Medical volunteerism, also medical volunteering, is volunteering in the context of providing medical treatment. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [ excessive citations ]
Motivations of medical volunteers, analyzed through the Volunteer Functions Inventory framework, have been found to be focused on the values dimension first, followed by understanding, enhancement, social, career, and protective ones. Out of these, the first two were most important. In other words, the most common reason for medical volunteering is expressing or acting on important values, such as humanitarianism and helping those less fortunate and seeking to learn more about the world and/or exercise skills that are often unused. [14]
Medical volunteering has in general been praised as “ethical imperative to serve the disadvantaged”. [15]
Short term medical volunteerism abroad, often in developing countries, is sometimes criticized as medical voluntourism. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] While millions of individuals depend on the free assistance offered through medical volunteer work, such activities are criticized when compared to the alternative notion of sustainable capacities, i.e., work done in the context of long-term, locally-run, and foreign-supported infrastructures. [20] A preponderance of this criticism appears largely in scientific and peer-reviewed literature. [21] [22] [23] Recently, media outlets with more general readerships have published such criticisms as well. [24] By implementing responses to criticism, the effectiveness of medical volunteering can be shifted to best suit the community at hand.
While often seen in the context of volunteer physicians and nurses, the term can also cover the case of volunteers for clinical trials that are motivated by non-financial gains. [25]
Volunteering in the context of providing dental care is dental volunteering. Volunteering in international healthcare facilities is gaining popularity. Volunteer efforts in dentistry are widespread in the underdeveloped world. The World Dental Federation (Federation Dentaire Internationale, FDI) has defined the term Dental Volunteer as "A qualified and registered/licensed dentist who provides time and work free of charge". [26] Typical dental volunteering workforce includes, Dentist/ Dental Surgeons, Dental Specialists, Dental Hygienists, Dental and Hygienist students. [27] [28] [29] The factors that encourage the desire to involve in voluntary care include a desire to give back to the community, a desire to be more understanding of patients' needs, and a desire to feel fulfilled in their work. Volunteers' have expressed reasons for giving their time and energy range from altruism and the desire to 'help others' to spiritual and career advancement. It's clear that not all dental professionals feel the same way about giving back to the community. [30]
Dental Volunteering has a potential of making a substantial contribution for the global oral health. Significant opportunity for fresh experiences are afforded to individuals in volunteer work. They enable participants to respect various cultures and ways of life while making a constructive contribution to the target community, whether that group is domestic or international. Dental Volunteers play a crucial role in providing dental treatment to patients at community health centers. Considering that paid medical staff availability and willingness to serve cannot be assured, sustained reliance on volunteers presents significant difficulties. In some states of the United States have implemented a mechanism for volunteering in exchange for continuing education credits. It has been help underprivileged communities, however the reports have indicated that it hasn’t fixed the problem of limited access to care. Earning continuing education credits for volunteering is generally viewed as a positive development. [31]
However, the typical approach in dental volunteering in developing countries are often criticized. Volunteer non-profit organizations (NGO) in the dental field have made significant strides toward eliminating worldwide disparities in oral health. However, the dental NGO sector is much less well understood than the medical and health NGO sector. The FDI, published a seminal study in 2002 analyzing baseline data about dental aid organizations. [32] Most of the dental NGOs are small in size, run on a shoestring budget, employ only a handful of people (most of whom are volunteers), lack professional management, provide inconsistent quality assurance, are unaware of relevant research, and have poor lines of communication and collaboration with one another. Concerns have been raised that certain volunteer programs may actually do more harm than good to the communities they aim to assist. It's reported that sometimes locals in host areas have a mixed reaction to volunteers. As a result of insufficient understanding, some projects have the potential to cause harm by being paternalistic, diminishing confidence in local health systems, failing to maintain patient safety, causing economic harm to local providers, and focusing more on volunteers than local communities. As a result, there is a call for further education of the concept among volunteer dental practitioners. [33]
During the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, many of the city's black citizens offered voluntary nursing and logistical services in an attempt to mitigate the spread of infection. This was done at the behest of Benjamin Rush, who, while operating under the incorrect assumption that black and mixed-race citizens were resistant to the disease, appealed to the black community for help during the crisis. [34]
Assistance from the American Red Cross during the 1918 Influenza pandemic was vital in mitigating the spread of the disease. The decision to intervene in the first World War had diverted many domestic resources to the war effort, thus causing shortages of both medical supplies and personnel. The American Red Cross was called upon by then Surgeon General Rupert Blue to help alleviate these deficits. Though the services provided by local Red Cross chapters varied depending on the needs of the communities to which they were attached, the organization devoted significant effort and resources to combatting the outbreak. [35]
Medical volunteering is a major activity of a number of NGOs such as Médecins Sans Frontières. [36] [37] [20] Activities of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine have also been discussed in the context of medical volunteering. [38]
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of the mouth, most commonly focused on dentition as well as the oral mucosa. Dentistry may also encompass other aspects of the craniofacial complex including the temporomandibular joint. The practitioner is called a dentist.
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health, including those emerging from advances in biology, medicine, and technologies. It proposes the discussion about moral discernment in society and it is often related to medical policy and practice, but also to broader questions as environment, well-being and public health. Bioethics is concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, theology and philosophy. It includes the study of values relating to primary care, other branches of medicine, ethical education in science, animal, and environmental ethics, and public health.
Internal medicine, also known as general internal medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of internal diseases in adults. Medical practitioners of internal medicine are referred to as internists, or physicians in Commonwealth nations. Internists possess specialized skills in managing patients with undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes. They provide care to both hospitalized (inpatient) and ambulatory (outpatient) patients and often contribute significantly to teaching and research. Internists are qualified physicians who have undergone postgraduate training in internal medicine, and should not be confused with "interns", a term commonly used for a medical doctor who has obtained a medical degree but does not yet have a license to practice medicine unsupervised.
Medical ethics is an applied branch of ethics which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. These values include the respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. Such tenets may allow doctors, care providers, and families to create a treatment plan and work towards the same common goal. These four values are not ranked in order of importance or relevance and they all encompass values pertaining to medical ethics. However, a conflict may arise leading to the need for hierarchy in an ethical system, such that some moral elements overrule others with the purpose of applying the best moral judgement to a difficult medical situation. Medical ethics is particularly relevant in decisions regarding involuntary treatment and involuntary commitment.
Teeth cleaning is part of oral hygiene and involves the removal of dental plaque from teeth with the intention of preventing cavities, gingivitis, and periodontal disease. People routinely clean their own teeth by brushing and interdental cleaning, and dental hygienists can remove hardened deposits (tartar) not removed by routine cleaning. Those with dentures and natural teeth may supplement their cleaning with a denture cleaner.
This discussion of the dental amalgam controversy outlines the debate over whether dental amalgam should be used. Supporters claim that it is safe, effective and long-lasting, while critics argue that amalgam is unsafe because it may cause mercury poisoning and other toxicity.
A free clinic or walk in clinic is a health care facility in the United States offering services to economically disadvantaged individuals for free or at a nominal cost. The need for such a clinic arises in societies where there is no universal healthcare, and therefore a social safety net has arisen in its place. Core staff members may hold full-time paid positions, however, most of the staff a patient will encounter are volunteers drawn from the local medical community.
The Declaration of Helsinki is a set of ethical principles regarding human experimentation developed originally in 1964 for the medical community by the World Medical Association (WMA). It is widely regarded as the cornerstone document on human research ethics.
Research ethics is a discipline within the study of applied ethics. Its scope ranges from general scientific integrity and misconduct to the treatment of human and animal subjects. The societal responsibilities science and reseach has are not traditionally included and less well defined.
The Vipeholm experiments or Vipeholm Study were a series of human experiments where patients of Vipeholm Hospital for the intellectually disabled in Lund, Sweden, were fed large amounts of sweets, including "extra sticky toffee" to provoke dental caries (1945–1955). The experiments were sponsored both by the sugar industry and the dentist community, in an effort to determine whether carbohydrates affected the formation of cavities.
Dental Public Health (DPH) is a para-clinical specialty of dentistry that deals with the prevention of oral disease and promotion of oral health. Dental public health is involved in the assessment of key dental health needs and coming up with effective solutions to improve the dental health of populations rather than individuals.
Oral hygiene is the practice of keeping one's oral cavity clean and free of disease and other problems by regular brushing of the teeth and adopting good hygiene habits. It is important that oral hygiene be carried out on a regular basis to enable prevention of dental disease and bad breath. The most common types of dental disease are tooth decay and gum diseases, including gingivitis, and periodontitis.
Michele Aerden is a dentist and was president of the FDI World Dental Federation from 2005 to 2007. She was the first woman ever to be elected president of this non-profit organization and worked to promote oral health within the World Health Organization and worldwide.
Gingivitis is a non-destructive disease that causes inflammation of the gums; ulitis is an alternative term. The most common form of gingivitis, and the most common form of periodontal disease overall, is in response to bacterial biofilms that are attached to tooth surfaces, termed plaque-induced gingivitis. Most forms of gingivitis are plaque-induced.
Evidence-based dentistry (EBD) is the dental part of the more general movement toward evidence-based medicine and other evidence-based practices. The pervasive access to information on the internet includes different aspects of dentistry for both the dentists and patients. This has created a need to ensure that evidence referenced to are valid, reliable and of good quality.
Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster.
International volunteering is when volunteers contribute their time to work for organisations or causes outside their home countries. International volunteering has a long association with international development or environment, with the aim of bringing benefits to host communities.
Occupational hazards in dentistry are occupational hazards that are specifically associated with a dental care environment. Members of the dental team, including dentists, hygienists, dental nurses and radiographers, must ensure local protocols are followed to minimize risk.
Clinical trials in India refers to clinical research in India in which researchers test drugs and other treatments on research participants. NDCTR 2019 and section 3.7.1 to 3.7.3 of ICMR guidelines requires that all researchers conducting a clinical trial must publicly document it in the Clinical Trials Registry - India.
Eftychia ("Effy") Vayena is a Greek and Swiss bioethicist. Since 2017 she has held the position of chair of bioethics at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, ETH Zurich. She is an elected member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences.