GET INVOLVED

Benefits for people in the UK working abroad include

 

• Experience of clinical conditions and pathology rarely seen in the UK
• Developing clinical skills in situations where complex tests are not available
• Improved cultural understanding
• Engaging in teaching and people development skills
• The opportunity to innovate and to do so frugally
• Personal development 
• Greater appreciation of what the NHS offers
• Rejuvenation for work in the NHS
• Staff recruitment and retention

 

But volunteering is not just about the benefits to the volunteer. Volunteers need to meet the needs that their overseas partners have identified. Volunteers and their overseas hosts work as a partnership. The visitor is part of a social justice movement where we all having an equal place in the world and we share the benefits of good fortune to empower those less lucky. 

 

To do this, volunteers may need to supplement their existing knowledge and skills. This section is designed to help. 

 

There is no defined career pathway for working in global health. Some may want to make it a career and some may want to become involved in health volunteering when life and career circumstances allow.

 

Case Studies

 

Opposite are examples of the questions that may face people at different stages of their career. To learn more, click on the case study that comes nearest to your situation.

 

Other sections of the website that may also be particularly useful include 

 

Preparation

 

See guidance from professional bodies

 

• Doctors
• Nurses and Midwives
• Allied Health Professionals
• Other groups

 

Guidance on volunteering

 

Learning about global health

 

Pre-departure training

 

Safety, insurance, pensions 

 

Opportunities  

 

• Organisations providing consultancy
• Organisations informing policy
• Organisations advertising and recruiting
• Non-Governmental Organisations