WHY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS APPLY? UNIVERSITY MEDICAL

CENTER RESULTS

GIZEM LIMNILIDOKUZ EYLUL UNIVERSITY

IZMIR-TURKEY

Introduction

• International students are people who cross national borders for specific purpose of studying (Clark 2009).

• Globally the number of these students has been increasing (UNESCO 2012) and also there is an ongoing competition among American, European and also Asian universities in increasing the number of their international students because absorbing talented students is a great benefit for university organizations of a country. This may lead to information exchange, knowledge / culture transfer and economical benefits (Altbach 2007, Mazzarol 2002, Trice 2003).

The next challenge would be in the quality of educational courses and having qualified graduate students who can give benefit to the country of origin. For this reason, universities will invest capital to overcome problems and difficulties which are related to international students who may face the problems related socio-cultural scope, emotional, academic, communication or economical difficulties.

Well-being or welfare is defined as the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy and it is a general term used for the condition of an individual or a group, for example their social, economic, psychological, spiritual or medical state (oxford dictionaries 2014).

• University Medical Center gives medical and social care to students, nonacademic and academic staff of the University. Physicians, dentists, nurses, psychologists, biologists and environmental health technicians are working in this unit.

• Medical center have a role of primary care for people especially students by means of health service.

• Family physicians, through education and residency training, possess distinct attitudes, skills, and knowledge which qualify them to provide continuing and comprehensive medical care, health maintenance and preventive services to each member of the family regardless of sex, age, or type of problem, be it biological, behavioral, or social; so that family physicians does not only have role about illness but also have a role about well being of the patient.

• These specialists, because of their background; are best qualified to serve as each patient's advocate in all health-related matters, including the suitable use of consultants, health services, and community resources (AAFP 2014).

Aim

The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence and the reasons of international student’s receiving health care in Dokuz Eylul University Medical Center.

Method

This is a cross-sectional study held between January 2013-January 2014 including whole international students who applied to medical center. Data was collected from the records of students, retrospectively. SPSS 16.0 was used for evaluation of data. Descriptive analysis, Pearsons’ chi-square were used. p<0.05 was accepted significant. 

Results

• The total number of records was 2247; there were 405 (18.2%) international student visit and 147 students were included in the study.

• Among all students 60.3 % were male. • The mean age was 25.92±4.17 years.• The majority of the students were at the

fifth semester of their study period. • Among all 147 students 68.4% were Asian,

22.4% were African, 9.2% were European.

• There were several different complaints and 85.1% of the students visited family physician, 22.4% dentist, 9.1% ophthalmologist, 6.9% otorhinolaryngologist, 1.7% psychologists, 1.1% psychiatrist.

• The percent of students who came to family physician only once were 62.2 %. On the other hand there were applicants who came to family physician more than 5 visits (4.7%).

• The referral rate by family physician to other disciplines was 48%. For half of the applications to family physician, problems were solved in this center.

• There were not a statistically significant differences between both attendance to family physician (FP) and attendance to medical center according to gender and where they came from (Table1, Table 2).

TABLE 1.Attendence of the students according to

student’s origin

%(N) %(N) %(N) Total %(N) P value

Attendance to FP %(N) %(N) %(N) %(N)

Once 9.0(7) 70.5(55) 20.5(16) 100(78)

More than once 10.3(13) 69.0(87) 20.6(26) 100(48)

P=0,80

Attendance to medical center

Once 10.0(8) 68.8(55) 21.2(17) 100(80)

More than once 9.0(6) 68.7(46) 22.4(15) 100(67)

P=0,96

TABLE 2.Attendance to medical center according to

student’s gender

Attendance to medical center

Female %(N) Male %(N) Total %(N) P value

Once 34.0(33) 66.0 (64) 100(97)

More than once 46.8(36) 53.2(41) 100(77)

P=0,08

Discussion

• International students experience difficult situations in a foreign country that may intensify other problems, which are expected in these situations and may have harmful effects on the potential function of students. As the main problems of international students may vary in different situations, findings indicated that students who reported higher levels of social connectedness, lower levels of perceived discrimination, more years of study in the foreign country, and higher levels of English language competency reported lower levels of adjustment difficulties. Other results showed that (lack of) social connectedness and perceived discrimination were predictors of adjustment difficulties (Duru 2011).

• In our findings there were several different complaints and most of the students visited family physician, some of dentist and ophthalmologist or otorhinolaryngologist and a few psychologists and psychiatrist. This population is a healthy young population and has acute problems. Their application to family physician could be considered the first contact. Application period differs to problems. In a study also it was reported similar to ours. Most students made a single visit, though a substantial number made two or three visits. The average number of visits per student was two (Russel 2008).

• The referral rate by family physician to other disciplines was nearly the half. For half of the applications to family physician, problems were solved in this center. This shows that it’s the convenient decision to solve the health complaint at the first step. The referrals were done for further examination.

• Students can apply easily to medical center when they need to. When they apply they get necessary medical help or they are referred to related disciplines. There are several studies indicating the problems of international students all over the world. These studies have shown that in order to upgrade the success of this kind of programs, problems should be solved by the help of experienced employees are.

Conclusion

Family physicians should do their part and should be experienced about international student’s common problems and how to cope with them. Consulting centers should employ experts familiar with international student’s problems capable of communicating well with international students.

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