic skill set during my four weeks in Sri Lanka,” said Curtis. “Striving to determine feasible treatments while preserving the cultural and religious customs of patients will mold me into a versatile and effective global health provider.”

During their international rotation, Curtis and Stump will be blogging about their experiences regularly on the Hope for Healing Hands blog.

The Duke Global Health Institute and Frist Global Health Leaders Program plan to expand scholarship opportunities to Duke Doctor of Physical Therapy students this summer.

Duke is one of six academic institutions collaborating with the First Global Health Leaders program to train students, fellows and residents in underserved communities around the world.

Hope Through Healing Hands aims to promote improved quality of life for citizens and communities around the world by working with leading organizations to address child survival, maternal health, clean water, extreme poverty and global disease in developing nations.