Geisinger Commonwealth medical student presents at Medical Symposium on Human Trafficking

Kristina Borham of Oxford, a fourth-year medical student at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM), recently shared her experiences building awareness of human trafficking among medical students at the 2020 Medical Symposium on Human Trafficking, held in February in Richmond, Va.

 

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), a major supporter of the symposium, extended the invitation to Kristina because, as symposium planners, they were interested in learning about her journey from awareness to activism. Kristina told symposium attendees how she came to develop and teach a curriculum about recognizing and safely responding to victims of human trafficking designed for medical students.

 

Kristina said she is driven by the belief that it’s vital to reach the next generation of physicians because healthcare providers so often see but fail to recognize victims of human trafficking. “Getting buy-in regarding the problem is probably the biggest challenge,” she said. “People just can’t believe trafficking is something that happens in their own communities, but it does. So, one of the most important messages of the curriculum is that you can’t see what you don’t know. People are astonished to learn that 80 percent of human trafficking victims have had interactions with doctors and other healthcare providers – the providers just didn’t recognize it.”

 

Kristina first became interested in the subject of human trafficking when she worked on a donation drive to support Free the Girls, an organization that encourages and empowers women freed from sex trafficking. As her awareness grew, so did her activism. She attended American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) trainings on the subject and was invited to take part in regular meetings of AMWA’s Physicians Against the Trafficking of Humans (PATH), a group dedicated to educating physicians, residents and medical students about issues surrounding human trafficking.

 

“The more she learned about human trafficking, the more strongly I felt that other medical students needed education on the topic, especially students interested in OB/GYN. I felt compelled to share this information with my peers because I realized that the further medical students advance in their training, the fewer opportunities there are to receive this kind of education,” she said. “I worked with faculty member Mary Triano, CRNP-C to develop the human trafficking curriculum. We agreed it was important to include modules on trauma-informed care and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), with an emphasis on resiliency.” 

 

Kristina first taught her curriculum to second-year medical students at GCSOM. It offered students insight into recruitment and control of trafficking victims and explored the relationship between ACEs and trafficking. It also provided students with screening techniques to identify trafficking victims and made them aware of resources available to survivors.