The curriculum development process for an international emergency medicine rotation.

BACKGROUND: Completion of electives abroad is not a new phenomenon for physicians in training. Benefits to the physician and the host country's population have been sufficiently described in the literature; however, many academic residency programs lack an international health curriculum that incorporates both the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's core and specialty-specific competencies.

DESCRIPTION: The goal of this project was to develop a curriculum for emergency medicine residents completing International Emergency Medicine (IEM) rotations.

EVALUATION: A literature search was conducted to review available international rotation curricula and the curriculum development process. A committee was formed to create an IEM rotation, borrowing philosophical premises from the educational literature, particularly experientialism.

CONCLUSIONS: The resulting article describes the curriculum development process and provides a curriculum template for medical specialties to utilize when sending residents abroad.