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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Disaster and Emergency Medicine
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1343867
This article is part of the Research Topic Interdisciplinary or Interprofessional Learning as Catalyst of Change in Healthcare and Higher Education View all articles

Humanitarian Health Education and Training State-of-the-Art: a Scoping Review

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 CRIMEDIM - Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid, and Global Health, Novara, Italy
  • 2 Department for Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition, University of Eastern Piedmont, Vercelli, Piedmont, Italy
  • 3 Department of Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
  • 4 ReGEDiM-Research Group on Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In the past decade, humanitarian emergencies have been increasing, leading to an increased demand for humanitarian health professionalization. Education and training are critical for preparing these workers to provide effective care during crises. Understanding the current state-ofthe-art in humanitarian health education is essential to inform research and development of future educational programs. This review surveys the peer-reviewed literature to provide insights into the current thinking in the field.A review was conducted in March 2023 and updated in May 2024 using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Education Resources Information Center databases for English-language peerreviewed articles published since January 2013. The review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and presented as a narrative descriptive summary. Results: After screening, 32 articles met the inclusion criteria. The themes of the selected articles focus on education and training frameworks, mapping, and programs. Despite the growing opportunities, most education and training programs are based in the Global North. The gaps identified include a lack of standardized curriculum or competency frameworks and evaluation frameworks to guide the development and evaluation of further standardized training programs. Interdisciplinary and collaborative partnerships, iterative design, and mixed teaching methods and modalities, including e-learning, facilitated successful training. However, logistical and technical constraints and the lack of standardized training frameworks were barriers to developing, implementing, and evaluating such training.This review provides an overview of the humanitarian health education trends over the last decade and identifies key areas for future educational development and research. The findings emphasize the importance of adapting interdisciplinary and collaborative partnerships and prioritizing the training of local staff through regional centers, local leadership, and accessible elearning, including e-simulation. The review also highlights the need for continued research and evaluation of humanitarian health education and training programs with standardized metrics to evaluate training programs and identify areas for improvement. These steps will help ensure that humanitarian health professionals receive adequate training to provide effective healthcare in crisis situations.

    Keywords: Capacity Building, competencies, Curriculum, Humanitarian health, Professionalization, Relief Work, training and education, simulation

    Received: 24 Nov 2023; Accepted: 15 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bahattab, Trentin, Hubloue, Corte and Ragazzoni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Awsan Bahattab, CRIMEDIM - Center for Research and Training in Disaster Medicine, Humanitarian Aid, and Global Health, Novara, Italy

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.