First-year dental students enroll in a course called PROF 518 (Profession and Professionalism) which provides an overview of skills necessary to “provide care to patients with diverse backgrounds, values, beliefs and behaviors and to work as an effective member of a healthcare team.

In this COIL course, health profession students from the UMB and the Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health in Brazil will learn about cultural awareness, cross-cultural communication, cross-cultural ethics, global health promotion, relationship building, trans-cultural evaluation tools, and cross-cultural crisis management.

Baltimore, Maryland and Haifa, Israel are diverse post-industrial cities facing similar challenges. University of Haifa, UMB, and Yezreel Valley College are public institutions committed to training professionals to provide services within diverse communities that experience inequality, discrimination, and tensions among populations.

1. Encourage students to reflect on social justice implications of their professional practice; 
2. Identify hurdles and opportunities for promoting social justice across disciplines, cultures, and social systems; and
3. Share global knowledge that can inform their future practice

In this interactive elective course, dental students will gain an overview of global health principles as they relate to oral health. We will explore major population trends at the global level, predict how global trends may affect oral health across the world, and compare them to local trends in Baltimore. We will define development goals and discuss how primary care can assist with successful oral health promotion and disease prevention. We will analyze the impact of global oral health improvement in terms of positive outcomes, ethical concerns, and unintended impacts.