International Exchange Program - Health Studies

Undergraduate students enrolled in the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies’ Bachelor of Science in Health Science or Bachelor of Science in Public Health degree programs have the opportunity to travel together, under the leadership of faculty members, to participate in a global health practicum “mini-mester” abroad. This three-credit course (BPH 487) is offered during the intercessions between semesters. Through ongoing partnerships with universities and other healthcare organizations in Australia, Chile, Ecuador and India, public health and health science students are afforded the opportunity to experience community health in an array of world regions.

Under the supervision of faculty, these interdisciplinary student teams visit local clinics and community health care sites, as well as perform home visits where they conduct family health assessments, observe population-level health issues in the real world, and deliver health education to some of the globe’s most disenfranchised and vulnerable populations. Their observations and collected data are used to lay the groundwork for disease prevention and wellness-enhancing programs in the communities they visit.

Participating health studies students’ evaluations of their global health practicum experiences have been highly positive. A number of students report that the opportunity to obtain a firsthand global perspective of community health and health systems was the highlight of their entire time at the University of Miami.  Participation in our international exchange program also gives our health studies students an “extra edge” when applying for graduate school.  Medical schools especially highly value seeing these types of global health and rural medicine experiences in prospective students’ application packets.  Click on the individual country names listed below to learn more about the international experiences available to our health studies students.