This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book investigates what international placements of healthcare employees in low resource settings add to the UK workforce and the efficacy of its national health system. The authors present empirical data collected from a volunteer deployment project in Uganda focused on reducing maternal and new-born mortality and discuss the learning and experiential outcomes for UK health care professionals acting as long term volunteers in low resource settings. They also develop a model for structured placement that offers optimal learning and experiential outcomes and minimizes risk, while shedding new light on the role that international placements play as part of continuing professional development both in the UK and in other sending countries.

Drawing on comparative fieldwork in the UK, Pakistan and Australia, this book provides the first systematic assessment of pathways and access to CAM and how it is used in health practice and by individuals with cancer.

Giving fresh and invaluable insights into how differing health and societal structures influence the use complementary and alternative medicine, the book explores:

• the empirical, theoretical, and policy context for the study of CAM/TM and cancer
• the history and character of the eight support groups in which fieldwork took place in the UK, Australia and Pakistan
• the nature and structure of patient support groups' history, affiliation and evolution
• how groups function on a day-to-day basis
• the extent to which what is being offered in these CAM-oriented groups is in any way innovative and challenging to the therapeutic and organisational mainstream
• the value of sociological work in the field which is not tied to immediate and narrow policy objectives.

This is an essential resource for those studying complementary and alternative medicine sociologically, to those involved in the provision of cancer care on a day-to-day basis, and to those looking to establish a more informed (evidence-based) policy.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book investigates what international placements of healthcare employees in low resource settings add to the UK workforce and the efficacy of its national health system. The authors present empirical data collected from a volunteer deployment project in Uganda focused on reducing maternal and new-born mortality and discuss the learning and experiential outcomes for UK health care professionals acting as long term volunteers in low resource settings. They also develop a model for structured placement that offers optimal learning and experiential outcomes and minimizes risk, while shedding new light on the role that international placements play as part of continuing professional development both in the UK and in other sending countries.

Drawing on comparative fieldwork in the UK, Pakistan and Australia, this book provides the first systematic assessment of pathways and access to CAM and how it is used in health practice and by individuals with cancer.

Giving fresh and invaluable insights into how differing health and societal structures influence the use complementary and alternative medicine, the book explores:

• the empirical, theoretical, and policy context for the study of CAM/TM and cancer
• the history and character of the eight support groups in which fieldwork took place in the UK, Australia and Pakistan
• the nature and structure of patient support groups' history, affiliation and evolution
• how groups function on a day-to-day basis
• the extent to which what is being offered in these CAM-oriented groups is in any way innovative and challenging to the therapeutic and organisational mainstream
• the value of sociological work in the field which is not tied to immediate and narrow policy objectives.

This is an essential resource for those studying complementary and alternative medicine sociologically, to those involved in the provision of cancer care on a day-to-day basis, and to those looking to establish a more informed (evidence-based) policy.