Global Health Education at Home: Canadian Medical Students' Perspectives After Learning Alongside Haitian Peers

Purpose To explore how host medical students learn from visiting foreign students, by reporting on a global health program that has invited two or three Haitian medical students each year since 2013 to a Canadian medical school for a summer anatomy program. Method In 2017, the authors conducted a qualitative descriptive study that collected data through one-on-one, semistructured interviews with 10 Canadian students, who participated in the Universite Quisqueya-McGill University collaborative, a bidirectional global health education initiative, 2013-2016. The authors' critical constructivist thematic analysis, while exploratory, was sensitized by their knowledge of contemporary frameworks of global health competencies, a postcolonial understanding of power relations, and three key concepts (agency, cultural humility, and reflexivity). Results The authors found two phenomena related to bidirectional exchange: the nature of the relationship between Canadian and Haitian students, and elements of the learning experience that facilitated transformation and growth. There were three important components to the nature of the relationship between Canadian and Haitian studentsreflection on practices and privilege, negotiation of power dynamics, and perception of Haitian students as agentsand three components of the learning experience that facilitated transformation and growthworking in groups, common learning objectives, and informal social gatherings. Conclusions Bidirectional programs may have implications for Canadian students' perception of the agency of international medical learners and may prompt self-reflection that manifests in a range of ways, including an experience of culture shock at home. These tensions seemed to create space to practice reflexivity and cultural humility.