JANUARY - FEBRUARY
SCOME Newsletter The Magazine SCOMEdians were waiting for
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Table of Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 2 2. External Representation News ................................................................... 3 3. Regional Updates ...................................................................................... 4 3.1 Africa Region ........................................................................................ 5 3.2 Americas Region ................................................................................... 6 3.3 Asia Pacific Region ................................................................................ 7 3.4 EMR Region .......................................................................................... 8 3.5 Europe Region ...................................................................................... 9 4. How to establish SCOME in your NMO? ................................................... 11 5. Med-ed-tations ........................................................................................ 13 6. In Meme-orial .......................................................................................... 15
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1. Introduction Dear SCOMEdians, The SCOME International team is bringing you this newsletter to keep you updated not only about our work but also to use it as a new mean of learning and capacity building. The January-February edition was mainly about the Regional Meetings updates. We also tried to include some basic articles about becoming more active in SCOME. We hope you enjoy reading it. The best is yet to come, Big white hugs, Arij Chatbri, SCOME Director.
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2. External Representation News Dear SCOMEdians worldwide, Time for a quick update on the cool work that IFMSA is doing on representation medical education! The last few months have been quite busy. As Liaison Officer for Medical Education issues (LME), my job is to represent you for medical education, and exchange issues. This has mean: • Attending OpenCon in Washington, to advocate for OpenAccess, and prepare the joint session that will be given at the March Meeting on the subject (photo attached) • Working with the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) to develop an internship program, collaborate with regional associations (like in the AsiaPacific Region) • Setting up the AMEE Student Task Force team and grading AMEE Student Initiatives to receive funding • Working with UNESCO to have a student delegation attend their Bioethics summit in Cyprus • Giving sessions on external rep at the Americas Regional Meeting! • Working with other Liaison Officers, Regional Assistants, and students from all over the world to advocate for our programs. One of our biggest successes is to have been awarded the Charles Boelen International Award for Social Accountability. This prize rewards one organization each year in the world that has advocated for social accountability in medical schools, curricula, and communities worldwide. Your work has been key to us receiving the award, and we can all be very proud. Some things to look for in the next few weeks: 1. AMEE Student Task force applications will open on February 19th. It’s your best opportunity to attend a world class conference and receive money to do it! 2. The World Summit on Social Accountability is still accepting registrations. Make sure to register online! 3. We will start working on the OMEGA Survey of medical schools worldwide; if you want to help assess your national curricula and join a very cool international initiative, let me know Feel free to reach out with any questions! All the best, and I look forward to meeting some of you in Montenegro in March, Kind regards and dabs, Alex.
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3. Regional Updates
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3.1 Africa Region The 22nd African Regional Meeting was in the beautiful city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It had been more than five years since the regional meeting was in a West African country and the complete first time it was being held in a French speaking country. The hosts definitely lived up to expectations. The ARM began on the 18th of December and ended on the 22nd. The SCOME sessions had 15 participants with 5 countries from the region being represented. These were Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Algeria. The sessions were prepared by a team comprising of Aldrdakhider Ahmed Muhammed (Sudan), Najib Usman Muhammed (Nigeria) and Meskerem Alekakebde (Ethiopia). They were however unable to attend the Meeting hence the sessions were conducted by Yasser Mechati (Algeria) and myself with the help of the newly trained TMET trainers. The sessions included Teaching and Learning methods, Assessment and Evaluation, Medical Ethics, Curriculum Development, Outcome Based Learning, Fundraising and Grant Application, and Research in Medical Education. The session on Fundraising was covered by an External, The IFMSA Vice President for Finance. The session on Research was a joint one with SCORE and SCOPE. The whole experience was quite wonderful and I am grateful to everyone who made it happen. I believe that the main achievement of the meeting was SCOME awareness in the region and this will go a long way in getting more people involved in future activities even as we prepare to host SCOMEdians from around the world in the upcoming August Meeting. You are all welcome to Africa. Tendwa Ongas.
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3.2 Americas Region January was an amazing month for SCOME in the Americas. First, we had the first Training Medical Education Training – TMET, done during an Americas Regional Meeting. Now we have 9 new graduated TMET trainers from 6 different countries that are really motivated for hosting a training themselves. Also we had the SCOME Sessions during the Americas Regional Meeting in Peru. We had 22 participants from 10 different countries, that were active members, LOMEs, NOMEs or with other position in their NMOs. Many Medical Education topics and issues were discussed. SCOMEdians had the space to point out their national issues and brainstorming how to solve it as a region. Also, we had the SCOME Black&White party, a social event in which the only requirement was to wear a black or white clothing and have fun. To make SCOME even cooler: achieved. One of the main outcomes in the RM was to discuss about the SCOME Regional Activity. This is a capacity building – educational campaign project, that wants to improve motivation and give medical education tools, in an open access platform. During the next months we will make an SWG to keep on working in this. With several members from the TO and Regional Team, we are working in the Union of South American Nations - UNASUR potential partnership with IFMSA. Finally, the Americas will work as a Region, to create more regional initiatives, as the one lead by Colombia for the World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week. So keep on tuned to the upcoming SCOME activities. So far we have planned more than that 115 SCOME Activities in the Region!
Pablo Estrella P.
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3.3 Asia Pacific Region Not too many things happening in the APR in the last 2 months, partially because of the exam season in January, and the upcoming preparations for the March Meeting. IFMSA -Uzbekistan, had a Training Medical Skills workshop focusing on suturing, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and catheterization skills. Props to Elvina Giyazitdinova, the activity coordinator, who has taken the initiative of establishing SCOME in her NMO. Some of the NOMEs have concrete plans for the coming months and seem to have a post- examhibernation, ravenous appetite to have them executed well. To them I say, get out the proverbial fork and spoon and let’s go to town on this. I understand that language is turning out to be an issue for a few, for an advisory role to be of any use, but in either case we really need to get SCOME within the region. So if you’re a new NOME and after going through the materials sent, are still not sure what to do, just get in touch and we can work something out. For those of you who are coming, the March Meeting is a great opportunity for us to meet ,and effectively tackle the issues faced. Rahoul Gonsalves.
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3.4 EMR Region January was quite a busy month for the EMR region. All the region was preparing for our great event The EMR Regional Meeting. We collected the suggestions for the sessions’ agenda from the call for input, selected the sessions’ team and threw ourselves into the long and crazy journey that led us to what I could proudly call a phenomenal RM. We started preparing the agenda, the survival kit as well as the promotion of the sessions team. The Agenda had a lot of new subjects that weren’t highlighted before in the SCOME Sessions like Accreditation, Quality Assurance and The students’ active role in the universities. The region was also preparing for several national meeting such as the NGA of IFMSA –Iraq, IFMSAEgypt’s Winter Camp, etc. A new activity from the EMR and precisely from IFMSA-Jordan “The Safe Injection Practice “ was enrolled into a SCOME IFMSA program “Teaching Medical Skills”. Salma Bouguerra.
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3.5 Europe Region Dear lovely SCOMEdians! Here are updates from European NOMEs that wanted to share with you how is SCOME going in their NMO. If you would like see your update in next edition of newsletter, please contact me ra.scome.europe@ifmsa.org In FASMR Romania we developed some activities which are intended to help both the medical students and their future patients in a welcoming environment. Some of our activities are: ● Giving medical students the opportunity of testing their knowledge gained while studying the curriculum and the opportunity to express their needs in terms of a certain specialization ● Conducting training sessions on learning sign language communication, to acquire the needed skills to work with a certain category of patients ● Developing workshops, conferences and trainings to acquire various skills of future specializations and also professional and personal development of future researchers by organizing scientific activities ● Organizing national students exchanges in different Universities of Romania ● Giving help with anything that occurs to the medical students of the first year by tutors, who are older students All of these are being conducted in projects such as: Residency Simulation, Breaking the Silence, Medical Education Days, TransMed, Scientific Opportunities Database and Tutors for new generations. Elena Manea, FASMR Romania LiMSA SCOME this year enters new waters! Collaborating with Students union of university SCOMEdians have made first steps to research main problems of M.E. in universities. Moreover, the list of well known medical practice workshops such as ECG, surgical suturing are filled with eight week mindfulness trainings and great project ,,Assistant for one day” Kamilė Antanavičiūtė, LiMSA January was a month of introducing newly elected Polish SCOME national team, including NOME. Team consists of project assistants, curriculum development and managing main projects for example Surgical workshops and Peer Support. SCOME developed also in advocacy area. IFMSAPoland representatives was invited by Head of Medical Education Department in Ministry of Health to participate in consultation of new regulations regarding postgraduate internship of medical doctors and dentists. We presented our view and proposed specific solutions to improve this important part of medical training. Also SCOME annual workshops was settled for February 2017. Important seems to be the fact that it's planned to finish policy statement on medical education preparation which hopefully will be accepted during nearest NGA Mateusz Marynowski, IFMSA-Poland Within SCOME-NL all the local committee's are starting up their activities and projects. We recently voted for 5 new Project Coordinator, they will take a closer look to the current projects and will try to evaluate and improve these projects. Last November some members of IFMSA-NL gave 2
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workshops at the National medical education conference. We received very positive feedback from the participants. Looking forward seeing you at the March meeting! Tessa Noijons, IFMSA-NL Aleksandra Likonska.
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4. How to establish SCOME in your NMO? I am very happy that many NMOs have very well-working SCOME. Nevertheless, I realised still numerous wait to start their journey with Medical Education World. In this short article I would like to show how easy it is to establish SCOME. How to learn that I need SCOME in my NMO? What is SCOME about? SCOME is a standing committee that is dedicated to provide medical students worldwide with optimal learning environment. SCOME Vision Medical students attain an optimal professional and personal development to reach their full potential as future doctors for better health care worldwide. SCOME Mission Our mission is to be the frame in which medical students worldwide contribute to the development of medical education. Students convene in SCOME to share and learn about medical education in order to improve it as well as benefit the most from it on a personal and professional basis. If you are NMO President, first step for you is to find motivated person to be first National Officer on Medical Education (NOME) and SCOME “ice-breaker” and ask them to contact SCOME Regional Assistant for advice. Very beneficial is to send that motivated person to Regional Meeting or any other international meeting so they can get idea in practice how SCOME works. If you are motivated person that wants to establish SCOME, first contact your NMO President and tell them about your plans. If they say YES, you can contact SCOME Regional Assistant for help. RAs are willing to help you and don’t hesitate to ask them about anything. Documents You want to be SCOME active and you are concerned about documents. There is no special documents. You can just start working and don’t forget to ask your NMO President to mark it in NMO Report. Also remember that some documents needs to be implemented on your local level - talk to your President and check the regulation. How to start? SCOME has two main pillars: projects and advocacy. Usually it is easier to start with project and slowly add advocacy to national work. Before preparing some activity it is good to carry out survey what are students’ needs locally. Here are examples of projects that are easiest to prepare from scratch and quite universal: • ECG Workshops - Students all over the world find it difficult to analyse ECG correctly. You just need to find senior student that has A in Cardiology, IFMSA Alumni doctor or someone that just wants to help student and free classroom. That doesn’t require any budget. • Discover your specialty - At some point every medical student needs to decide about their future. Not always in curriculum is planned time to raise that matter. To organize that event you just need one or two doctors of specialty that students wants to discover and free classroom. Also even can be done without any budge. These are just two examples, but the limit of the project is only your creativity. It is good to contact NOMEs from surrounding countries to ask how they manage SCOME and gain some ideas.
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Advocacy is the act of supporting or recommending a course of action. In SCOME we advocate for improving medical curricula basing on recent knowledge in this field. As this is more complex action that need basic knowledge in medical education it is good to attend TMET (Training Medical Education Trainers). To check when is nearest TMET, contact you RA. Region Regional Assistant Mail Africa
Tendwa Ongas
ra.scome.africa@ifmsa.org
Americas Pablo Estrella
ra.scome.americas@ifmsa.org
Asia Pacific Rahoul Gonsalves
ra.scome.asiapacific@ifmsa.org
EMR
Salma Bouguerra
ra.scome.emr@ifmsa.org
Europe
Aleksandra Likonska ra.scome.europe@ifmsa.org
Aleksandra Likonska.
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5. Med-ed-tations
The 6 ways in which you can become a better SCOMEdian Dear SCOMEdians, The kind NOMEs from the East, had brought up a few areas in which they felt they needed more clarity. Using some mystical herbs of the Orient (tea), ancient postures of the yogi of the Himalayas(sitting) and mostly reading the SCOME manual, I’ve discovered the 6 ways in which you can become a better SCOMEdian: 1. Be informed of medical education events and opportunities Information on events and opportunities will inevitably be sent through the SCOME general server(1) and/or the SCOME facebook group(2). (1) Subscribe by sending a blank email to ifmsa-scome-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. (2)https://www.facebook.com/groups/SCOME/?fref=ts Additionally you have this SCOME newsletter. FOMO, no more! 2. Understand the full scope of SCOME SCOME unfortunately has a nerdy reputation among the uninitiated. The truth is, that SCOME is probably the broadest division within IFMSA. Anything that relates to medical students in some convoluted way or the other, is fair game. For example: You love playing the piano and are passionate about music? Consider organizing an introductory session on music therapy* in medicine in your college. The sky’s the limit! (Aeronautical medicine perhaps?) * http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/104345429501200103 3. Enrol your activity in a Medical Education related IFMSA Program We have 5 SCOME related programs: 1) Medical Education Systems 2) Teaching Medical Skills 3) Human Resources for Health 4) Ethics and Human Rights 5) Health Systems Want to organize an activity, and don't know which program to apply to? Send your NOME your plan and the IT will ensure that the right program coordinator is informed. We had a webinar on the 12th of February, 2 PM GMT on this very topic, you can find it on the IFMSA YouTube channel.
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4. Build your capacity in Medical Education For this, you will need a better understanding of the various aspects of SCOME. I've attached the SCOME manual- which we are revisiting and updating- for your reference. Skim through it, it’s a short read, and should give you an idea. Additionally, Training Medical Education Trainers (TMET) workshops are held every year at the IFMSA pre-general assemblies and at some Regional Meetings. NMOs can apply to host them as well*. These are excellent opportunities to receive some hands on training, and receive the certification that will enable you to deliver the same in your NMO or at another TMET. *Read TMET regulations(attached) for further details SCOME manual 8th edition 2014.pdf Copy of TMET Regulations.pdf 5. Be an Advocate- What is advocacy? - In SCOME, this would involve being effective representatives (Form clear goals, communicate well, strategize etc.) of student needs, to their medical school faculty. This is very much possible and quite frankly our right, since we're arguably the major stakeholders in our education. General Assembly SCOME sessions & TMETs are good opportunities to get familiar with advocacy. Otherwise, if you have a specific issue which would require advocacy, get in touch with us. and finally.... 6.Collaborate with other NMOs: "Ask, and it shall be given unto you; Seek, and ye shall find; Knock, and it shall be opened unto you" You get the picture.... Contact your NOMEs, who will assess the feasibility of the idea. NOMEs will get in contact with their Regional Assistant, when they need to contact the other NMO(s) Now that you know what it takes to be a “better” SCOMEdian, go forth young SCOME-san. And remember,with great power comes great responsibility . Your friendly neighborhood RA, Rahoul Gonsalves, Regional Assistant for SCOME in the Asia Pacific. "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -Thomas.A Edison
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6. In Meme-orial
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IFMSA International Federation of Medical Students Associations
Algeria (Le Souk)
Georgia (GMSA)
Oman (SQU-MSG)
Argentina (IFMSA-Argentina)
Germany (BVMD)
Pakistan (IFMSA-Pakistan)
Armenia (AMSP)
Ghana (FGMSA)
Palestine (IFMSA-Palestine)
Australia (AMSA)
Greece (HelMSIC)
Panama (IFMSA-Panama)
Austria (AMSA)
Grenada (IFMSA-Grenada)
Paraguay (IFMSA-Paraguay)
Azerbaijan (AzerMDS)
Guatemala (ASOCEM)
Peru (APEMH)
Bangladesh (BMSS)
Guinea (AEM)
Peru (IFMSA-Peru)
Belgium (BeMSA)
Guyana (GuMSA)
Philippines (AMSA-Philippines)
Benin (AEMB)
Haiti (AHEM)
Poland (IFMSA-Poland)
Bolivia (IFMSA-Bolivia)
Honduras (ASEM)
Portugal (PorMSIC)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BoHeMSA)
Hungary (HuMSIRC)
Romania (FASMR)
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Rep.
Iceland (IMSIC)
Russian Federation (HCCM)
of Srpska (SaMSIC)
India (MSAI)
Rwanda (MEDSAR)
Brazil (DENEM)
Indonesia (CIMSA-ISMKI)
Serbia (IFMSA-Serbia)
Brazil (IFMSA-Brazil)
Iran (IMSA)
Sierra Leone (SLEMSA)
Bulgaria (AMSB)
Iraq (IFMSA-Iraq)
Singapore (AMSA-Singapore)
Burkina Faso (AEM)
Ireland (AMSI)
Slovakia (SloMSA)
Burundi (ABEM)
Israel (FIMS)
Slovenia (SloMSIC)
Canada (CFMS)
Italy (SISM)
South Africa (SAMSA)
Canada-Quebec (IFMSA-Quebec)
Jamaica (JAMSA)
Spain (IFMSA-Spain)
Catalonia - Spain (AECS)
Japan (IFMSA-Japan)
Sudan (MedSIN-Sudan)
Chile (IFMSA-Chile)
Jordan (IFMSA-Jo)
Sweden (IFMSA-Sweden)
China (IFMSA-China)
Kazakhstan (KazMSA)
Switzerland (SwiMSA)
China-Hong Kong (AMSAHK)
Kenya (MSAKE)
Taiwan (FMS-Taiwan)
Colombia (ASCEMCOL)
Korea (KMSA)
Tatarstan-Russia (TaMSA-Tatarstan)
Congo, Democratic Republic
Kuwait (KuMSA)
Tanzania (TAMSA)
of (MSA-DRC)
Kurdistan - Iraq (IFMSA-Kurdistan/Iraq)
Thailand (IFMSA-Thailand)
Costa Rica (ACEM)
Latvia (LaMSA-Latvia)
The Former Yoguslav Republic
Croatia (CroMSIC)
Lebanon (LeMSIC)
of Macedonia (MMSA-Macedonia)
Cyprus (CyMSA)
Libya (LMSA)
The Netherlands (IFMSA-NL)
Czech Republica (IFMSA-CZ)
Lithuania (LiMSA)
Tunisia (ASSOCIA-MED)
Denmark (IMCC)
Luxembourg (ALEM)
Turkey (TurkMSIC)
Dominican Republic (ODEM)
Mali (APS)
Uganda (FUMSA)
Ecuador (AEMPPI)
Malta (MMSA)
Ukraine (UMSA)
Egypt (IFMSA-Egypt)
Mexico (IFMSA-Mexico)
United Arab Emirates (EMSS)
El Salvador (IFMSA-El Salvador)
Moldova (ASRM)
United Kingdom of Great Britain
Estonia (EstMSA)
Mongolia (MMLA)
& Northern Ireland (Medsin-UK)
Ethiopia (EMSA)
Montenegro (MoMSIC-Montenegro)
United States of America (AMSA-USA)
Fiji (FJMSA)
Morocco (IFMSA-Morocco)
Uruguay (IFMSA-Uruguay)
Finland (FiMSIC)
Namibia (MESANA)
Venezuela (FEVESOCEM)
France (ANEMF)
Nepal (NMSS)
Zambia (ZAMSA)
Gambia (UniGaMSA)
New Zealand (NZMSA)
Zimbabwe (ZIMSA)
Nigeria (NiMSA) Norway (NMSA)
www.ifmsa.org
medical students worldwide