A globally responsible Wales: What skills do rural health workers need to work locally and globally?

Most curriculums assume that the skills that health workers need are the same regardless of where they go to work. In the UK students come from many different countries to study different university health-related courses, but most university curriculums are UK focussed. This means we might not be teaching health workers who go on to work in rural communities in other countries the right skills. Efforts to improve global rural health therefore may be hampered by practitioners who are not equipped for practice with the skills they need. It also means we are missing the opportunity to be more responsible education providers and to make a positive change to rural communities globally by connecting with the ‘Wellbeing for Future Generations Act’ (WG, 2015) goal of being a more ‘globally responsible Wales’.

This poster explores the skills that global rural health workers think are important in their work and compares this with UK workers. It considers if these are the same or different and identifies what curriculum content students think is the most important for rural health work. It makes recommendations for education providers for both UK and non-UK rural health workers.