SCOME Follow-up Kit

IFMSA The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-partisan organization representing associations of medical students internationally. IFMSA was founded in 1951 and currently maintains 117 National Member Organizations from more than 100 countries across six continents with over 1,3 million students represented worldwide. IFMSA is recognized as a non-governmental organization within the United Nations’ system and the World Health Organization and as well, it is a student chapter of the World Medical Association. For more than 60 years, IFMSA has existed to bring together the global medical students community at the local, national and international level on social and health issues.

Imprint Standing Committee - Director Stijntje Dijk - The Netherlands SCOME - International Team Stijntje Dijk - The Netherlands Agostinho Sousa - Portugal Rasha Osama - Sudan Scott Hodgson - Canada Yameen Hamid - Bangladesh Ahmad Badr - Egypt Rachel Bruls - The Netherlands Publications Division Diogo Martins - Portugal Mohammed Yasser - Egypt

Publisher This is an IFMSA publication © Portions of this publication may be reproduced for non political, and non profit purposes mentioning the source provided.

Disclaimer This publication contains the collective views of different contributors, the opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of IFMSA. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the IFMSA in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

Notice: All reasonable precautions have been taken by the IFMSA to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall the IFMSA be liable for damages arising from its use.

Some of the photos and graphics used are property of their authors. We have taken every consideration not to violate their rights

International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations General Secretariat: IFMSA c/o WMA B.P. 63 01212 Ferney-Voltaire, France Phone: +33 450 404 759 Fax: +33 450 405 937 Email: gs@ifmsa.org Homepage: www.ifmsa.org

Contacts

scomed@ifmsa.org

Contents www.ifmsa.org

3

Message from the SCOME Director

4

Message from the SCOME sessions team

5

Introduction to SCOME

6

Day 1

18

Day 2

29

Day 3

41

Day 4

57

Joint Standing Committee Sessions

72

How to Stay involved

Thank you message

Memories from March Meeting 2014

Forming fo the Standing Committee on Medical Education

March 4th

March 5th

March 7th

March 8th

Sessions with the other Standing Committees

What comes after March Meeting 2014?

SCOME Director Welcome Message Dearest, most incredible, amazingly awesome SCOMEdians, Thousands of messages have taken over the servers and social media since the 63rd IFMSA General Assembly March Meeting 2014 has come to an end. The number of heartfelt messages can hopefully only confirm the incredible GA spirit.

Stijntje Dijk SCOME Director 2013-2014 scomed@ifmsa.org

It was a true honor and can I say our pleasure to get to meet some of the amazing SCOMEdians from all over the world, and to see what they together can do. You’ve shared your ideas, your passion, and you inspired your fellow members. For me, the most beautiful moment of the entire GA, was summed up in created SCOME Dream Wall of flipcharts, hearing you say how this GA had changed you.

I wanted to share part of a story by a doctor, who’se words not only inspire me, but also are the words I think of when thinking of you leaving this GA: Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to Great Places!

You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

On and on you will hike and I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS! You’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So...get on your way!

The doctor you’ll find is named Dr. Seuss. The story, is about you making your way. You setting the path.

You facing various problems on it, whether it would be problems in your educational system, lack of time or motivation, or not having the skills yet to tackle your issues. But, if you work for it, if you put your mind to it, you will succeed. So make this your day! Take your new skills, new ideas and not to forget: your new friendships around the world, and make your way.

Although I’m more than thankful for each and every one of you, your motivation, participation, input, and friendship, a very special thank you goes out to not only the incredible Organizing Committee and the lovely Team of Officials Dream Team, but also to the SCOME Sessions and International team. Ahmad, Rachel, Yameen, Rasha, Scott, Abdulrahman and Agostinho, thank you for being there!

I can only say I am honored to still be able to serve you through the remaining half of the term together with my team, I look forward to hearing from all of you, and most importantly: to see you grow into the new generation of SCOME leaders.

Warmest greetings,

Stijntje Dijk SCOME Director

March Meeting 2014 follow up kit

Messages from the Sessions team Abdulrahman Nofal (IFMSA-Jo NOME): “Seeing so many amazing externals from the leading organizations on medical education in the world in our sessions and in our General Assembly gave me great hope for the future and listening to what they had to say was truly amazing and inspiring.”

Agostinho Sousa (LOMEi): “It is a great pleasure to work with a new wave of amazing SCOMEdians. We are again in a process of pushing forward the medical education worldwide and not be comfortable in just maintaining the status quo in education.”

Ahmad Badr (SCOME RA EMR): “I love that in the SCOME session I could come early in the morning and find everyone there, eager to share and learn, and make sure that you were punished in the unlikely event that you showed up late. SCOME sessions were well organized with the perfect mix of capacity building and experience sharing. The externals present have added something valuable that we did not used to have in SCOME sessions that I attended before. I hope these few days have made everyone of us to start acting for a better medical education future back home. Let’s all do something useful for our country and our world, and maybe we can share our great success stories in Taiwan?”

Rachel Bruls (SCOME RA Europe): “It was such a pleasure seeing our hard work being rewarded with the presence of all the SCOMEdians and their active participation. Your dedication struck me and gave me a huge motivation boost. This GA can only be an enormous step forward for SCOME. And of course, European SCOMEdians, you are the best nerds of all!”

Yameen Hamid (SCOME RA Asia-Pacific): “As my first GA it was amazing to meet SCOMEdians around the world, especially the lovely SCOME session team! I got the chance to meet the SCOMEdians of my region and I was so happy when someone from China came to me and told me that they want to start up SCOME! Also when I received souvenirs from some of my friends from Indonesia, Korea or Japan! Shortly, I love you all!”

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From March 3rd to March 9th over 1000 medical students gathered for the 63rd IFMSA General Assembly March Meeting 2014 in Hammamet, Tunisia.

This wonderful and perfectly organized event blew the minds of the participants.

Brainstorms were held, workshops inspired, bylaws were voted upon, new friendships were made and in that one week the world changed a bit.

IFMSA stands strong because of all those hard working and dedicated people that want to achieve the same thing: a world in which all medical students unite for global health and are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values to take on health leadership roles locally and globally.

Introduction to SCOME Standing Committee on Medical Education Medical Education should be a concern of every medical student as it shapes not only the quality of future doctors, but also the quality of healthcare.

The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) has a dedicated organ which aims to implement an optimal learning environment for all medical students around the world – the Standing Committee on Medical Education (SCOME).

It was one of IFMSA’s first standing committees from the beginning of its foundation in 1951. IFMSA SCOME acts as a discussion forum for students interested in the different aspects of medical education in the hope of pursuing and achieving its aim.

Healthcare is changing at an unprecedented rate and at multiple fronts. Medical science has increased our understanding of the body and created an explosion of new information. However, medical schools are not or only slowly introducing changes in their curriculum.

Teachers at many medical faculties are not educated to teach; they are doctors and mostly lack knowledge of how to show their skills to their students.

As medical students are directly exposed to medical curricula, they are the first quality check of medical education and they should rightfully have an influence on the creation of new curricula and curriculum development. The second check of medical education is if the graduates are able to meet the standards of the medical profession, of their healthcare systems and the needs of their communities. From IFMSA’s experience, it is often the medical students who are the strongest proponents

for adapting their education to the needs of their community.

We are concerned of facing the needs of healthcare in a modern society and are willing to commit to make sure our education prepares us for them. Scientific data show that modern medical curricula are a lot more likely to teach students in an appropriate way in order to create doctors equipped with various skills and knowledge. Although there are a number of innovative approaches to teaching medicine, partly based on findings of cognitive science, change in medical curricula occurs slowly. The need for change is either not recognized or ignored in many universities.

Here SCOME enters the game. We try to promote modern medical education. Convinced by many positive examples we go on that mission by teaching and training students, teachers and professors, exchanging experiences and spreading information.

As a global grassroots organization of medical students locally active in more than 100 countries worldwide, IFMSA has made meaningful contributions to improve medical education over the last decades.

March Meeting 2014 follow up kit

Day 1 The first day of the SCOME sessions, March 4th, was all about getting to know SCOME. With a number of 90 participants the sessions started with speed dating and ice breakers, so participants could get to know each other a bit better. Also the ground was set for the next days by making ground rules, a parking lot, message envelopes for everyone and the wall of shame. All NMOs were paired up in couples, so each participant had a (few) buddy participant(s) he or she could go to at any time. The couples got some extra assignments to stimulate them getting to know each other better.

After the general introduction the group was split in two: new and old (experienced) members.

Newbies session The SCOME International Team prepared a surprise for the newbies by taking them into a maze. The newbies divided into seven teams, and at all times, only one person from each team could be in the maze. Each correct answer advanced the team one step towards the treasure with some bonus questions thrown in for extra points. The questions were all related to Medical Education, SCOME, and IFMSA general knowledge and trivia.

The answers to the questions were explained and in this way more information was given to the new members.

The session was lots of fun and had a high energy level, and at the same time allowed the participants to get to know each other and get an idea of SCOME and the international work in a very interactive and dynamic way.

Oldies session The oldies are the participants that attended an international meeting of IFMSA before, or have been involved in the international level. The oldies session started with some introduction games. Because of the small number of oldies, it was possible to get to know every oldie better.

Usually, the SCOME International Team gives updates on their work of the past months at the first day of the sessions.

This GA the decision was made to only give those updates to the old members. In this way there was more space for going into depth of the work that has been done and there was room for questions. The oldies were asked to give input and feedback on the work of the team, so the team can pursue and work on the things that were mentioned.

After the updates the oldies were divided in small working groups to do a fishbowl; discuss problems they faced

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in their work in SCOME. This made the session useful for all and the oldies got the opportunity to get to know their (mostly) NOME colleagues better.

SCOME Transnational Projects When all participants got together again there was a short introduction to the five SCOME Transnational Projects: Breaking the Silence, Dying, a Human Thing, Good Medical Practice, Surgical Suturing ComBat and WHO Simulations. Each project had a representative. At the end of this day participants had the opportunity to go to the representative of the project most interesting to them and get some more information on the project and ask questions.

Medical Education Post 2015 The last part of the first day was dedicated to inspiring externals that came to talk about the future of medical education. The externals present were: • Prof. Madalena Patricio, Past-President of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) “Bravo IFMSA, AMEE counts on you.”

• Prof. David Gordon, President-Elect of the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) “We want to make sure the best things of the old will be combined with the new.”

• Dr. Erica Wheeler, Technical Officer at the Department of the Global Health Workforce Alliance of the World Health Organization (WHO) “You guys are so good in motivational work.”

They all talked about the work they do in medical education and how medical students can be involved.

Day 2 Day 2, March 5th, of the sessions was focussed on the internal work SCOME does. Also this day contained the first round of joint sessions. More information about the joint sessions can be found in chapter eight of this kit.

The day started off with a short recap of the day before and an introduction to the Liaison Officers and their work in IFMSA.

Projects Database Sharing ideas, bringing together people with a vision of the world, and working together towards our goals, isn’t that what IFMSA is all about? Of course a lot of ideas are shared during Standing Committee sessions, through our publications, through Project Presentations and many other means, but how can this information be available to all, in a sustainable way? An NMO Activity Database has been created now (also referred to as: Projects Database), which is already online and accessible to the NMO presidents. In the future, it will also be opened to National Officers to edit. Soon call for submitting projects will be launched, and your help is needed to collect some of the amazing work that IFMSA does

Policy Statements During this session the usage of policy statements was explained to the participants, for instance how to use them at the national level. The importance of usage of policy statements as a tool and not as an end of the process of advocacy making was underlined. The current policy statements of IFMSA and SCOME were explained and how IFMSA members can consult them.

Internal work brainstorm The last part of day 2’s session was about different topics that are going on in SCOME’s work. The group was split in four and rotated between four different topics: Internal Operating Guidelines, SCOME Mission and Vision, Projects Database and Sub Regional Training.

Sub Regional Training Have you ever dreamt of holding international SCOME sessions in your own backyard? Do you want to train your skills in Medical Education without leaving the region or having to skip your exams because of the timing?

Then hold your own SCOME Sub Regional Training! The idea was presented during the MM14 sessions. Why hold an SRT? To build motivation, skills, new relationships with your neighbouring countries and get offered specific trainings that you need, and have the SCOME IT there to help you. You will find the SRT manual here for more information on how to apply to host one or what help IFMSA can offer you.

Internal Operating Guidelines The meaning and importance of IOGs were explained first.

Then a brainstorm on the content of these guidelines was held. Many ideas were exchanged and the results were a couple of main topics, like the mission and vision, reporting systems, evaluation and monitoring, SCOME structure, SCOME sessions and more.

SCOME Mission and Vision Participants were challenged to think about the bigger picture for SCOME. What is the ultimate goal of SCOME? Most mentioned was producing the best doctors all around the world. How do we do this? By making a change in medical education!

March Meeting 2014 follow up kit

Day 3 The third day of sessions, March 7th, had again time for joint sessions. The rest of the session was dedicated to the internal work of the SCOME International Team; the Permanent Small Working Groups.

The day started with dancing and games. Besides that, the ground rules were suspended, so more punishments for the people being late could be given.

Permanent Small Working Groups In the morning presentations were given by the PSWG on Medical Education Databases and the PSWG on Internal Operations. Why is the team working on these topics and what work has been done the past months.

Because of extra time, one of the SCOME projects candidating for the status of Transnational Project this GA could give a small presentation, MediCafĂŠ. This project did get the status of Transnational Project this GA, so introducing it in the sessions will help the acquaintance of the project.

After the joint sessions there was a session given by the PSWG on Non Formal Education.

First there was a discussion of what non formal education is, what effect it has on the life of a medical student and why it is interesting for students. This discussion was strengthened by the idea of the IFMSA activities being largely based on non formal education, and how non formal education changed every single one of the participants personally.

Also a discussion took place on what education would look like without schooling and why schooling kills creativity and limits the horizons of students.

After the discussion, an introduction to the work of the PSWG was given. How it aims to increase awareness of the concept among medical student and how it empowers them to join in advocating for recognition of the activities done by the IFMSA on the international, national and local level by faculties, universities and governments. By introducing this concept to the participants, the goal of quality assurance and recognition of the activities in the IFMSA can be reached better.

At the end the participants had the opportunity to give input on the survey and standard the PSWG uses in its work.

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The SCOME international team chose the approach of using Small Working Groups to on one hand offer members who are interested in working on the international level an opportunity to do so, and on the second hand work omre on specific issues The current Small Working Groups in SCOME after the March Meeting 2014 are: - Non Formal Education - Reproductive Health Education - Databases - Internal Operations - Student Rigths & Wellness - Medical Science and Research

Day 4 The last day of sessions, on March 8th, was dedicated to discussing more difficult topics of medical education and wrapping up everything of the past days.

SCOME Dream wall The last part of the sessions was about reflecting on the past days. First the pictures from the SCOME buddies were shown to all and this was a lot of fun. Everyone was writing messages for each other’s envelopes.

The reflection on the sessions was done through a SCOME Dream wall. All participants got the opportunity to draw or write down what they thought of the sessions and what their future dreams for SCOME are. All participants were sharing these motivating thoughts with each other. It was very inspiring to see what everyone wrote down and said.

The sessions were ended with a group picture and hug.

During the closing ceremony the award for Best SCOMEdian of the sessions went to Kateřina Tomanová from IFMSA-CZ for always being there, actively participating and motivating others.

Global Strategy on Medical Education One of the main topics that the SCOME International Team is working on at the moment is the creation of a policy statement concerning the Global Strategy on Medical Education. This topic has been discussed many times before, but the aim of submitting this as a policy statement in the next GA, the August Meeting 2014, makes it more urgent now.

First a presentation to introduce the topic was given to everyone. After that the group divided in the different regions.

Africa, Asia-Pacific and PAMSA were put together because of the low number of participants from these regions.

In these regional sessions the same questions were answered to see the needs of the region for a global curriculum. The discussions held in the different regions will be used for the creation of the policy statement.

SCOME Mission

After wrapping up the discussion on the Global Strategy on Medical Education, a short training on how to motivate your medical school to transform their medical curriculum and how to engage in the educational process of your faculty was given. In this way the things that were discussed about the Global Strategy on Medical Education became practical at the local level as well.

March Meeting 2014 follow up kit

Joint Sessions This GA the different Standing Committees worked together a lot to provide the participants with a big variety of topics. These sessions were the joint sessions and there were two moments in the agenda for them. The joint sessions go deeper into a specific topic and were done in small groups (max. 35 participants).

A short summary of the joint sessions SCOME was part of is written down here. Most of the joint sessions were conducted on both days, there were a few only given on one of the days.

Students’ Rights & Wellness This was a joint session of SCOME, SCORP and SCOPH. Participants shared personal experiences why students’ rights and wellness are important. After that the concept of bullying in medicine and how it affects health and the healthcare system was discussed. This was followed by an analysis of the old Hippocratic Oath and how it relates to the concept of students rights. After that, the discussion was about some issues in access to quality education and how it isn’t limited to monetary issues only, but also to gender equality in access to surgical specialties such as orthopaedics for example. Finally, an update was given of what IFMSA does in the PSWG on Students’ Right & Wellness. Then there was time for SWGs of what medical students can do to improve this issue in their countries and on the global scale.

Comprehensive Sexual Education in the Medical Curriculum This was a joint session of SCOME and SCORA. This session was aimed at seeing the amount of comprehensive sexuality education that is covered in medical curricula all over the IFMSA. At first a survey was done by the participants to see how much time was dedicated in their curricula towards discussing topics such as maternal health, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS both in their pre-clinical and clinical years. Then members were split up into groups to discuss the three biggest gaps in their medical curricula with respect to sexual and reproductive health and the strategies they were going to use to remedy these gaps.

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Global Health Education This was a joint session of all Standing Committees.

This session covered what is Global Health, why it is important to learn about, different approaches to incorporating GHE into the curriculum, what barriers one might face and how to overcome these. The session then covered specific case study examples to provide ideas about how to approach and shared experiences and questions from the floor. Participants were excellent and the enthusiasm and interest was overwhelming. We hope to develop a series of international case studies so please send your stories to thinkglobal@ifmsa.org and please get in contact if you have any questions!

Open Access This was a joint session of SCOME and SCORE. The session included a brief introduction to the historical context of academic publishing detailing how print media has developed in the digital age; the concept of Open Access; pay walls and their effect on patient care, inequality and innovation; the Open Access Button as a tool to monitor the problem and provide solutions - tutorial and demonstration; advocacy on how students can get involved at a local, national and international level; our role as future researchers by a practical guide to publishing in Open Access journals and influencing university-wide policy.

Day 4 Pre Exchange Training This was a joint session of SCOME, SCOPE and SCORE. This joint session aimed to bring SCOPE and SCORE people together with SCOME people to think about how to assure high quality PET/PDT. The session included a short introduction to the topic. The rest of the session was very interactive. First the participants mingled and thought about different topics in SWGs. They presented their outcomes to the group. After the SWGs a debate was done. The group was split in two. The first group had to convince the dean of the faculty why they should organize a PET/PDT and the second group why they shouldn’t. This last part was very useful and made the participants think through what the benefits of a good PET/ PDT are, and how to make it high quality. Conclusion of the session was that collaboration with the different SCs is very useful for this event.

One Health and Interprofessional Education This was a joint session of SCOME and SCOPH. During this workshop, the relationship between human and animal health was highlighted. The human population is expanding rapidly and as the consumption of animal products is also growing, the density of both humans and animals will increase enormously. This, combined with the fact that 70% of (re-)emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic or vector borne, represents a significant threat to public health.

Anticipating this potential threat, it is important that our future health workers have experience in multidisciplinary collaboration. During the workshop the conclusion was made that at the present time, there is insufficient collaboration between medical doctors and veterinarians. Furthermore, participants agreed that experience in multidisciplinary collaboration should start at the level of university training.

The participants of this workshop had several suggestions for how multidisciplinary collaboration can be stimulated on both a national and international level. Based on this input, IFMSA and IVSA (International Veterinary Students’ Association) will design a strategy on how this can be realized.

Recognition of exchanges This was a joint session of SCOME, SCOPE and SCORE. The joint session had the goal to discuss how to improve the recognition of the exchanges at faculty and external level. There was a short presentation about the actual status of IFMSA exchanges and also a brief note from the WFME President Elect prof. David Gordon about the ongoing work in the endorsement of the exchanges by WFME. The participants were divided in four small working groups where the participants managed to give their input on four

topics: promotion of IFMSA exchanges; academic recognition; collection of exchanges data; improve quality of IFMSA exchanges.

There will be a follow-up on this topic inside SCOME, SCOPE and SCORE in order to implement the suggestions of this joint session.

Human Resources for Health This was a joint session of SCOME, SCORP and SCOPH. The joint session had the goal to discuss the situation related to the planning of Human Resources for Health at a global level. There was a short presentation about the actual status this situation and the relationship between medical education and correct trends on Human Resources (quantity of medical students, medical schools and doctors, quality of education and healthcare, migration of doctors and retention of healthcare professionals). Also the actual environment of working of healthcare professionals and education of medical students and ways to change the culture of education were discussed. The participants were divided in two small working groups where the participants managed to give their input about a future survey to be created, in order to have a concrete overview about the students’ perspective about this topic.

There will be a follow-up on this topic in the Standing Committees and in the Presidents server, mainly in the creation of a global survey on Human Resources for Health.

March Meeting 2014 follow up kit

Stay involved!

Of course after such an experience it would be great if you can stay involved with SCOME on the international level. There are multiple ways how to stay up-to-date with what is happening.

Mailing-list All the important information concerning SCOME is sent through the Yahoo Group. You can join this e-mail list by sending an e-mail to ifmsa-scome-subscribe@yahoogroups. com.

Facebook Most important messages are also sent through the official IFMSA-SCOME Facebook group. This group is there for everyone to share SCOME related things.

IFMSA website and blog Do you want to know more about IFMSA or what is going on in IFMSA? Keep an eye on the website www.ifmsa.org, or on the IFMSA blog at www.ifmsa.wordpress.com.

On the different platforms above you will find calls for SWGs and SCOME related meetings, you will be asked for input through surveys and you will get information and reports from the SCOME IT. If you have any questions or comments, you can always contact the SCOME Director or the Regional Assistant of your region for internal matters and the Liaison Officer on Medical Education issues for external matters.

E-mail Never hesitate to drop us a line for anything you need!

Stijntje: scomed@ifmsa.org Agostinho: lme@ifmsa.org Rasha: ra.scome.africa@gmail.com Scott: ra.scome.pamsa@gmail.com Yameen: ra.scome.asiapacific@gmail.com Ahmad: ra.scome.emr@gmail.com Rachel: ra.scome.europe@gmail.com

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