Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Advance Access
    • Archive
    • Supplements
      • The Challenge Initiative Platform
      • Call for Abstracts
      • The Responsive Feedback Approach
    • Topic Collections
  • For Authors
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Submit Manuscript
    • Publish a Supplement
    • Promote Your Article
    • Resources for Writing Journal Articles
  • About
    • About GHSP
    • Editorial Team
    • Advisory Board
    • FAQs
    • Instructions for Reviewers
  • Webinars
    • Local Voices Webinar
    • Connecting Creators and Users of Knowledge
    • Publishing About Programs in GHSP
  • Other Useful Sites
    • GH eLearning
    • GHJournal Search

User menu

  • My Alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Global Health: Science and Practice
  • Other Useful Sites
    • GH eLearning
    • GHJournal Search
  • My Alerts

Global Health: Science and Practice

Dedicated to what works in global health programs

Advanced Search

  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Advance Access
    • Archive
    • Supplements
    • Topic Collections
  • For Authors
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Submit Manuscript
    • Publish a Supplement
    • Promote Your Article
    • Resources for Writing Journal Articles
  • About
    • About GHSP
    • Editorial Team
    • Advisory Board
    • FAQs
    • Instructions for Reviewers
  • Webinars
    • Local Voices Webinar
    • Connecting Creators and Users of Knowledge
    • Publishing About Programs in GHSP
  • Alerts
  • Visit GHSP on Facebook
  • Follow GHSP on Twitter
  • RSS
  • Find GHSP on LinkedIn
VIEWPOINT
Open Access

Improving the Safety and Security of Those Engaged in Global Health Traveling Abroad

Ranit Mishori, Andrew Eastman and Jessica Evert
Global Health: Science and Practice December 2016, 4(4):522-528; https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-16-00203
Ranit Mishori
aGeorgetown University School of Medicine, Global Health Initiatives, Department of Family Medicine, Washington, DC, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: mishorir@georgetown.edu
Andrew Eastman
bGeorgetown University/Providence Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, Washington, DC, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jessica Evert
cUniversity of California, San Francisco, Child Family Health International, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
PreviousNext
  • Article
  • Figures & Tables
  • Info & Metrics
  • Comments
  • PDF
Loading

Figures & Tables

Tables

    • View popup
    TABLE.

    Checklist of Specific Actions for Developing Safety and Security Plans

    Core ElementSuggested Actions
    Institutional commitment
    • Ensure that safety and security are institutional priorities

    • Identify a safety and security champion or team and an institutional liaison

    • Create a mission statement related to security, specifically related to the institution's commitment to the safety and security of the students and staff

    • Establish goals and objectives for the global health program

    • Identify what resources and institutional support are needed to ensure the security of staff and students

    • Create open communication avenues with leadership on security and safety during international travel

    Trainee and faculty participation
    • Secure and mandate full participation from all trainees and faculty

    • Establish a culture of expecting safety and security

    • Consider requiring participants to sign safety and security pledges

    Safety and security assessment and analysis
    • Create processes and procedures to continuously monitor and evaluate risks and assess threats at destination sites

    • Conduct an initial assessment of safety and security at destination sites and update these assessments regularly

    • Create incident reporting protocols

    • Create databases for reporting incidents (e.g., injuries, accidents, incidents and near misses, police reports, daily logs)

    • Consider identifying trainee and faculty safety and security profiles (e.g., related medical, cultural, and psychological profiles) and an algorithm for matching individuals to appropriate destination, training, and work sites

    Risk and hazard prevention
    • Create processes and programs to mitigate and control known hazards (e.g., physical changes to compounds such as gates, fences, barriers, window bars, and improved lighting)

    • Create and implement communication response and recovery procedures and protocols

    • Assess what supplies and kits are needed at various work locations, lodgings, and health or medical work sites

    • Identify partners that provide travel insurance and evacuation services

    • Ensure travelers have received appropriate immunizations and required medications

    • Inform travelers about what to do if they become ill at the destination site

    • Work with the local organizations where faculty and students are placed to ensure they also have safety and security plans in place

    • Ensure that trainees and faculty have received appropriate immunizations and have all recommended medications and medical supplies (e.g. malaria prophylaxis, for travelers' diarrhea, HIV PEP-kits, gloves, syringes, etc.)

    Safety training
    • Provide pre-departure travel safety and security training to all staff (whether they travel or not) involved, in classrooms, hands-on workshops, or online

    • Consider having access to trauma-informed care for returning travelers who may need it

    • Provide training in risk recognition and control, and what to do in an emergency

    • Provide a written safety and security plan to all travelers that includes all policies and procedures

    • Make sure security policies address country-specific issues as well as problems that may arise among team members, such as sexual assault

    • Provide frequent opportunities to discuss safety and security concerns, practice skills, and demonstrate competency

    Program evaluation
    • Create mechanisms for recordkeeping and accurate logging of injuries, illnesses, fatalities, incidents, assaults, hazards, corrective actions, interventions, and training

    • Create protocols for regular assessment of incident severity, and identify trends, patterns, and methods of addressing incidents

    • Continuously monitor and modify methods of risk assessment, intervention, and training needs to identify deficiencies and opportunities for improvement

    • Design surveys and post-travel debriefing for all returning staff

    • Create success measures and outcomes and work on tracking successful implementation

    • If feasible, request outside consultation from law enforcement or safety and security experts

    • Beyond checking whether safety and security training programs exist, assess the quality and effectiveness of the programs

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Global Health: Science and Practice: 4 (4)
Global Health: Science and Practice
Vol. 4, No. 4
December 23, 2016
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by Author
  • Complete Issue (PDF)
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about Global Health: Science and Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Improving the Safety and Security of Those Engaged in Global Health Traveling Abroad
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Global Health: Science and Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the Global Health: Science and Practice web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Improving the Safety and Security of Those Engaged in Global Health Traveling Abroad
Ranit Mishori, Andrew Eastman, Jessica Evert
Global Health: Science and Practice Dec 2016, 4 (4) 522-528; DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-16-00203

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Improving the Safety and Security of Those Engaged in Global Health Traveling Abroad
Ranit Mishori, Andrew Eastman, Jessica Evert
Global Health: Science and Practice Dec 2016, 4 (4) 522-528; DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-16-00203
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Jump to section

  • Article
    • INTRODUCTION
    • RISKS AND CHALLENGES
    • WHAT CAN BE DONE
    • CONCLUSION
    • Acknowledgments
    • Notes
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Tables
  • Info & Metrics
  • Comments
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • At-Risk Newborns: Overlooked in Expansion From Essential Newborn Care to Small and Sick Newborn Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
  • Do Children With Congenital Zika Syndrome Have Cerebral Palsy?
  • Equitable Open Access Publishing: Changing the Financial Power Dynamics in Academia
Show more VIEWPOINT

Similar Articles

US AIDJohns Hopkins Center for Communication ProgramsUniversity of Alberta

Follow Us On

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Advance Access Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Topic Collections
  • Most Read Articles
  • Supplements

More Information

  • Submit a Paper
  • Instructions for Authors
  • Instructions for Reviewers
  • GH Journals Database

About

  • About GHSP
  • Advisory Board
  • FAQs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

© 2023 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. ISSN: 2169-575X

Powered by HighWire