'I found myself to be a down to earth Dutch girl': a qualitative study into learning outcomes from international traineeships

OBJECTIVE To explore learning outcomes from international traineeships for undergraduate medical students. METHODS In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 undergraduate medical students at Maastricht University Medical School, the Netherlands. The 24 subjects were selected by purposeful sampling. RESULTS Students reported meaningful learning outcomes in 6 domains: medical knowledge; skills; international health care organisation; international medical education; society and culture, and personal growth. DISCUSSION International traineeships appear to provide good opportunities for students to meet the requirements of globalisation as well as some of the generic objectives of undergraduate medical education. The tentative findings of this study need to be confirmed by further studies.