Swiss Medical Students' National Journal | Edition 17

Edition 17 October 2020

SWISS MEDICAL STUDENTS’ NATIONAL JOURNAL

LE JOURNAL DE LA SWIMSA COVID-19 Edition - Part two Focus | Extreme Medicine and COVID-19

swimsa family | Updates from our members

International | all around the world

Let us go into more depth about the COVID-19 pandemic as we talk about swimsa’s actions and ask you about your experiences during the lockdown.

Read about our different projects and keep up to date with current actions done by the swimsa family.

Discover how medical students from all over the world try to change our planet’s future together: Swiss delegates tell about their experience at the last IFMSA General Assembly.

IMPRESSUM Heads of Journal Ariane Pauli | Vice-President for Communication 2020 - 2021 Michael Burkhardt | Journal Coordinator 2018-2021

Publisher Swiss Medical Students’ Association swimsa 3011 Bern www.swimsa.ch

Print & Production Onlineprinters | www.onlineprinters.ch

Circulation 1000 (limited edition due to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic)

Contacts General | contact@swimsa.ch Publications | vpc@swimsa.ch © Portions of the NJSMS may be reproduced for non-political and non-profit purposes mentioning the source provided.

Notice | swimsa cannot accept any liability. The opinions expressed in this journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of swimsa. Some of the photos and graphics used in articles are property of the authors. We have taken every consideration not to violate their rights.

AGENDA

CONTENU/ INHALT

Who is swimsa ? 3 Letter from the president 4 The new swimsa executive board 5 The swimsa internals 6

Focus: Extreme Medicine 12

The SMSC next spring 13

The SMSC Zurich 2020 14

COVID-19 vs. the Spanish Flu 15

The pandemic: a nurses view 18

swimsas’ actions 20

Let’s talk about: your lockdown 24 Education 28

Hey, do you know PROFILES? 29

A letter to the BAG 30

Exchanges 34

The impact of COVID-19 35

Exploring the Czech Republic 36

The last exchange before the outbreak 38

The first incoming student

after the outbreak 40

Exchange the world 42 International 44

IFSMA COVID-19 response 45

What about students in Switzerland?

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A special General Assembly 48 News from the swimsa family 56

A joint master in Lucerne 57

Where to turn to? 58

Young sonographers 60

Let’s talk about sex 62

swimsa in pictures 68

30.10. - 01.11.2020 Swiss Medical Students’ Convention in Zurich (online) 07.11.2020 MEDIfuture 08.11.2020 Ausbildungskommission/Commission de la formation 22.11.2020 DV/AD in Basel 28.11.2020 Ausbildungskommission/Commission de la formation 26. - 28.03.2021 Swiss Medical Students’ Convention in Basel 2

swimsa

WHAT IS SWIMSA?

The Swiss Medical Students’ Association (swimsa) commits itself to creating a sustainable, healthy society and motivates medical students through innovative engagement to become better doctors.

It is the voice of over 9’000 medical students by the membership of eight medical associations, which it represents on a national level via seats in health organizations such as the FMH and the BAG/ OFSP, as well as on an international level in the WHO and as part of the International Federation of Medical Students› Associations (IFMSA).

With currently 17 associated projects, swimsa helps to shape public health – be it by teaching sex education in highschools, destigmatizing mental health or working in developing countries. Additionally, swimsa enables a variety of students to complete international exchanges in clinical as well as in research fields.

With the commission on Education, swimsa plays an active role in the shaping of medical education in Switzerland and is aspiring to be the link between education and work, students and professionals, across all fields of health care.

Twice a year, swimsa organizes the Swiss Medical Students’ Convention (SMSC), which brings together over 400 Swiss medical students from all universities and allows them to network and bond over interesting subjects.

A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS AND SPONSORS

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Salut à tout le monde, liebe Leser*innen, cari studenti Over the past few days I have had the privilege to talk to several new medical students, bright-eyed, excited to learn, but also worried. They are worried, because they do not know what their lectures will be like, where they will take place or if they will be able to make enough friends. And to my surprise, I found myself laughing. Even in a pandemic, the worries of a medical student stay the same. My answer to these worries has stayed the same every year: don’t fret, just take it step by step and you will figure it out along the way.

And then there is that second piece of advice I like to give medical students: make the most of your time in medical school! What that means is up to you. Listen to your lecturers, read your textbooks, learn everything you can. Maybe find a project to engage in, for instance working towards improving public health, join your local students’ association and learn how to become a youth leader or just use your time to be young. Whatever path you choose, work towards being happy and becoming the person you want to be. Your university years are your time to invest into yourself.

For me, medical school is almost over. I am a sixth year student, and honestly, I can not quite believe that in one year’s time, I am supposed to become a doctor. I have to admit, I am thrilled to have one last year as a medical student and am committed to make this year count. I want to gain as much knowledge as I possibly can and will do my very best to serve you as your president for the next year.

Medical school has shaped me into the person I am today, and it is my time to give back to all of you.

Lastly, let me thank the wonderful people who have joined me on this journey and committed to shaping the upcoming swimsa year, especially your national officers and the swimsa executive board 20-21: Ariane, Camille, Charlotte, Daniel, Dilana, Joël, Kate, Loris, Luc, Stefan, Thilo, Valeria and Zuen.

Have a great next term, wishing you happiness, health and enriching experiences, Stephanie Hauser President

Follow us on social media

Facebook

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OUR NEW EXECUTIVE BOARD The President is the heart of the executive board, coordinates swimsa internally and represents swimsa to the external partners.

Communication Ariane Pauli | Lausanne

vpc@swimsa.ch

Thilo Gwerder | Zurich

gs@swimsa.ch

The VPA is the head of the commission on medical education [AK/CoFo], which discusses topics related to medical education, decides on measures and writes position papers of swimsa.

Internal Affairs Dilana Kunz | Zurich

vpi@swimsa.ch

Stephanie Hauser | Basel

president@swimsa.ch

The VPC is in charge of swimsa’s representation on social media, the website, the newsletter (swimsagram) and the swimsa journal.

The VPX is the head of the Exchanges Team within swimsa and represents swimsa Exchanges on an international level within the IFMSA.

General Secretary

President

Exchanges Stefan Leung | Zurich

vpx@swimsa.ch

The General Secretary is the backbone of swimsa, the first contact person on any swimsa question and in charge of administrative tasks.

Education Charlotte Kull | Bern

vpa@swimsa.ch

The VPI has an open ear for the members of swimsa, be it local committee or project, and supports them in their needs.

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The VPPR represents swimsa towards our external partners and sponsors.

Public Relations Camille Bertosa| Zurich

vppr@swimsa.ch

Treasurer Ekaterina Gurevich | Bern

kassier@swimsa.ch

The Treasurer manages swimsa’s finances, and is in charge of the swimsa Fond, from which projects can receive money in order to accomplish their vision!

The VPG connects swimsa to the IFMSA (International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations) and is responsible for Capacity Building.

Global Affairs Valeria Scheiwiller| Zurich

vpg@swimsa.ch

THE SWIMSA INTERNALS Thank you all for your amazing work!

Yannick Turdo and Felice Hess

Larissa Graf and Sven Blankschön

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SVC (svc@swimsa.ch) The Supervising Council oversees the work of the executive board and makes sure the bylaws are being adhered to.

Auditors Our auditors check bookkeeping of swimsa.

the

National Officers

Loris Fivaz NEO-in

Daniel Konrad NEO-out

JoĂŤl Perrin NORA

Zuen Phai Nghiem NORE

Gaia Grigorov NPO

National Exchange Officer for Incomings (neo.in@swimsa.ch) - The NEO-in checks the applications of international students who want to do a professional exchange in Switzerland and distributes them to the local committees.

National Exchange Officer for Outgoings (neo.out@swimsa.ch) - The NEO-out coordinates all international clinical exchanges for Swiss medical students.

National Officer on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights including HIV & AIDS (nora@ swimsa.ch) - The NORA connects projects and members within swimsa working on Sexual Health with each other and with empowering international opportunities in this field.

National Officer on Research Exchange (nore@ swimsa.ch) - The NORE is responsible for the research exchange in Switzerland and coordinates the exchanges of Incomings and Outgoings.

National Public Health Officer (npo@swimsa.ch) - The NPO represents swimsa, its projects and commitments in the area of Public Health on a national and international level.

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Liaison Officers

Andi Gashi LO-FMH

Katayoun Falamaki LO-BAG

Michael Burkhardt LO-vsao

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Liasion Officer FMH (fmh@swimsa.ch) - The FMH is the association of swiss doctors, which gathers representatives of cantons and all medical specialties. The LO-FMH attends the “Ärztekammer”/”Chambre médicale” twice a year and represents swimsa’s views.

Liasion Officer BAG/OFSP (bag@swimsa.ch) - The LO-BAG/OFSP represents swimsa’s views and can vote on behalf of swimsa in the plattform “Zukunft ärztliche Bildung/ Avenir de la formation médicale”, which collects all stakeholders in medical education four times a year.

Liasion Officer vsao/asmac (vsao@swimsa.ch) - The LO-vsao/asmac represents swimsa’s views and can vote on behalf of swimsa in the monthly “Geschäftsausschluss/Comité directeur” and the bi-annual “Zentralvorstand/ Comité central” in the vsao, which is the organisation representing the “Assistenzärzt*innen and Oberärzt*innen/médecins assistant(e)s et chef(fe)s de clinique”.

Anja Mozcko LO-MEBEKO

Liasion Officer MEBEKO (mebeko@swimsa.ch) - The LO-MEBEKO represents swimsa’s views and can vote on behalf of simsa in the “ausserparlamentarische” Commission of the BAG/OFSP, which mainly discusses the recognition of foreign diplomas four times a year.

Jakub Novotny LO-VSS/UNES

Liasion Officer VSS/UNES (Pilot Project) (vss@swimsa.ch) - The VSS/UNES is the umbrella association of all swiss students’ associations.

The LO-VSS/UNES represents swimsa’s views and can vote on behalf of swimsa in the monthly “Sektionsrat” and the bi-annual delegates assemblies.

Bea Albermann LO-WHO

Liasion Officer WHO (Pilot Project) (who@swimsa.ch) - The LO-WHO is a youth delegate of the BAG/OFSP in the WHO Executive Board meeting and the World Health Assembly.

Coordinators

Benedict von Allmen Legal Counsel

Malika Sachdeva COVID-19 Coordinator

Michael Burkhardt Journal Coordinator

Legal Counsel (legal@swimsa.ch) - Our Legal Counsel is here to support the EB with legal advice where needed, and is also here for you as a student.

COVID-19 Coordinator (covid19@swimsa.ch) - Our COVID-19 Coordinator oversees the work of swimsa’s COVID-19 taskforce and maintains swimsa’s dedicated COVID-19 instagram.

Journal Coordinator (journal@swimsa.ch) - The journal coordinator handles the content and design of the swimsa journal, which is published twice a year.

Alexandra Migga NEO Assistant

NEO Assistant (neo.out@swimsa.ch) - The NEO Assistant supports the NEO-out in coordinating international clinical exchanges for Swiss medical students.

Céline Ueltschi NET

National Exchanges Treasurer (treasurer.exchanges@swimsa.ch) - The National Exchanges Treasurer manages the finances of Exchanges in collaboration with the VPX.

Michal Remen Drittstaaten Coordinator

Drittstaaten-Coordinator (drittstaaten.students@swimsa.ch) - The “ThirdState-Coordinator” is responsible for providing invitation letters to non-EU medical students who want to work in Swiss hospitals.

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Hast du CHF 2'298'000.– auf der hohen Kante, falls dir Schlimmes zustösst?

Ist dir bewusst, dass du bei einer eintretenden Invalidität während deiner Studienzeit lediglich mit einer monatlichen IV-Rente von CHF 1'250.– rechnen kannst?

Unser Tipp : Verzichte alle 3 Tage auf einen Kaffee und du sicherst dir mit einer Prämie von CHF 1.30 pro Tag ein Ersatzeinkommen von CHF 2,3 Mio. bei Invalidität durch Unfall oder Krankheit! Übrigens: 8 von 10 Unfällen mit dauernder Invalidität sind die Folge von Sportunfällen!

Also sprich mit deinen Eltern und fordere noch heute dein persönliches Angebot an: info@saekk.ch Mehr Infos auf www.saekk.ch

Schweizerische฀Ärzte-Krankenkasse von฀Ärzten฀–฀für฀Ärzte

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swimsa

Goldsponsor฀der

As-tu mis 2’298’000.– CHF de côté si jamais quelque chose de grave t’arrivait ?

As-tu conscience que tu ne pourras compter que sur le versement d’une rente mensuelle AI de 1’250.– CHF durant tes études si tu deviens invalide?

Notre conseil : Economise un café tous les 3 jours car avec une prime de 1.30 CHF par jour, tu peux t’assurer une compensation de la perte de revenu de 2,3 mio. CHF en cas d’invalidité pour cause d’accident ou de maladie !

Au fait : 8 accidents sur 10 à l’origine d’une invalidité permanente sont dus au sport !

Parles-en avec tes parents et exige aujourd’hui encore ton offre personnalisée à : info@cmms.ch Plus d’infomations sur www.cmms.ch

Caisse-Maladie฀des฀Médecins฀Suisses de฀médecins฀pour฀des฀médecins

sponsor฀d’or฀de

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FOCUS: EXTREME MEDICINE

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Die globale SARS-CoV-2 Pandemie beschäftigt die Bevölkerung unseres gesamten Planeten, so auch - und selbstverständlich - die Medizinstudierenden der Schweiz.

La pandémie globale de SARS-CoV-2 impacte tout le monde et plus particulièrement les étudiant·e·s en médecine

Auf den nächsten Seiten findest du Informationen zur Ausführung des nächsten SMSC, wie auch Meinungen von Medizinstudierenden aus der gesamten Schweiz betreffend dieser, noch nie da gewesenen, Situation.

Dans cette section, tu trouveras plus d’informations concernant la prochaine SMSC - annulée auparavant à cause de la pandémie -, ainsi que l’opinion de quelques étudiant·e·s concernant la situation actuelle.

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focus: Extreme Medicine

THE SMSC NEXT SPRING Talking about Sexual Health Text: SMSC OC | University of Basel

Let’s talk… About a topic often ignored, forgotten or deemed unnecessary to discuss.

The SMSC will take place from March 26th - 28th in Basel with the topic “Sexual Health - Let’s talk”.

Or perhaps we are all just too embarrassed?

Our goal is to engage future doctors in a discussion about sexual health, prioritising the categories “culture”, “pleasure” and “safety”.

Let’s talk about Sexual Health. Why should a patient not be able to speak to a well-informed and open-minded doctor about their sexual wellbeeing? How can it be that a doctor is more comfortable talking about a patient’s bowel movements than talking about their sexuality? You can expect to see taboos being broken and exit the conference as a more perceptive, broader-minded person.

In these turbulent times, with the SMSC Zürich 2020 not being able to take place in person, we are excited to announce the SMSC in Basel in March 2021. Bearing in mind the challenging circumstances, the organising committee has set the goal to have an SMSC in some shape or form and include as many participants as the situation allows. While we will have to keep an eye on the dynamic of the pandemic and remain flexible to adapt our programme accordingly, we plan to carry out the SMSC: in person, online or, perhaps, a combination of the two.

A motivated group of 20 students is working hard on making the SMSC Basel 2021 a wonderful experience for you. The organising committee is divided into various groups focusing on logistics, programme, sponsoring, finances, PR as well as the development of a COVID-19 safety concept.

Stay tuned for more updates on our work! And stay healthy so we are able to welcome you in Basel.

Your Organizing Committee of the SMSC Basel 2021

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focus: Extreme Medicine

SMSC ZURICH 2020 Extremely different than expected Text: SMSC OC | University of Zurich and ETH Zurich

“What do you mean by ‘medicine extreme’?” This should have been the first sentence of the article which announced the SMSC Zurich 2020. Back in march, the OC of this year’s SMSC was all busy preparing an exciting and unforgettable SMSC – about 500 participants had been expected, it should have been the biggest SMSC in the history of this honourable event. However, only a few days after the registration, the OC had to face the fact that the SMSC would not take place in April 2020.

So, what is ‘medicine extreme’? Right now, you do not have to look for too long to find an answer: All around the globe we find ourselves in an extreme medical situation, summarized by one word: COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals, the economy and our everyday lives have been turned upside down.

However, these had not been our initial thoughts about our chosen topic. In our usual lectures everything revolves around the frequent or probable. We expect ideal conditions. ‘Medicine extreme’ deals with the rare, the unusual, the complicated and the extraordinary. Or short: the extreme.

While planning the programme it became clear how versatile this subject really is. ‘Medicine extreme’ sounds like action, adventure and excitement.

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Rescue missions in glaciers by helicopter, operations in war zones or even medicine in space. But 'medicine extreme' is not only found far away from our local hospital, in foreign countries or in the mountains. Also, in our everyday life as doctors we are confronted with challenges that will push us to our limits. ‘Medicine extreme’ can be extremely far in the war zones, but it can also be extremely close in the critical care unit at your hospital.

As all of this is extremely exciting and fascinating, we did not want to withhold any of these subjects from you. However, the current situation places us in an ethical and logistical dilemma as we do not want to risk the health of hundreds of medical students (and therefore also their patients). After many emotional discussions we decided to hold the first online SMSC the world has ever seen!

Quite a bit of planning and rearrangement was needed to create a new program which had to be compatible with the realization of an online SMSC. However, we are sure that we can bring the extreme medicine into your home office!

Therefore, be part of this year’s SMSC on the 31st of October to learn about crisis management, war medicine, alternative medicine and more!

See you soon and stay healthy!

Best!

SMSC OC

focus: Extreme Medicine

COVID-19 VS. THE SPANISH FLU Drawing parallels Text: Michael Burkhardt | University of Bern

“I had a little bird, Its name was Enza.

I opened the window, And in flew Enza.”

Nursery rhyme When the new SARS-COV2 emerged in China at the end of 2019, most of us did not take it all too seriously. Phrases like “Just another swine-/bird flu.” and “This will not target the Western world anyways.” were predominant in our discourse.

Even though the development of COVID-19 in the Asian regions was monitored, most of the public did not see it as a big threat, not even as something that could impact us.

Over half a year later, the virus proved us completely wrong. The world has struggled to react to the spread of a virus of which we thought little to nothing. Schools, universities, gatherings and life itself have changed and been restricted in order to stop or at least disrupt the growth of the virus. For all of us, this is a first. (Almost) no one alive today - at least in the Western part of the world - can remember a similar situation. Parallels are being drawn to the “last big pandemic” that shook the whole world: the Spanish flu. This article wants to show similarities and differences when comparing the current situation with the pandemic from over a century ago. But let us start at the beginning:

The year is 1918. The world stands at the end of the first world war, also dubbed “the Great War” or “la Grande Guerre”, it being one of the first armed conflicts of this magnitude. Today it is theorized, that the first emergence of the A/H1N1-strain of the influenza virus was overshadowed by the massive death tolls during the last year of WWI. Thousands of soldiers dying every day on the front and in the trenches did not allow for a lot of differentiation concerning the causes of death.

Who could have guessed that this virus would kill more people (20 - 100 million people) than “la Grande Guerre” (17 million people). It has to be noted, that the world population at this time was at approximately 1.8 billion.

The spreading of A/H1N1: Looking at the data retrospectively, it can be concluded that the first wave was by far not the most lethal one. In spring of 1918 the lethality of the virus - maybe overshadowed by the death tolls of the war - was not especially higher than in any other influenza-wave. This changed with the second - fall of 1918 - and the third wave - spring of 1919. When winter arrived in 1918, 20 million people had died, and public health services estimated that one of two people were infected.

Most of the deaths occurred in threshold and third world countries (e.g. India with 17-20 million deaths), while first world countries like the US and the German Empire suffered losses around the 500’000 mark.

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Comparing aspects of SARS-CoV-2 and A/H1N11: SARS-CoV-2 • Patients over 65 years of • age • Pregnant women • • Patients with a history of certain chronic illnesses, • namely: Patients at high risk for • Chronic heart disease complications • Chronic pulmonary disease • High blood pressure • Diabetes • Immunosuppression • Morbid obesity Reproduction number Death toll Confirmed infections

2-3.3 >1‘080‘000 >37‘000‘000

A/H1N1 Patients aged 25-29 years at the start of the pandemic Pre-pandemic hospitalizations for a chronic condition Large max. chest circumference (over 90 cm)

2-3 Estimated 20-50 million App. 500 million

1 This list is neither complete, nor final, it just serves to illustrate certain key differences between the two illnesses. Since the current situation does not allow for final numbers in the case of SARS-CoV-2, the official counts from the BAG/OFSP mid-October were used here.

What to take away from this article We want this pandemic to be over. We want to be able to go out, socialize, work and just overall, get our pre-2020 lives back. This much is clear for everyone. But in extraordinary situations like the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic – as well as the Spanish flu pandemic – the reactions and actions that are needed are far more important than just our personal wishes. One good example for this is the obligation to wear masks in San Francisco.

Around the time of the Spanish flu – as well as today –, masks became one of the most used ways to combat the spread of the disease. Nonwearing of a mask during this time was fined with 5-10 US-Dollars (taking inflation into account this would amount to approximately 75-150 USDollars in 2020). In reaction to this compulsory, a movement emerged in San Francisco, calling itself the “Anti-Mask-League”, made up of people from all social strata and including health officials.

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Another example of this can be seen, when looking at the aftermath of the WWI-Celebration parade – a paradox in itself – in Philadelphia on September 28, 1918 . 72 hours after this parade, no more hospitals beds were available in the 31 institutions of the city. In the weeks to come, the death count would rise accordingly.

We all need a social environment in order to feel complete, not to mention for our mental – and in consequence physical – health. This is just a little reminder to re-sensitize ourselves to the current situation. Be vigilant, take the situation seriously, stick to the recommended measures and most of all, think of everyone that could be at risk.

This is not to say that all of you should cower in a prepper basement and await the impending doom, on the contrary.

Source: Amboss.de

Sources (on the 13.10.2020) • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4181481/ • https://geschichte.redcross.ch/ereignisse/ereignis/der-kampf-gegen-die-spanische-grippe.html • https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/29/coronavirus-pandemic-1918-protests-california • https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/de/home/krankheiten/ausbrueche-epidemien-pandemien/aktuelle-ausbrueche-epidemien/novel-cov.html

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DIE PANDEMIE AUS DER SICHT ZWEIER PFLEGEFACHPERSONEN Text: Michael Burkhardt | Universität Bern Wie habt ihr die Pandemie aus Sicht einer dipl.

Pflegefachperson erlebt (Spital und privates Umfeld?)

Als Pflegefachpersonen waren wir anfangs sehr gespannt auf die Entwicklung. In unserem Spital wurden schnell Massnahmen ergriffen, indem zum Beispiel interdisziplinäre und weitläufige Taskforces gegründet wurden.

Der Informationsfluss war sehr gut, ebenso die Zusammenarbeit mit der Intensivstation.

Da wir beide noch als Anästhesieexpertinnen ausgebildet werden, waren wir selbstverständlich auch verunsichert betreffend Weiterführung unserer Ausbildung. Wir bekamen jedoch beide eine Zusatzschulung, um auf der Intensivstation aushelfen zu können, sollte es nötig werden.

Dort wurden wir auch mit den schwierigsten Verläufen konfrontiert und haben die maximalen Komplikationen gesehen. Selbstverständlich wurden die Hygienemassnahmen gut eingehalten, es war aber sehr ungewohnt für uns, mit einer solchen Situation umzugehen.

Unsicher gefühlt haben wir uns aber nie. Im privaten Umfeld wurden wir über Nacht zu der Informationsquelle schlechthin. Alle die wussten, dass wir in der Pflege arbeiten und so aus erster Hand die Konsequenzen gesehen hatten, kamen auf uns zu und wollten Informationen haben oder Diskussionen führen – unter denen auch oft Gespräche à la «ist ja nur eine Grippe» und «ist ja nicht so schlimm» waren.

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Es gab aber auch viele Menschen in unserem Umfeld, die uns helfen wollten, indem sie uns anboten, für uns einzukaufen, uns Essen vor die Türe stellten und uns so die 12-StundenSchichten etwas erträglicher machten. Diese Anerkennung war sehr schön mitzuerleben, hielt aber nicht lange an.

Welche Unterschiede seht ihr zum normalen Spitalbetrieb?

Als klar war, dass Schweiz, insbesondere das Tessin, auch betroffen sein wird, wurden alle Register gezogen und Notfallpläne in Kraft gesetzt. Das elektive OP-Programm wurde gestrichen, und es wurden nur noch Notfalloperationen durchgeführt. Dies räumte bei der Anästhesie riesige Ressourcen frei, wie beispielsweise die Beatmungsgeräte, die nun vermehrt auf der Intensivstation hätten genutzt werden können. Da die Anästhesie diese Geräte auch bedienen kann, wurden wir – wie bereits oben erwähnt – schnell umgeschult, damit wir auch auf der Intensivstation helfen konnten. Es muss aber gesagt werden, dass es im bei uns noch nie so ruhig war wie zu dieser Zeit und so kam es beispielsweise auch zu Überbesetzungen der Schichten. Das ganze Spital war in höchster Alarmbereitschaft und bereit, mit dem Schlimmsten umzugehen, was aber auch zu Unzufriedenheiten geführt hat.

focus: Extreme Medicine

Zusammengefasst war es ein absoluter Ausnahmezustand. Einige Monate nach dem Lockdown, als klar wurde, dass die riesige Welle so in Bern nicht stattfinden würde, ging es wieder zur ursprünglichen Situation über.

Was stört euch am meisten an der aktuellen Situation?

Personen die sich über die Empfehlungen von Bund und Gesundheitsfachpersonal stellen, Stichwort Freiheitseinschränkung durch Maskenpflicht. Etwas anderes was uns stört ist, dass beispielsweise die Swiss und das Militär Beträge in Milliardenhöhe zugesprochen bekommen, aber im Gesundheitswesen weiterhin gespart wird, obwohl auch hier eine grosse Systemrelevanz vorliegt. Es ist schön, dass Beifall geklatscht und auf den Rücken geklopft wird, dies geht aber leider schnell wieder vergessen und ändert nichts an der Grundsituation.

Was hat die Schweizer Gesundheitspolitik eures Erachtens nach gut gemeistert? Wo hätte sie besser oder anders reagieren können?

Unserer Meinung nach hat die Regierung während der bisherigen Corona-Zeit sehr gut gehandelt. Auch wenn die Massnahmen etwas spät ergriffen wurden, wurden sie notwendigerweise genutzt als es nötig war.

Verwirrend fanden wir hier die anfänglichen Kommunikationsprobleme mit der Effektivität und Nutzung der Maskenpflicht und -empfehlung.

Es hätte auch bei der Aufklärung der Bevölkerung mehr gemacht werden können, sodass nicht nur Informationen über das beste Verhalten, sondern auch über die Krankheit selbst - im Rahmen des Möglichen - vermittelt werden (Bsp.: was macht dieses Virus; Unterschiede zu einer normalen Grippe, etc.). Alles in allem können wir aber sagen, dass wir mit dem Umgang der Situation von Regierungsseiten zufrieden sind.

Wie seht ihr Pandemiesituation?

die

Zukunft

der

Das ist schwierig einzuschätzen. Die Leute haben vielleicht gelernt, damit zu leben und umzugehen.

Es wird aber sicher noch länger ein Thema sein (wie z.B. Maskenpflicht im öffentlichen Raum).

Problematisch könnte die Winterzeit werden, in der die Leute ja auch normale Grippen und Erkältungen haben und wie damit umgegangen werden muss (massive Testzunahme). Dies wird auch im Spital selbst weiterhin problematisch sein, da ja jede Person mit Symptomen isoliert werden muss, was logistisch, personell, finanzund nicht zuletzt materialtechnisch extreme Zusatzbelastungen darstellt.

Tipps für angehende Ärzte/Ärztinnen, die sich mit einer solchen Situation konfrontiert sehen?

Auch wenn es vielleicht trivial klingen mag: Kennt die Hygienekonzepte der jeweiligen Einrichtungen und setzt diese auch konsequent um. Dies zum Schutz von Patienten und Patientinnen, euch selbst und eurem Umfeld, aber auch zur Reduktion von Materialverbrauch.

Das Gespräch führte Michael Burkhardt mit Lynn (rechts) und Amanda Christoph (links) (dipl. Pflegefachpersonen i. W. zu Anästhesiepflegeexpertinnen)

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focus: Extreme Medicine

SWIMSA’S ACTIONS Lessons for the future Text: Malika Sachdeva (COVID-19 Coordinator) | University of Geneva Ariane Pauli (Vice-President for Communication) | University of Lausanne

It has now almost been 10 months since the first COVID-19 cases were declared.

From initial oblivion and confusion, to understanding the reality of the crisis and urgently acting upon it, this past year has been arduous and replete with tremendous changes, uncertainty, and grief. We have been overwhelmed with (mis)information and anxiety, to a point that a lot of us have faced a crisis fatigue, or if not, were at the verge of one. The situation has undoubtedly been evolving and federal and cantonal guidelines are constantly adapting to face the situation.

As soon as COVID-19 started to become a nationwide debate, swimsa started to plan actions, helped allocate healthcare students to hospitals and other institutions in need, represented the voice of Swiss medical students in education and made sure they got the resources they need. Students all over Switzerland wanted to help in the crisis and swimsa wanted to give them the opportunity to engage in helping and exchanging ideas, coming up with new and innovative solutions. swimsa created its own COVID-19 taskforce with the goal of providing scientific and other useful information during this healthcare crisis.

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Scientific research developed at unprecedented speeds; just a few days after the SARS-CoV-2 virus was isolated, the genome of the virus was sequenced and published on a public repository.

Since then, thousands of scientific papers have been published on the pathogenesis, epidemiology and treatment of the virus. Several prospective vaccines are now at their final stage of trials and the effectiveness of different treatment options is better understood. As a result, we are now clearly better equipped to fight the virus than we were back in March.

Normalcy however has not entirely returned.

Instead, we are learning how to better co-exist with the virus. Our facemasks are now usually on, hands sanitised, travels restricted, and exchanges limited. The total number of cases has been on the rise in Switzerland with over 1’000 cases being reported daily, while the death toll remains constant. In Europe, some countries like Albania and Czech Republic are facing a second wave and a resurgence in cases, higher than those recorded earlier in the year. As a result, targeted lockdowns are being put in specific places to restrict the movement of people.

focus: Extreme Medicine

Though the death toll has so far been much lower than in April, the World Health Organisation recently alarmed that this is likely to increase in the upcoming winter months. Nonetheless an increase in testing capacity is likely to have contributed to this surge in infections, it is also due to a relaxation in preventive measures as schools reopended and our gatherings have increased.

India, for example, currently has one of the highest case totals in the world despite an early draconian lockdown. A mass internal migration ensued shortly after, exacerbating the situation and months after when the cases started to peak, lockdown measures were relaxed to reopen the economy.

Source: https://ncs-tf.ch/en/situation-report

An analysis by the Swiss National COVID-19 Taskforce demonstrated that the estimated effective reproductive number1 remained between 1.05 and 1.22 in early September, after being corrected for the increase in testing. While this figure is much below the earlier peaks of 1.41.9, it is still a concerning statistic as it represents an exponential increase in new cases.

Globally, there are now more than 39 million confirmed cases and over 1 million deaths. The actual numbers, however, are thought to be much higher.

1 The effective reproductive number, Re, quantifies the average number of infections caused by an infected individual

Now with increased mobility and lack of adherence to preventive measures, the infection numbers are soaring, threatening to further destabilize the already precarious healthcare system.

Thailand, on the other hand, was the first country outside of China to record a COVID-19 case. 10 days before it detected the first case, the country had already activated its emergency operations.

As a nation that has faced health crises in the past, it learnt several lessons and invested in a robust public healthcare system, making it more adept at responding quickly to the pandemic.

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focus: Extreme Medicine

A large part of the nation’s relatively successful response can be attributed to the over 1 million ‘village health volunteers’ who with their doorto-door visits monitor the health of residents and promote good public health practices.

While the prefix ‘pan’ in ‘pandemic’ traditionally refers to its geographically widespread nature, it could as well refer to its widespread impact on every aspect of society. What started off as a health crisis, has now quickly translated into an economic and political crisis as well.

Parallel to this pandemic, an ‘infodemic’ equally exacerbated the situation, as conspiracy theories and misinformation spread. An MIT study has shown that fake news travel six times faster than the truth. When the scales are tipped to such an extent, it is inevitable that there is a flood of misinformation surrounding the pandemic.

It therefore becomes imperative to critically think and understand how to discern accurate information for ourselves.

As the ‘crisis fatigue’ spreads, we are left to question when this pandemic will finally be over. One way would be for the virus to be completely eradicated worldwide, something which is nearly impossible given its widespread nature. Another way would be to build sufficient immunity in populations, either by an infection or vaccination. According to the World Health Organisation, 26 prospective COVID-19 vaccines are now under human trials, 15 in Phase II and 11 in Phase III. While the pre-clinical phase tests the efficacy and toxicity in non-human models, phase I researches the safety and optimal dose in a small group of healthy volunteers. Then, phase II tests the efficacy and phase III its effectiveness.

Finally, phase IV monitors its long-term effects post its approval.

Normally, vaccines take more than 10 years to fully develop, and so it is indeed remarkable that these prospective vaccines have been able to conduct human trials as rapidly.

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While the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine is becoming more promising, it is also important to remind ourselves that the simple existence of an effective vaccine does not and will not end the pandemic. A global vaccine distribution plan needs to be agreed on, production expanded and an infrastructure to distribute such needs to be developed. A modelling study published in a report by the Gates Foundation recently showed that an equitable vaccine distribution to all countries instead of one solely for higherincome countries will avert almost twice the number of deaths related to COVID-19. Political will and global solidarity therefore are crucial to ensure that this equity is achieved. After all, it is indeed true that ‘no one is safe until we are all safe’ from the virus.

As a society, while we have made some incredible advancements in the field of medical sciences and technology, this pandemic is a reminder of just how vulnerable we are to disease. The potential for diseases to spread is rising, partly due to an increase in globalisation and urbanisation that allows diseases to quickly spread around the world. Additionally, the climate crisis has heightened the risk of disease outbreaks as increased human-to-human and animal-to-human contact have allowed zoonotic diseases to further spread. Environmental and human health are indeed very closely interlinked as this pandemic has shown us.

As healthcare students and future healthcare workers, it is very likely that we will be faced with other epidemics, which begets the question; how can we mitigate this? In the past, disasters have often paved a way for paradigm shifts; we need to work towards a better world and strive for a green and healthy recovery. By investing more strongly in the healthcare systems of tomorrow, we need to make them more resilient and responsive to crises. More importantly, we need to ensure that if and when something of this nature arrives again, we are more than capable to predict, prevent and tackle it.

focus: Extreme Medicine

References: •

https://w w w.economist.com/science -and-technology/2020/05/07/scientific-re search-on-the-coronavirus-is-being-released-in-a-torrent

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https://www.gatesfoundation.org/goalkeepers/report/2020-report/?utm_source=MG&utm_ medium=TW&utm_campaign=GK20&utm_term=HP&utm_content=LK#GlobalPerspective

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https://www.economist.com/international/2020/09/12/the-world-needs-a-better-world-health-organisation

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https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/11/we-re-going-to-have-to-learn-to-live-with-virus-sayseu-health-boss?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1599838836

•

https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/15/is-europe-having-a-covid-19-second-wave-countryby-country-breakdown

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https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/15/is-europe-having-a-covid-19-second-wave-countryby-country-breakdown

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https://www.thelocal.ch/20200915/coronavirus-switzerland-now-officially-a-high-risk-area

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-09-08/covid-coronavirus-how-do-pandemics-endand-how-will-this-one-end/12596954

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https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/5-reasons-why-pandemics-like-covid-19-are-becoming-more-likely

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02278-5

•

https://ncs-tf.ch/en/situation-report

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54176375

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https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/08/1069191

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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/vaccine-development-barriers-coronavirus/

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https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker

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focus: Extreme Medicine

Seit Beginn der Pandemie sammelte die swimsa anonyme Statements und Meinungen von Medizinstudierenden aus der ganzen Schweiz zu ihrer Zeit während des Lockdowns.

Hier eine Auswahl: Depuis le début de la pandemie la swimsa a recolté des opinions anonymes d’étudiant·e·s en médecine de toute la Suisse à l’heure du confinement.

En voici quelques extraits: The lockdown was a very difficult time for me, personally. Not being able to attend the lectures physically, not to mention not seeing my friends from the university challenged me.

Luckily, my university provided very good support by podcasts, even though it was very strange to have all the information come to me online.

As someone who is used to following the lectures via podcasts, this lockdown was not a big change for me, at least not concerning my way of studying. I have to say though, that the restrictions placed upon everyone were sometimes hard to bear. For instance, visiting my grandparents and my parents - one of which is a patient at risk - was rendered almost impossible. This was very difficult.

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focus: Extreme Medicine

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR LOCKDOWN Le confinement à été une période très particulière. L’université s’est bien s’adaptée à la situation en proposant plus de cours en ligne.

Cet enseignement à distance m’a permis de rentrer chez moi et de passer du temps en famille. Le point négatif est que je n’ai plus pu voir mes amies.

Même si ça peut paraître étrange, j’ai une expérience assez positive du confinement; ça m’a permis de me couper du monde extérieur et de concentrer toute mon énergie sur moi. Ça m’a permis de me rendre compte de beaucoup de choses tout en me donnant le temps de prendre de nouvelles habitudes. On a eu beaucoup de chance car l’université a rapidement mis en place de nouvelles plateformes afin qu’on puisse bénéficier de cours de qualité en ligne.

Als der Lockdown angekündigt wurde, hatte ich zum ersten Mal einen Moment der Angst, dass uns - auch hier in der Schweiz - gewisse Dinge fehlen könnten. Obwohl von Seiten der Behörden immer und immer wieder betont wurde, dass es zu keinem Mangel kommen würde, muss auch ich zugeben, dass ich nun schlichtweg zu viel WC-Papier Zuhause habe.

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MEDISERVICE? INTERESSIERT MICH NICHT Text: Marc Schällebaum | Geschäftsführer MEDISERVICE VSAO-ASMAC MEDISERVICE VSAO-ASMAC? Sind das nicht die mit den Versicherungen und den Krankenkassen? Das interessiert mich nicht. Ich wohne noch zuhause. Meine Eltern bezahlen das alles, solange ich noch studiere.

Sollten Sie so oder ähnlich denken, verstehen wir Sie. Versicherungen, Krankenkassen und ähnliches sind etwa so verführerisch wie Gebrauchsanweisungen für Staubsauger. Dennoch lohnt es sich auch für Studierende, MEDISERVICE etwas besser kennenzulernen. Die Dienstleistungsorganisation soll ihren Mitgliedern in allen Lebensphasen vor allem in Versicherungsfragen zur Seite stehen. Daneben bietet MEDIESERVICE eine weite Palette von andern Dienstleistungen an. Eine davon, das VSAO-Journal, haben Sie vielleicht schon in den Händen gehalten.

Sie wohnen noch zuhause, ziehen aber bald aus? Ihre Eltern zahlen noch bis zum Ende des Studiums Ihre Krankenkasse, doch der Studienabschluss rückt näher? Höchste Zeit sich mit den leidigen Versicherungsfragen auseinanderzusetzen. Und höchste Zeit für MEDISERVICE. Das auf der Homepage von MEDISERVICE aufgeschaltete Lebensphasenmodell informiert Sie bei jeder privaten und/oder beruflichen Änderung, worauf Sie versicherungstechnisch achten müssen.

Dank unseren Kollektivverträgen können wir Ihnen vorteilhafte Angebote bei verschiedenen Krankenkassen und weiteren Versicherungen (Haftpflicht, Mobiliar, Rechtsschutz, Fahrzeug etc.) unterbreiten. Da wir einzig unseren Mitgliedern verpflichtet sind, können wir Sie unabhängig beraten und die für Sie beste Lösung suchen.

Als Dienstleistungsorganisation für Ärztinnen und Ärzte (angestellte und selbstständige) sowie Medizinstudierende, können wir das von uns erwirtschaftete Geld in verschiedenste Projekte zugunsten von VSAO und swimsa einfliessen lassen.

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Als Platinsponsor unterstützen wir die swimsa in diversen Bereichen und sind immer offen für neue Ideen, die wir zusammen umsetzen können. Gemeinsam mit dem VSAO organisieren wir alljährlich den Laufbahn-Kongress MEDIfuture, der sich insbesondere an angehende und junge Ärztinnen und Ärzte richtet.

Unsere Online-Stellenvermittlungsportal www.jobmed.ch wird Ihnen vielleicht in Zukunft von Nutzen sein, wenn Sie eine Weiterbildungsstelle suchen.

Auch auf Ihrem weiteren Berufsweg, z.B. beim Schritt in die Selbstständigkeit bis hin zur Pensionierung steht Ihnen MEDIESERVICE dereinst voraussichtlich wieder zur Seite.

Sie sehen: Dienstleistungen in allen Lebensphasen.

Von daher lohnt es sich wirklich, uns besser kennenzulernen. Als Medizinstudierende können Sie das übrigens ganz einfach: Werden Sie kostenlos Mitglied bei VSAO und bei MEDISERVICE und profitieren Sie von allen unseren Angeboten. Wir freuen uns darauf, Sie besser kennenzulernen!

Kontaktieren Sie uns unter: MEDISERVICE VSAO-ASMAC Bollwerk 10 Postfach 3001 Bern Telefon 031 350 44 22 info@mediservice-vsao.ch Alle MEDISERVICE-Dienstleistungen online: www.mediservice-vsao.ch

Grâce à nos contrats collectifs, nous pouvons vous proposer des offres intéressantes auprès de diverses caisses-maladie et autres assurances (responsabilité civile, ménage, protection juridique, véhicule, etc.). Comme notre engagement est réservé à nos membres, nous vous conseillons en toute indépendance et cherchons la meilleure solution pour vous.

MEDISERVICE? CELA ME N’INTERESSE PAS Marc Marc Schällebaum | Directeur MEDISERVICE VSAO-ASMAC MEDISERVICE VSAO-ASMAC? Ce ne sont pas ceux des assurances et des caisses-maladie? Cela ne m’intéresse pas.

J’habite encore chez mes parents. Tant que je suis aux études, ils paient tout.

Si telle est votre attitude, nous vous comprenons. Les assurances, les caisses-maladie et ce genre de choses sont aussi attrayantes que des modes d’emploi d’aspirateurs.

Pourtant, même pour les étudiants, il vaut la peine de s’intéresser d’un peu plus près à MEDISERVICE. L’organisation de services accompagne ses membres dans toutes les phases de vie, notamment pour les questions d’assurance.

En plus de cela, MEDISERVICE propose une large palette d’autres services. Vous avez peut-être déjà tenu entre vos mains l’une de nos offres, le Journal ASMAC? Vous habitez encore chez vos parents, mais allez bientôt quitter le domicile familial? Vos parents paient encore votre caisse-maladie jusqu’à la fin de vos études, mais la fin de celles-ci approche? Il est donc temps de se pencher sur les désagréables questions d’assurance et de s’intéresser à MEDISERVICE. Le modèle des phases de vie présenté sur le site web de MEDISERVICE vous informe sur les points à observer en matière d’assurance lors de chaque changement de nature privée et/ou professionnelle.

En tant qu’organisation de services pour les médecins (employés et indépendants) et les étudiants en médecine, nous pouvons investir les recettes générées dans différents projets en faveur de l’ASMAC et de la swimsa. En tant que sponsor platine, nous soutenons la swimsa dans différents domaines et sommes toujours ouverts aux nouvelles idées que nous pouvons mettre en œuvre ensemble. En collaboration avec l’ASMAC, nous organisons chaque année le congrès de carrière MEDIfuture qui s’adresse notamment aux futurs et jeunes médecins.

Notre plate-forme de l’emploi en ligne www.jobmed.ch vous sera peut-être utile à l’avenir lorsque vous serez à la recherche d’un poste de formation postgraduée.

Pour la suite de votre parcours aussi, p. ex. lors de l’ouverture de votre propre cabinet et jusqu’à la retraite, MEDISERVICE sera probablement à nouveau à vos côtés. Vous voyez, ce sont des services pour toutes les étapes de vie.

Il vaut donc vraiment la peine de mieux nous connaître. En tant qu’étudiant en médecine, vous le pouvez très facilement: adhérez gratuitement à l’ASMAC et à MEDISERVICE et profitez de toutes nos offres. Nous nous réjouissons de faire votre connaissance!

Contactez-nous à : MEDISERVICE VSAO-ASMAC Bollwerk 10 Case postale 3001 Berne Téléphone 031 350 44 22 info@mediservice-vsao.ch Toutes les prestations de MEDISERVICE en ligne : www.mediservice-asmac.ch

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EDUCATION

Die Ausbildungskommission ist das demokratische Organ der swimsa, welches sich mit allen Fragen beschäftigt, welche die Ausbildung der Medizinstudierenden betreffen.

Sie sorgt dafür, dass die Meinung der Schweizer Medizinstudierenden in die relevanten Gremien getragen wird und ist bestrebt, die Interessen der Studierenden überall dort zu vertreten, wo dies wünschenswert ist.

Möchtest du mehr Informationen oder ebenfalls mitmachen? Kontaktiere unsere Vize-Präsitentin für Ausbildung (vpa@swimsa.ch) 28

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La Commission de la formation est l'organe de la swimsa qui s'occupe de toutes les questions concernant la formation des étudiant∙e∙s en médecine. Elle assure que l'opinion des étudiant∙e∙s en médecine dans les universités suisses est portée à la connaissance de tous les comités et s'efforce de représenter les intérêts des étudiant∙e∙s au mieux.

Tu as besoin de plus d’informations ou tu veux participer?

Alors contactes la vice-présidente pour l’éducation (vpa@swimsa.ch)

education

HEY, DO YOU KNOW PROFILES? Text: Florence Odermatt | University of Zurich Robin Walter | University of Bern Extremely confused Did you ever get greeted by your dean with the comment “So of course, everybody of you knows of PROFILES by now” and pretty much everyone was like “Uuhm, no?”. Well, while he is right that everybody should have heard at least once of PROFILES, knowing about it is something quite different.

PROFILES extremely short The easiest way to describe PROFILES is that this acronym is the actual name of a framework introduced in 2017 upon which our medical education should be built on - it defines the necessary content a medical student has to learn until the Federal Licensing Exam so that he or she may practice it at the first day of his or her residency.

But: at the same time PROFILES is much more!

Hence, we created flyers in English, German and French with the aim to show medical students about the new goals of their education. We tried to explain PROFILES as simple as possible so that each and every student knows its structure and its main targets. We can affirm that the document is in line with the plans of the universities since the document has been checked with responsible experts from each university.

But why bother anyway?

Medical education during extreme times The reason is relatively simple: The medical education from today greatly affects the health system of tomorrow. The better the education, the better the doctors. As education has been turned upside down on all levels across the world also medical education has been affected.

The daily business changed completely: No more front lectures but a sudden change to podcasts, no more direct interactions with professors and complete omission of the often already scarce contact with patients. While universities are changing their ways of teaching, it is even more important to keep a good eye on the quality of our education. But to advocate for something, one must be informed. In our case, we must know the content of our curriculum, learning objectives and teaching methods – and we will not get around knowing exactly what PROFILES is.

You may find the PROFILES guide in English, French and German with the following QR-codes:

German

French

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education

A LETTER TO THE BAG Text: Michael Burkhardt | University of Bern

On the 27th of May 2020, the Federal Council decided that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the normal procedure of the federal exam needed to be adapted to the current situation.

This meant mainly cancelling the so called OSCE (Objective structured clinical examination) and replacing it with a practical internship of six weeks, to be completed during the first year of their residency. During which time the clinical skills of the graduates – normally examined by the OSCE – should be tested.

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This decision was not well received, neither by the medical students, who saw their three-day long exam turning into a six weeklong internship, by the physicians, fearing a further increase in their workload due to the additional task of evaluating the graduates nor by the deans and the exam commission. Further reasons for discussion and confusion were: The exclusion of the students in the process – A national survey, conducted by the 6th years’ representatives with the support of swimsa and sent to the BAG/OFSP on the 8th of May, yielded no result.

education

The ambiguity of the framework conditions – e.g. the rights and obligations of the graduates during their internship.

As one reaction to this decision, vsao/asmac, SIWF/ISFM and swimsa sent a letter to the BAG/OFSP, voicing their respective questions and concerns sparked by these changes. Even though the letter was received by the BAG/OFSP, the reaction from their part - sadly - did not yield any results.

Want to read the letter and the response?

Scan this QR Code:

Nevertheless, this action reflects swimsa’s intention: For us as an organisation, it is crucial that the negative effects of the decision taken can be kept to a minimum for the graduating students and that a seamless start into their careers can be guaranteed!

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GUTSCHEIN FÜR BIS ZU ZWEI JAHRE KOSTENFREIE BERATUNG

Sie machen Karriere, wir erledigen den Papierkram!

ACA ConDEM su I X lt

ACADEMIX Consult AG – die Berater rund um Steuern, Vorsorge und Versicherungen

BASEL I BERN I LUZERN I ST. GALLEN I ZÜRICH www.academix.ch 32

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EXKLUSIVER BERATUNGSGUTSCHEIN FÜR SIE ALS MITGLIED DER

Dieser Beratungsgutschein beinhaltet ab Zeitpunkt der Einlösung bis inklusive 31.12.2021 folgende Leistungen der ACADEMIX Consult AG:

Individuelle Betreuung und Beratung durch Ihren persönlichen Finanzplanungsexperten

Proaktive Steuerplanung und Erstellen der Steuerdeklaration

inklusive allfälliger Verhandlungen mit den Steuerbehörden

Konzeption und Umsetzung Ihrer individuellen Finanzplanungsstrategie

mit unabhängigen, massgeschneiderten Produktlösungen inklusive Budgetplanung, Absicherung, Vorsorge und Liquiditätsaufbau

Nutzen Sie als Mitglied der Swiss Medical Students’ Association die Vorzüge unserer Beratungsleistungen und Produktlösungen. Vereinbaren Sie gleich online Ihren persönlichen Termin.

Dieser Beratungsgutschein ist ab Einlösung gültig bis zum 31.12.2021 und nicht verrechenbar mit laufenden Mandatshonoraren der Kunden der ACADEMIX Consult AG. Teilnahmeberechtigt sind Sie exklusiv als Mitglied der Swiss Medical Students‘ Association (swimsa).

Pro Person ist nur ein Beratungsgutschein einlösbar. Barauszahlung ist nicht möglich. Beratungsgutscheine sind nicht kombinier- oder kumulierbar mit anderen Angeboten und/oder Beratungsgutscheinen.

Die ACADEMIX Consult AG ist Partner und offizielle Beratungsstelle von

Gold Partner der swimsa – Swiss Medical Students‘ Association

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EXCHANGES

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swimsa Exchanges bietet Medizinstudierenden die einmalige Möglichkeit, durch das weltweit grösste Austauschprogramm ein Praktikum im Ausland zu machen:

swimsa Exchanges est une opportunité unique pour tout∙e étudiant∙e en médecine de partir en stage à l’étranger grâce au plus grand program d’échange du monde:

SCOPE – Standing Committee on Professional Exchange, klinischer Austausch und SCORE – Standing Committee on Research Exchange, Forschungsaustausch IFMSA – International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations.

SCOPE – Standing Committee on Professional Exchange (échange clinique), SCORE – Standing Committee on Research Exchange (échange de recherche) IFMSA – International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations.

swimsa Exchanges unterstützt sowohl dich bei der Organisation eines klinischen Praktikums, bzw. der Arbeit in einem Forschungslabor, als auch die ausländischen Studierenden, welche in die Schweiz kommen.

swimsa Exchange est l’organe de la swimsa qui s’occupe d’organiser les stages cliniques et de recherche pour les étudiant·e·s suisses, ainsi que du monde entier désirant venir en Suisse.

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THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SWIMSA EXCHANGES Text: Stefan Leung | University of Zurich As you know COVID-19 hit everyone severely.

Unfortunately swimsa Exchanges is affected too.

When it started around the world back in February 2020, we as the national exchange team knew that this would affect us. But we did not know how. There was no guidance how to handle the whole exchanges program during a pandemic. We needed to set up many online meetings to create a guideline for our Local Exchange Officers but also for our outgoing students. On the one hand it broke our heart to cancel an exchange, on the other hand we needed to inform our students as soon as possible so they can find an alternative internship for their practical year.

Every National Member Organisation within exchanges handled the situation differently, therefore we needed to assess every single exchange individually.

In August 2020 when we usually have 20 incomings and around 40 outgoing students, we got rewarded for our fight. We were able to host in total 3 students from Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia in our Local Committees Basel, Bern and Zurich. Additionally we were able to send one Swiss medical student to the Czech Republic.

This is just the beginning and we are hoping for better times. If you are interested in an exchange with swimsa, check out our homepage swimsa. ch/exchanges and apply for a leftover spot!

"An exchange is not just a month in a life, it's a life in a month."

Out of 145 outgoing students, we needed to cancel or postpone 124 contracts (and still counting). But nonetheless we tried our best and fought for every single exchange enthusiast. We received over 50 mails per week for the last few months and we tried to give an answer to questions that even the government can not give an answer to.

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EXPLORING THE CZECH REPUBLIC Neurology in Prague - SCOPE Report Text: Christina Rickli | University of Zurich

For my SCOPE exchange last august I chose the Czech Republic. It is my mother’s birth country and therefore I speak Czech well enough to express myself in an average everyday conversation. I wanted to learn more about the hospital work in the Czech Republic and at the same time improve my language skills. That was also one reason for choosing the department of neurology; I wanted to visit a field where I would get the opportunity to talk to patients and do some basic examinations. Before the exchange started, I bought some gifts from Switzerland, some chocolate and swiss army knives, and watched some Czech TV series to be prepared language wise. I bought a neurology book in order to arrive with some basic neurology knowledge and to be able to ask some questions. I arrived in Prague at the students’ dormitory on Sunday evening and met my contact person who helped me to find my room and get my public transport ticket.

Students under the age of 26 can get a monthly pass for Public Transport for only 10 euros. I used subway, bus and tram regularly especially because of the location of the dormitory rather on the outskirts of Prague.

Welcome Food and Drinks in Prague

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We exchange students, Maciej from Poland, Giedre from Lithuania and Eszter as well as Antal from Hungary, shared two rooms, one sleeping room for the girls, one for the boys and a common bathroom connected by a corridor. It was unusual for me to share a room with two other persons for a whole month, but it certainly helped to get to know each other faster. I deeply enjoyed the contact to the other exchange students, we organised two weekend trips together and did a lot of sightseeing in Prague and still I had a lot of the time for myself.

The first weekend we stayed in Prague, we joined a free walking tour and we met Czech medical students from the local committee for dinner and beer, also we received 2000 Czech crowns as pocket money then. On Sunday, I went to Pilsen, which is a city I definitely recommend visiting. It has a beautiful and lively little old town and the brewery tour was very interesting.

The next weekend we went to Karlovy Vary, a city in the north-west of Czech Republic, famous for its hot springs. Through the old town runs a river and alongside there are many majestic houses, restaurants and hot springs. We visited the Jan Becher Museum there and went to the Diana viewpoint, where we enjoyed the butterfly house.

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The last weekend we visited Česky Krumlov, a picturesque village in the south of Czech Republic. There we joined another free walking tour, again it was really interesting. Moreover, we went for river rafting there, which was rather floating down a river and drinking some cocktails from boat bars on the way, but still it was fun and super relaxed!

Cesky Krumlov

Regarding my practical exchange in the hospital I am very happy with my decision to see the neurology department. The exchange was well organized. I received a plan in the beginning of the month and was visiting all the different places within the neurology department, to be more exact the women’s and men’s wards, movement disorders office, multiple sclerosis centre, myasthenia gravis office, intensive care unit and the sleeping disorders laboratory. I got the impression that the health system and the standard in Czech hospitals do not differ much from the ones in Switzerland. They feature modern devices and the quality of treatments seems very high.

The health insurance is compulsory, but still according to some doctors the rate of uninsured people is still high and a problem they face dayto-day.

What I noticed is that the available space in the hospital is rather scarce. I spent the first two weeks in a quite narrow building with the women’s ward on the first floor and men’s ward on the second floor. In the rooms there is little space and the staircase is very steep and ends directly in the middle of a narrow corridor connecting the patient’s rooms. It seems to be a real problem, as my tutor told me that not too long ago one of the patients fell down those stairs and died of his injuries.

Also, the medical education system is not much different to the one in Switzerland. Speaking of cultural differences, it is not very easy for me to notice them as I am half Czech myself and they would not stand out to me so much. But what I noticed is that Czech people drink a lot more beer than I am used to.

After all I want to thank the IFMSA for making this exciting month possible. I arrived back home, and I will keep the memories of informative neurology mornings, cultural sightseeing afternoons and relaxed evenings with new friends.

View on Charles Bridge in Prague

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THE LAST EXCHANGE BEFORE THE OUTBREAK What’s “surgery” in Spanish?

Text: Giuseppe Loggia | University of Zurich I had the chance to go for an exchange in Chihuahua, Mexico. I chose this beautiful country because I wanted to work in a Latin American place where Spanish is the first language. Mexico with its clear Spanish, delicious food diversity and wonderful landscapes was therefore my option number one.

As I received the message that Chihuahua, located in the north of Mexico, was my destination I started to intensify my Spanish lessons and meetings with my tandem. I also had a nice conversation with the people of the local organization who could give me lots of advices what to bring and how to prepare. For example, I had to bring my own scrubs and white coat. Moreover, Chihuahua can be very cold but sometimes also the contrary and because of that summer and winter outfits had to fit both in my travel bag.

I had the big chance to be part of the general surgery team in a private hospital in the center of the city. I was very happy because in my practical year I haven't had the time to do it in Switzerland and with that I hoped to do it abroad. All the doctors were very kind and wanted to teach medical and also a lot of non-medical subjects.

I had the occasion to assist in surgeries and to close the skin several times.

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I think I had one of the best host families an exchange student can imagine. From the first minute on, I felt as a real family member. My host sister would bring me almost every morning to the hospital, because the public transportation is not very extended, and she or another family member would cook a Mexican specialty I had to try or bring me to a local restaurant.

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The food was just amazing, even in the hospital.

The house was clean and I had a room for myself with a private bathroom. Although everyone in Chihuahua said that I had to watch out, I felt way safer than in other south American countries I have been to before. For instance, I was able to walk home by night without any fears. The family was also a huge support, when I had to organize the trips to the various hotspots of the region. For example, when we went to the desert of Samalayuca to sandboard on its dunes, which was a great action trip. The absolute highlight was undiscussed the train journey with "El Chepe" to the city of Creel where we discovered various canyons by bike.

Unfortunately, I had to interrupt my Mexicoexperience after two weeks and fly home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if this exchange had to end earlier than expected I will keep these memories with a big smile and come back to visit my Mexican family once things get better.

Thank you swimsa Exchanges for the organization and the great opportunity.

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OUR FIRST INCOMING STUDENT AFTER THE OUTBREAK Exploring the Inselspital Text: Alžbeta Krovová | Palacký University

Olomouc My internship with swimsa took place in August 2020. I was working for one month at the Neurology Department in the Inselspital in Bern and I honestly can say that I am going to miss the work. Although this might be the one and only time that I am saying it.

When I was preparing myself for this internship, I followed a simple rule of having the best knowledge of the spoken language. Even though I did not understand absolutely everything I aimed to be able to ask questions.

When I think about the actual work now, it really was an inspiring experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity. For me, as a student from the Czech Republic, it was just one month at the Department of Neurology but absolutely eye-opening. Since the first interview with my contact person, I have known that this was going to be way better organized than any of my previous internships. Everything was going exactly according to the plan since my arrival in Bern. This was really reassuring as everything was new around me.

Here I would just like to say thank you, to all professionals from swimsa for their precise work.

My first day at the hospital, everyone was right on time exactly as it was expected. The secretary gave each student a laptop with our name on it.

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This was unbelievable for me as a student from a country with a poorly financed health system. My laptop was the key for everything, from patient history and medication to the educational system, which on its own is exceptionally effective.

Thanks to this we were able to participate in the whole process. From the very first day of patients’ entrance until the day of their release.

Each student is assigned to one doctor, who is constantly giving you tasks and takes you along to every examination and every patient. Through all of this they still manage to find the time to explain to you everything you need to know.

The medical staff at the department was extremely nice, calm and at the same time very professional. Everyone is really trying to help you adapt to the whole system in the fastest and easiest way possible.

I think that I was lucky with my Neurology Department, but at the same time I have no doubts that this is the case at almost every department here in Inselspital Bern. At the end, I want to say that from the first day I was sure about one thing: The educational process in Switzerland prepares students to become very capable doctors, because each student is able to learn at their own pace.

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Reviewed heisst neu Medicus!

Hast Du dich auch schon gefragt, wie Du nach abgeschlossenem Medizinstudium den passenden Job beim richtigen Arbeitgeber finden sollst? Medicus unterstützt dich beim Einstieg in die medizinische Arbeitswelt!

Die Jobangebote auf Medicus richten sich sowohl an Unterassistent*innen wie auch an Assistenz- und Fachärzt*innen. Die offenen Stellen werden täglich aktualisiert und können einfach nach Fachgebiet, Region und Karrierestufe gefiltert werden.

Mithilfe von Arbeitgeberbewertungen (Reviews) kannst Du dir frühzeitig ein Bild von Deiner potentiellen zukünftigen Arbeitgeberin machen oder Deine eigenen Erfahrungen mit anderen Unterassistent*innen und Ärzt*innen teilen. Dank Medicus findest Du die Stelle, die am Besten zu Dir passt und die nötige Unterstützung für einen reibungslosen Einstieg in Deine medizinische Karriere.

Mehr Infos auf medicus.ch

Reviewed s'appelle maintenant Medicus!

Tu t'es déjà demandé*e comment trouver le bon emploi avec le bon employeur après avoir terminé tes études de médecine? Medicus t'accompagne dans ton entrée dans le monde du travail médical!

Les offres d'emploi s'adressent aux médecins stagiaires ainsi qu'aux médecins assistant*es et spécialistes. De nouvelles annonces sont régulièrement placées sur le site et peuvent également être filtrées par domaine et par région souhaités.

Grâce aux évaluations partagées, vous pouvez vous faire une idée de votre futur employeur potentiel ou partager vos propres expérience avec d'autres (futur*e*s) médecins.

Avec Medicus, tu trouveras le poste qui te convient le mieux et le soutien dont tu as besoin pour un démarrage en douceur de ta carrière médicale.

Plus d’infomations sur medicus.ch

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EXCHANGE THE WORLD Your turn! A step-by-step guide Text: Felice Hess | University of Bern

Cédric Follonier | University of Geneva

Each year, more than 15’000 medical students from more than 90 countries embark on a journey to explore health care delivery and health systems in different cultural and social settings.

The aim of the exchange program is to develop cultural sensitivity and skills in research amongst future health professionals intent on shaping the world of science in the upcoming future.

The Swiss Medical Students’ Association offers two types of exchanges through the exchange program of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Association (IFMSA): “professional” and “research” exchanges. All exchanges last four weeks, some research exchanges can be prolonged to 8 weeks. The participants are offered a spot in the department or the research project of their choice, as well as accommodation and mostly a social program.

Professional exchange is a full educational program offering clerkships abroad to future physicians. It gives you the possibility to integrate into a new culture and at the same time practice the skills learned on the benches of the university. Swiss students can apply for it in their second year and go abroad after they finished their 3rd year.

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Research exchange offers you the opportunity to get a glimpse into the world of research and deepen your knowledge in the specific area of your research interest while integrating into a lab or clinical research project abroad. Swiss medical or biomedical students can apply for it in their first year of studies.

What it costs and what is included in an exchange There are two types of exchanges, bilateral and unilateral, which involve different costs. The bilateral exchange is the typical example of exchange: a Swiss student has the opportunity to go to one country and this country has the opportunity to send a student to Switzerland.

In unilateral exchanges, no foreign students are welcomed back.

Participating in the exchange program costs between 350 for unilateral exchange and 560 CHF for bilateral exchanges with an additional country-specific fee in the host country.

However, you can receive a partial refund if you write a report at the end of the internship, if you volunteer in the exchanges program or if you travel by train or bus to your exchange.

Choosing a country within Europe and a green travel will be rewarded!

In return for this fee, a four-week internship is organized for you, you are provided with accommodation, one meal per working day and the opportunity to take part in a social program with other exchange students that will allow you to discover the wonders of your host country and its culture.

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Communication swimsa is part of the worldwide IFMSA exchange program with all its terms and conditions. To secure an efficient communication and reduce the volunteers’ workload, strict international Communication guidelines were implemented.

We are aware, that you are excited about your exchange and wish to get all possible information but please do not contact someone of your favourite country! swimsa’s LEO’s, NEO’s and NORE’s are happy to assist you and are in close contact with the officers worldwide.

How to apply Doesn’t it sound convincing? Well, we think so, too! We offer a step-by-step guide to register for your next exchange.

1. Choose your exchange Research exchange: registration from the first year on Professional exchange: registration from the second year on 2. Choose your three preferred countries amongst more than 65. You will find a complete list of participating countries on swimsa.ch/de/ exchanges/lander.

4. Pay the exchanges fee which will be used to organize the accomodation and meals.

5. Upload the necessary documents on the IFMSA’s website with the login you will receive from us and choose your favourite department and city of your assigned country.

6. Inform your NEO-out or NORE about your completed Application Form (AF).

Feeling cosy at home but want to know the world?

You can become an Contact Person (CP)!

Indeed, IFMSA’s huge exchange network is organized by local volunteer students. As a Contact Person, you will be the local “exchange buddy” of a student and will be organizing their internship and place to live. If possible, you will pick up the incoming at the train station, take them on a guided tour of your city and engage in other leisure activities. In this way, you can get a taste of the exchange experience in Switzerland and make friends worldwide.

Extra: You will be reimboursed 30.- if you help out according to the local officers’ (LEO’s) conditions!

3. Visit swimsa.ch/exchanges or exchange. ifmsa.org/exchange/scope/explore/exchangeconditions and read the conditions of your favourite countries and check if you meet the requirements. If so, fill out the registration form from March until 30th of June 2021.

If you have any question or would like to participate nationally or locally, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your national or local exchange teams. You will find further information on swimsa.ch/exchanges.

After completing these few steps, you are registered within swimsa as an outgoing.

Congratulations! The exchanges team will get in touch with the country of your choice and will possibly sign a contract during the IFMSA General Assembly in August. You will be informed if it is possible to participate in the program and in which country your exchange will take place by the end of September. Once you’ve been accepted, there are still a few steps left to register in your host country within the set deadlines.

INTERESTED? NOW IT’S YOUR TURN For a research exchange: from 1st year on For a professional exchange: from 3rd year on You can find more infos here: www.swimsa.ch/exchanges https://ifmsa.org/exchange-the-world/ swimsa

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INTERNATIONAL

Durch die Zugehörigkeit zur IFMSA bietet swimsa ihren Mitgliedern die Möglichkeit, an Kongressen teilzunehmen die Medizinstudierende aus aller Welt zusammenbringen.

Durch die Teilnahme an Schulungen wie auch europäischen oder globalen Kongressen, kannst du den Einflus von Medizinstudierende auf die öffentliche Gesundheit, den Austausch und die medizinische Ausbildung mitgestalten!

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Grâce à son affiliation à l’IFMSA, la swimsa offre l’opportunité à ses membres de prendre part à des congrès réunissant des étudiant·e·s en médecine du monde entier. En prenant part à une formation, à un congrès européen ou mondial, tu peux façonner l’impact que les étudiant·e·s en médecine ont sur la santé puique, les échanges et l’éducation médicale !

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IFSMA COVID-19 RESPONSE Reactions all over the world Text: Valeria Scheiwiller | Vice-President for Global Affairs

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic the daily business and projects of student organizations was put on hold and new challenges occurred. International and national work is hard in times of a pandemic: events such as the August General Assembly were moved online, education on sexual health for young adults had to be cancelled and the platforms to engage new students for projects became rare.

Nevertheless IFMSA and its national member organizations reacted fast with the effort of ‘flattening the curve’ and to work on their goals towards a global response to COVID-19: •

•

• •

To work on educating and empowering medical students to play an active role and address COVID-19 infection prevention and control on a local, national and global level.

Raise medical students’ awareness on the impact of the outbreak on Medical Education worldwide as well as alternative measures taken by medical schools during the outbreak.

Provide evidence-based knowledge and combat misinformation about the virus.

Assess other upcoming official IFMSA meetings based on the recommendations by relevant governments, ministers and institutions in order to decide to hold them, postpone them to a later date or cancel entirely while providing different methods to decision making and capacity building.

•

Monitor the situation and long-term effects of the outbreak to be prepared to continuously support and empower members to tackle the global health scene after the outbreak.

Sharing is caring IFMSA created a Resources Center which compiles available awareness and educational materials of different national organizations such as COVID-19 infection prevention and control guidelines, infographics in different languages, videos and online courses.

Global Activities All responses to the COVID-19 pandemic of the members of IFMSA have been collected in a map, which visualizes the response to the pandemic of medical students worldwide.

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Medical Education Global Tracker As countries across the globe went into quarantine, universities and medical schools have been highly affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. The pandemic has put medical students worldwide away from lectures and clinical training. IFMSA aimed to collect data from medical students worldwide to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education. One of the focus laid on Students’ education during and after the quarantine. For which a survey was conducted with in total 2761 medical schools from 103 countries evaluated.

• • •

• •

95% of the medical schools suspended their physical classes and lectures Only 40% of the medical schools moved to an online format 36% of the medical schools delivered clinical case discussions to replace their clinical courses 17% of the medical schools did not provide any replacement for clinical courses 32% of the medical schools delivered group teachings instead of clinical courses

How do medical students worldwide envision Medical Education beyond the Quarantine?

This pandemic has turned the world of medical education around, and has forced the system to adapt, innovate and deliver. As our previous discussion highlighted the strategies that have been adopted globally, we must not forget to address the efficacy, acceptability and sustainability of such learning solutions.

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The most pressing question is what happens when all of this is over? How sustainable is this adaption, can these solutions survive the test of time, how will they be accepted when “routine” life resumes?

Though the survey, it was possible to elicit the commonalities, while appreciating the diversity of the vision students have globally. The common end goal remains to be the same - to become good quality doctors, with adequate and appropriate training. Another commonality is that students globally want adequate clinical training and patient interaction before graduation.

Students however, face different challenges globally, which affect their approach towards their medical education. In some parts we have students wishing for an extended year, a repeated semester to ensure desired outcomes from the academic year while other students wishing for an accelerated graduation to be able to serve the communities quicker.

Conclusion A transformation of the medical education system has been long due, and there is no better time than now to strategize, innovate and work together to build a system that achieves a middle ground in terms of innovation and hands-on medical training, that not only helps us during, but also improves our training beyond the pandemic.

This article is from the IFMSA Report ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on Medical Education worldwide’

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NOW WHAT ABOUT STUDENTS IN SWITZERLAND? Text: Charlotte Kull | Vice-President for Medical Education

The COVID-19 situation has affected medical education in Switzerland harder than anything before.

Podcasts instead of front lectures, zoom meetings instead of group teaching and practical classes that have either been cancelled or done in a completely different way.

With so many changes occuring, it is important to draw lessons from our education as it looked like during the spring semester 2020. To do so, a nationwide survey was sent out at the beginning of the new semester covering the following topics: CURRICULUM parts and topics, that are still missing Online educational tools

COMMUNICATION flow of communication quantity of communication

EXAMS means of the exam

MENTAL HEALTH Availability of support

The answers will be analysed by the AK/CoFo and a report will be finalized. Stay tuned for this coming document!

If you are interested in this topic and would like to take part at improving our education - feel free to contact Charlotte via vpa@swimsa.ch

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A SPECIAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY Apparently, everything’s online now?

Text: Valeria Scheiwiller | Vice-President for Global Affairs

The executive board of the Swiss Medical Students’ Association (swimsa) assembled nine motivated medical students to be part of the online conference of medical students. As one of the founding members of IFMSA in 1951, swimsa has never missed an opportunity to actively shape the impact that medical students have in the world of public health, professional exchange and medical education, just to name a few.

Facing the global COVID-19 crisis this year’s General Assembly was held online on Zoom from the 16. July until 16. of August 2020. The plenary and standing committee sessions were held at different dates. Four delegates came together for the plenary sessions and stayed for one week together.

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For the Standing Committee Sessions the whole delegation of eight delegates met for the weekend to spend the sessions together in order to increase the team spirit.

We maintained highly constructive contact on an international level and got to give input in various topics. This report aims to give you an insight into the busy and amazing world that a General Assembly of the IFMSA, the world’s largest and oldest student organisation, is.

Yours sincerely Valeria Scheiwiller and Nadja Morello (Head of Delegation Team)

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The AM 2020 delegation

Universities: 9 delegates from: • 3 different universties • 4 different years • 5 standing committees 1 official statement about: • sponsorship proposals Next GA: 01. - 07.03.2021 in Ohrid, North Macedonia (if COVID-19 allows it)

Year of studies:

Want to know more about the IFSMA GA?

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What impressed you during this online General Assembly?

The delegates answered this question in the evaluation after the event.

•

I think online events are not such a bad idea.

It is a good way to facilitate short and loaded events with a bigger group of people. For example in SCORE regular online meetings with the LOREs would definitely serve as internal reinforcement.

•

•

•

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I also think that we have to do more get-toknow events before a GA to work on a perfect representation of the delegation.

The oGA proved that highly complex decision making can be done online, without compromising informed decision making.

After swimsa’s reduced DV/AD last spring it is important that swimsa members are awarded full decision making power again this term, no matter if we are able to meet in person or not.

•

In times where only few Exchanges are happening, time should be used to analyse data of the past exchanges to generate legitimation and improve the image for its stakeholders (Interessengruppen). This could definitely be implemented within swimsa with the data being used in reports.

I was very impressed with the number of activities NMOs have in place to directly educate students. E.g suture courses or mentoring/ coaching programs between older and younger students. I think especially the mentoring program for younger students is something that could be assessed in Switzerland too.

•

How different the participants were affected

by COVID-19 but none of them let themselves be held back from giving the fullest and being focused and interested.

•

I was impressed by the flexibility zoom was used for the entire GA with a range of other online platforms for voting.

Obstacles can be seen as a challenge. The COVID-19 epidemic changed all of our lives, many NMOs used this as an opportunity to be more active than ever before, moving capacity building to online and evaluating the core values of the organisation and writing policy papers on those values. swimsa as small NMO is very reliant on in person meetings and less accustomed to meet and discuss online.

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How was your experience?

The delegates of the oGA share their individual experience (as the online GA took place last semester, the delegates are currently in the next year): Nun ja – es war nicht dasselbe. Nur: Nichts ist dieses Jahr wirklich das selbe – weswegen es unter diesen Umständen das Beste war, was wir haben konnten! Und dies war wirklich beeindruckend: Nachdem in Rekordzeit eine online GA aus dem Datennetz gestampft wurde fehlte, gerade in der SCORA-Session, zwar der physische Kontakt und das erhoffte Gefühl des Wiedersehens. Aber sonst war alles da. Der Enthusiasmus. Der Spirit. Einige Länder schalten mitten in der Nacht zu.

Joël Perrin | Zurich, 5th year

Alles sendetet es ein Zeichen: Wir machen weiter. Als IFMSA, als SCORA. Weil auch und gerade während Corona häusliche Gewalt passiert, Social Media Körper- und Sexualvorstellungen prägt und ganzheitliche Sexualaufklärung (CSE) ein Muss ist.

Wir suchen uns neue Wege. Und wir werden sie begehen. So lange wie nötig.

Als ich mich für die Teilnahme am online August Meeting 2020 entschied, wusste ich nicht genau was mich erwarten würde.

Nun, nach fünf Nachmittagen zum Thema medizinische Ausbildung, kann ich getrost sagen, dass meine Erwartungen eindeutig übertroffen wurden. Als Delegierte im Standing Committee on Medical Education (SCOME) hat mich das weltweite Engagement für eine wirksamere und relevantere medizinische Bildung extrem beeindruckt. Zoom Calls mit mehr als 80 Delegierten aus allen Regionen der Welt, alle mit der Motivation die medizinische Ausbildung von morgen besser zu gestalten, hinterlassen einen bleibenden Eindruck.

In den kleinen Arbeitsgruppen zeigte sich diese Motivation besonders und einige Aspekte, die bearbeitet wurden, wie beispielsweise die soziale Verantwortung der Universitäten oder die Politik hinter der medizinischen Ausbildung werden mich das kommende Jahr sicherlich begleiten.

Charlotte Kull | Bern, 4th year

Herzlichen Dank an die ganze Delegation, die es trotz online GA schaffte gemeinsame (Tanz-)Moment zu erleben!

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Stefan Leung | Zurich, 5th year

The August Meeting is usually the last big meeting during a term in IFMSA. This means that you worked very closely with people from all over the world and during this General Assembly you get the chance to finally meet your friends again. For most people this means they will step back for others and hopefully leave a legacy. So the last session not only contained the new SCOPE Director speech but also all the goodbye speeches. It is the moment where you remember why you are doing all this work. The feeling of appreciation shared with members from all over the world is indescribable but you can feel it virtually.

No matter how many tears flood in this session, we all know it’s not a good-bye, it’s a see you again. Being a member of IFMSA is having a second family and a second home all over the world.

Getting wedding invitations, free tour guides or a free couch.

It’s a never ending journey and you never know when you will meet again. The impossible we do tomorrow. Miracles may take a little longer.

This year’s General Assembly (GA) was a very new experience.

I guess for all of us.

First we started with one Standing Committee session. In my case, we discussed the Regulation Change Proposals (RCPs) of the Standing Committee on Research Exchange (SCORE). This was for me basically the first time I met all the National Officers on Research Exchange (NORE). After this online session I was looking forward to my term as NORE. I got caught by their motivation and I was excited to be in contact with them for the upcoming exchange season.

We also ended the online GA with inspiring SCORE sessions. I got an insight in what and how I can organize events related to the Research Exchange within swimsa. What impressed me the most was interacting with all the highly motivated people from all over the world. Their ideas were simply overwhelming.

With the sessions being a platform of sharing ideas and experiences I could express my concerns and got inputs on how to implement my plans. This was a very new way to hold an IFMSA General Assembly. Although it was an exhausting and time consuming event, it was totally worth it and I recommend this international experience to everyone.

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Zuen Phai Nghiem | Basel, 4th year

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Usually after a GA delegates say they’ve made a month’s worth of memories within a week.

Moving the GA to online meant that this time, it really did last a whole month! As I am in my practical year, for me this meant spending evenings reading documents, watching live-streams while commuting in the train and even travelling through half of Switzerland after a night shift, to spend a day with the other swimsa delegates! Luckily I had some vacation days, so I spent a week in the Swiss mountains, eating well, sleeping lots and spending hours perfecting dance choreography, to entertain tired and dedicated medical students worldwide. All of this, because informed decision making is fundamental. Overall, yes, the experience was very different, however the end-result was the same: Being inspired by medical students both international and national, who have an incredible passion and drive to change the world.

Stephanie Hauser | Basel, 5th year

Kann eine online GA die gleichen Emotionen auslösen und Gedanken anregen wie dies an einem physischen Event der Fall ist?

Mit diesen und vielen weiteren Fragen startete ich Mitte Juli via Zoom in das online General Assembly. Innerhalb eines Monates arbeitete sich die IFMSA mit ihrem Team of Officials und ihren Mitglieder durch die wohl bisher längste GA. So dass wir am Ende der dreizehn Arbeitstage es geschafft haben über Statutenänderungen, Global Priorities, Task Force Reports und vieles weiteres abzustimmen. Dies dank der online Version mit der höchsten anwesenden Zahl von Mitgliederorganisationen seit Beginn der Aufzeichnungen. Am Ende darf die IFMSA stolz berichten nun über 140 Mitglieder zu zählen aus der ganzen Welt - so viele wie noch nie. Dieses Jahr war mit Sicherheit nichts Valeria Scheiwiller | Zurich, 2nd year so wie wir es uns erhofft haben, dennoch das Engagement für die Sache der jungen Medizinstudierenden ist unaufhaltsam.

Unglaublich, dass wir die Möglichkeit auch diesen Sommer bekommen haben uns auszutauschen, uns nahe zu fühlen ohne auch nur einen Kilometer reisen zu müssen.

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KLIMAWANDEL: JETZT FLAGGE ZEIGEN! Die Klimaveränderung ist aktuell die grösste gesundheitliche Bedrohung. Ärztinnen und Ärzte sind besonders gefordert, sich für den Schutz und die Förderung der Gesundheit einzusetzen. swimsa und vsao haben erreicht, dass die FMH Position bezieht und eine Strategie entwickelt.

Text: Marcel Marti | Leiter Politik und Kommunikation/stv. Geschäftsführer vsao Anfang Jahr ist die swimsa an den vsao gelangt, um die Haltung der Schweizer Ärzteschaft zum Klimawandel zu diskutieren.

Denn eine offizielle Stellungnahme stand bisher aus. Der vereinbarte Vorstoss bei der FMH musste aber wegen Corona vorerst auf Eis gelegt werden.

An der September-Delegiertenversammlung der FMH war es dann soweit: Der vsao konnte den von der swimsa entworfenen Antrag einbringen.

Er wurde ohne Gegenstimmen bei wenigen Enthaltungen angenommen und beinhaltet folgende Punkte:

Was kann die Ärzteschaft in der Schweiz gegen den Klimawandel tun? Eine Arbeitsgruppe unter dem Dach der FMH wird dazu Vorschläge erarbeiten – unter Einschluss der swimsa. (Bild: ps-ixel/Adobe Stock)

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Die Delegiertenversammlung anerkennt den Klimawandel als substantielle Bedrohung für die regionale und globale Gesundheit.

Sie unterzeichnet im Namen der Schweizer Ärzteschaft das swimsa-«Manifest für eine gesunde Zukunft», das den «One Health»Gedanken in den Mittelpunkt stellt.

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Die Delegiertenversammlung beauftragt den Zentralvorstand der FMH, eine Arbeitsgruppe mit Vertretungen der Dachorganisationen inklusive der swimsa ins Leben zu rufen.

Diese Arbeitsgruppe entwickelt eine Strategie zu den Handlungsmöglichkeiten der Ärzteschaft in der Schweiz. Dabei richtet sie den Fokus auch auf den interprofessionellen, transdisziplinären und generationenübergreifenden Dialog innerhalb des Gesundheitswesens.

Ende Oktober haben vsao und swimsa die Ärztekammer über die Entscheide informiert und die 200 Mitglieder sowie deren Verbände für die Unterzeichnung des Manifests mobilisiert.

Im Frühling 2021 soll dann dem Gremium die Strategie der Arbeitsgruppe inklusive Budget vorgestellt werden.

CHANGEMENT CLIMATIQUE: IL FAUT AGIR MAINTENANT! Le changement climatique constitue actuellement la plus grande menace pour la santé. Dans ce contexte, les médecins doivent s’engager pour la protection et la promotion de la santé. La swimsa et l’asmac ont obtenu de la FMH qu’elle prenne position et développe une stratégie.

Texte: Marcel Marti | responsable politique et communication / directeur adjoint de l’asmac Au début de l’année, la swimsa s’est adressée à l’asmac pour discuter de l’attitude du corps médical suisse face au changement climatique, étant donné qu’il n’avait jusqu’ici pas pris officiellement position sur le sujet. Dans un premier temps, la proposition élaborée à l’intention de la FMH a toutefois dû être mise de côté en raison de la crise du corona.

Elle a été adoptée sans opposition, avec quelques abstentions et comprend les points suivants: •

L’asmac a finalement pu déposer la proposition préparée par la swimsa lors de l’Assemblée des délégués de la FMH de septembre.

L’Assemblée des délégués reconnaît le changement climatique comme une menace substantielle pour la santé régionale et globale. Elle signe, au nom du corps médical suisse, le «Manifeste pour un avenir sain» de la swimsa qui place l’idée du «One Health» au centre.

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L’Assemblée des délégués charge le Comité central de la FMH de mettre en place un groupe de travail constitué des représentants des organisations faîtières, y compris la swimsa.

Ce groupe de travail élabore une stratégie relative aux possibilités d’action du corps médical en Suisse. Ce faisant, elle met aussi l’accent sur le dialogue interprofessionnel, transdisciplinaire et intergénérationnel au sein du système de santé.

Que peut entreprendre le corps médical suisse contre le changement climatique? Un groupe de travail sous l’égide de la FMH va élaborer des propositions à ce sujet, avec le concours de la swimsa. (Image: ps-ixel/Adobe Stock)

Fin octobre, l’asmac et la swimsa ont informé la Chambre médicale des décisions prises et mobilisé ses 200 membres ainsi que leurs associations pour signer le manifeste. Il est prévu de lui soumettre au printemps 2021 la stratégie du groupe de travail, y compris le budget.

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NEWS FROM THE SWIMSA FAMILY

Die swimsa bietet engagierten Medizinstudierenden eine Plattform, sich auf nationaler und internationaler Ebene auszutauschen. Lokal initiierte Projekte können über die swimsa zu nationalen und internationalen Projekten weiterentwickelt werden.

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La swimsa offre la possibilité aux étudiant∙e∙s en médecine d’évoluer au niveau national et au niveau international.

Ainsi, les projets initiés localement peuvent se développer, avec l’aide de la swimsa, en projets nationaux et internationaux.

news from the swimsa family

A JOINT MASTER IN LUCERNE Completing your master in another university Text: Florence Odermatt | University of Zurich

On Monday the 7th of September the new cohort of the Joint Medical Master Lucerne started their first week in Lucerne. In addition to learning about scientific research, catching up on the clinical courses from last semester that had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation and getting to know the main building of the university, there was also time for a pre-semester start barbecue at the Ufschötti with the current students of the three years of the Lucerne Track.

While our pioneers look forward to spending the next year at the LUKS and the other partner institutions of Lucerne1 we can not wait to welcome our new first year students in Zurich at the traditional “Ersti-Apéro”. We worked together with the fvmed and the MUST to create a mentoring system so that we may support the fourth cohort right from their first day.

1 Hirslanden St. Anna, Swiss Paraplegic Centre Nottwil SPZ, the institution for GPs and community care IHAM-CC Lucerne and the psychiatric services of Lucerne lups swimsa

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news from the swimsa family

WHERE TO TURN TO? Meet your local student association

aemg - Geneva aemg@unige.ch aemg.unige.ch

mesa - Zurich ETH vorstand@heat.ethz.ch heat.vseth.ethz.ch

fvmed - Zurich UZH info@fvmed.ch www.fvmed.ch

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news from the swimsa family

FAMBA - Basel praesidium@famba.ch www.famba.ch

FaMed - Fribourg fs-medizin@unifr.ch student.unifr.ch/med

fsmb - Bern sekretariat@fsmb.ch www.fsmb.ch

FluMed (Fachverein Luzerner Medizinstudierenden) flumed.luzern@outlook.com www.flumed.ch

AEML - Lausanne aeml@unil.ch www.aeml.ch

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news from the swimsa family

YOUNG SONOGRAPHERS Teaching sonography with passion Text: Robin Walter | University of Bern

It has been a long time since ultrasound started to come to clinic, to be used regularly. Years later, some students and medical doctors around the world started to realize, ultrasound is a tool which needs a lot of training, which needs a lot of guidance in the beginning and therefore started to teach basic ultrasound skills to other students. One of those groups are the Young Sonographers, the official SGUM/SSUM (Swiss society for ultrasound in medicine) section for medical students, who offer peer-tutoring classes, where experienced students teach other students, with the help of experienced doctors.

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We developed a standardized approach to teaching the basics of ultrasound to students, created an eLearning and propose the practical classes which go together with the eLearning.

In the past years our program grew rapidly, and we can proudly say, that now we are represented in most language regions in Switzerland (only Rumantsch is missing)! However, we are still working at improving and being present at all Swiss medical faculties, which might be achieved in not too much time.

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Since we are represented all amongst Switzerland, we have to adapt in terms of language as well. First, our program was created in German only, but now with more and more medical students from other language regions being touched we had to translate all our material to French as well. This process will be done within the coming months with the eLearning already being ready right now.

Finally we are working at the moment on making our program even more efficient to be able to teach more students and to improve the accessibility to the program.

At the moment there are over 300 medical students all over Switzerland which are participating in our program and there are almost 150 trained peer-tutors ready to teach them their knowledge.

On demand, we are happy to collaborate with other swimsa projects, as for example with exchanges, as this has been done in Zurich this year with a simple course on musculoskeletal ultrasound.

Feel free to look out for more information about us on our website http://www.youngsonographers.ch/

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LET’S TALK ABOUT SEXUAL HEALTH AND RIGHTS! And prepare ourself for the next SMSC Text: Joël Perrin | University of Zurich Sexuality is everywhere: It’s part of pop culture and advertised with; it’s on everyone’s lips and yet hushed up; it’s easy to find information about, yet difficult to thoroughly be informed; it’s easy, it’s difficult, it’s beautiful, it’s ugly – and it’s one thing for sure: Complex.

Different projects in different Universities work on building a world, in which every individual is empowered to exercise their sexual and reproductive health rights equally, free from stigma and discrimination. How they do so and what YOU can do to get active, this is part of this article.

Hugs and enjoy!

Joël Perrin, NORA 20/21

If you have any questions beyond the activities of the different projects, don’t hesitate to reach out via nora@swimsa.ch If you want to stay up to date with international and national opportunities in the field of Sexual Health and Rights, send a blank mail to scorangels+subscribe@swimsa.ch

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Achtung Liebe Active in: Bern, Basel, Zurich Online on: Instagram (achtungliebe), facebook (Achtung Liebe Schweiz / Bern / Basel), web (achtungliebe.ch) How to get in contact with: achtungliebe.ch or just write a mail to your local group: - praesidium.ba@achtungliebe.ch (Basel) - praesidium.be@achtungliebe.ch (Bern) - praesidium.zh@achtungliebe.ch (Zurich) Every year, the members of Achtung Liebe provide contemporary comprehensive sexuality education to students starting from the age of 11 upwards, always teaching in mixed teams of two. Due to the relatively small age gap between students and peer educators, questions about potentially delicate topics are usually asked and answered straightforwardly.

To ensure our members have adequate knowledge on how to talk about sexuality and the scientific aspects they teach, new members are required to attend one of our two annual “basic workshops” (the next one will be from November 12th – 15th).

news from the swimsa family

The application window will open soon, you can find more information under http://achtungliebe.ch/index.php/news.html or by writing a mail to your local group.

Furthermore, we also hold “advanced workshops” twice a year, alongside our basic workshop. These are for members to widen the scope on various topics connected with sexuality, providing interesting sessions and inviting top-class speakers.

In addition, we have local monthly gatherings for socializing and fun – or planing activities on the World AIDS Day (1. Dec) or IDAHOBIT – the international day (17.Mai) against homo-, trans- and biphobia.

EROS Active in: Lausanne Online on: Instagram (eros_lausanne), facebook (EROSLausanne) How to get in contact with: eros@swimsa.ch What is Eros?

Education, Relation et Orientation Sexuelles, is a project founded in 2017. Its main work is to sensitize and educate future doctors and other health professionals about sexual orientation, gender, sexual development variations and sexuality in general in order to provide better healthcare for all. Also, EROS wants to reduce gender-based, sexual orientation-based violence and any other kind of violence or discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community, by raising awareness to a more general population about this issue. All this work is based on a lack of knowledge about a community and its medical needs, which the project wants to improve and reach a greater equality of healthcare provided. EROS hopes to grow beyond Lausanne in the years to come.

What have we done so far?

For the past year, EROS has been working on the organisation of various conferences such as “The gray zone - about consent, Sexuality and disability” a movie projection about intersexuality, which had the goal to educate actual and future healthcare professionals.

To continue improving sexual education amongst medical students, the association had the opportunity to sensitize the 1st year medical students in Lausanne about the healthcare of trans* people by providing a lecture. We plan to renew this project every year and will try to expand to the 2nd year students as well.

Also, during the year 19/20, EROS had the opportunity to organize the “Week of Sexuality and Genderism” which proposed 3 different conferences: “Endometriosis”, “Menstruations and Transidentity” and “Toxic Masculinity”. The week ended with a voguing workshop with Queer artists. For a more general population, EROS conducted a social media campaign for IDAHOT in order to raise awareness about general health and healthcare in the LGBTQIA+ community.

The AEML (Association des Étudiantes de Médecine de Lausanne) also gave the association an unique opportunity to be represented at the “Planète Santé Live” which is the biggest health convention of Romandie. For every project, EROS works closely together with the people concerned by the cause or dedicated to it. We need to collaborate in order to learn, exchange and grow.

What are our plans for the following year?

We hope to maintain a high activity despite the COVID-19 situation, finding other new and innovative ways to touch the public and continue to raise LGBTQIA+’s voices.

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news from the swimsa family

Regarding the still ongoing and unpredictable situation, we will focus our work on our main information platform: the @Medsexplain Instagram account… And plan to release even more posts!

Medsexplain Active in: Geneva Online on: Instagram (medsexplain) How to get in contact with: santesexuelle.aemg@gmail.com Medsexplain is a sub-committee of Action Santé Communautaire, a branch of the AEMG (the medical students association from Geneva). It includes students from the 2nd to the 5th year.

We are focused on themes regarding sexual and reproductive health such as gender identities, women rights, romantic and sexual relationship, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), pleasure, female genital mutilations but also endometriosis and others.

Medsexplain promotes a positive and inclusive sexual education available for everyone.

During the year, Medsexplain’s members organize many activities, the most popular one being the “Condoms Workshop” where medical students discover the different types of male and female condoms and their safe use. This workshop is made in collaboration with the HUG’s USSPF (Unité de Santé sexuelle et Planning Familial).

Among the other yearly events we have one evening for “Movember” about male sexual health and a stand on the 8th of March for the “International Women’s Day” For the upcoming academic year, we are planning to reschedule the events that were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic such as the Endometriosis conference and to organize new evening debates and film screenings.

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If questions related to sexual health are meaningful to you and you want to join Medsexplain, don’t hesitate to contact us!

CALWHA Active in: Lausanne Online on: web (metislausanne > CALWHA) How to get in contact with: calwha.metis@swimsa.ch Today, I would like to tell you about a project that is particularly close to my heart: the project CALWHA (Children and Adolescents Living With HIV/AIDS) which support children and adolescents living with HIV/AIDS in Shirati and Ukerewe (Tanzania).

The problems faced by Tanzanian children and adolescents suffering from HIV/AIDS are diverse and alarming: The lack of knowledge about HIV/ AIDS and its mode of transmission together with its stigmatization can lead to lack of adherence to treatment and therefore to a resistance to antiretroviral drugs. In order to improve the health of these patients, CALWHA has set itself the goal of increasing adherence to therapy through better knowledge of the disease and its issues, and to reduce barriers linked to poverty.

news from the swimsa family

The project is carried out in partnership with two tanzanian hospitals (located on Ukerewe Island and in the Shirati region), where activity days are held twice a month. During these days, the children in the program benefit a.o. from a meal and food supplements, reimbursement of a part of the transport costs to and from the hospital, education sessions on their illness (prevention, de-stigmatisation, education, etc.), medical consultations and the distribution of therapies. Furthermore, in Ukerewe, home visits for non-attending children are provided.

The project’s long-term goal is to reduce the high prevalence of HIV in this region of the world and to improve the quality of life for people living with the disease through the above stated measures.

Since its creation, the project has been a great success and the number of adolescents treated could be improved. The testimonies gathered during the missions (the period of the year when the students who are part of the project go on site to evaluate the impact and functioning of the project) are very positive.

The aim of the survey was to assess if medical students were victims and/or witnesses of sexist behaviours during their internships in hospitals.

The results attested that more than 120 students have faced sexist situations during clinical practices and among them 60 testified in details of comportments going from everyday sexism to sexual harassment.

Facing this preoccupying but not so surprising phenomenon, the students that were at the origin of the survey decided to found an association in order to bring the problematic to the board of Lausanne med school and the CHUV, our main formative hospital.

From this meeting an awareness campaign was set up in collaboration with the CHUV as well as an emergency call line to support student that are victims of sexist abuse during their internship.

Money is raised by the CALWHA team in Switzerland throughout events/sells or donations/sponsoring.

CLASH Active in: Lausanne CLASH (= ComitĂŠ de Lutte contre les Attitudes Sexistes en milieu Hospitalier) is a medical student association born after a survey conducted among 800 students (from the 4th to the 6th year) from Lausanne med school during March 2018.

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FMH-STUDIE ZEIGT:

FLEXIBLE ARBEITSZEITEN WERDEN FÜR DIE ÄRZTESCHAFT IMMER WICHTIGER Der Übergang vom Medizinstudium ins Berufsleben, ob in die Praxis oder in die Arbeit im Spital, ist für Studierende jeweils eine grosse Herausforderung.

Aber bereits heute machen sie deutlich, was für sie im künftigen Berufsleben von grösster Bedeutung sein wird: Wie eine FMH-Studie zeigt, wird das persönliche Wohlbefinden und damit einhergehend die Vereinbarkeit von Berufs- und Privatleben für die künftigen Ärztinnen und Ärzte unmittelbar von ihren zukünftigen Arbeitsbedingungen abhängen und damit nicht zuletzt von der Flexibilität ihrer Arbeitgeber.

Im vergangenen Jahr, im Oktober 2019, haben wir hier im swimsa-Journal eine Studie angekündigt, in welcher wir herausfinden wollten, welche Erwartungen Sie als Medizinstudierende auf Master-Stufe in der Schweiz an ihre berufliche Zukunft haben1. Bei der Erarbeitung der Studie war die swimsa ein wichtiger Partner der FMH gewesen. Nun liegen die ersten Resultate der Studie vor.

Insgesamt wurden 13 qualitative Interviews geführt und 380 Umfragebögen à 35 Fragen ausgewertet. Der Fokus der Umfrage lag dabei auf den folgenden drei Bereichen: «Postgraduale Ausbildung und Eintritt ins Berufsleben», «Umgang mit der eigenen Gesundheit» und «Gesundheits- und Arbeitspolitik».

Aus den umfangreichen Daten, die im Rahmen der Studie analysiert worden sind, geht eine Schlüsselbotschaft klar hervor: Für die Ärztinnen und Ärzte von morgen sind flexible Arbeitgeber die wichtigste Arbeitsbedingung, um Berufs- und Privatleben optimal miteinander vereinbaren zu können. Die Generation Y ist sich im Vergleich zu früheren Generationen der Bedeutung der eigenen Gesundheit deutlich bewusster und sieht diese als Grundlage, um mit schwierigen Situationen gut umgehen zu können – sowohl aktuell im Studium als auch später im Berufsleben.2

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«Die FMH wird sich weiterhin unermüdlich für gute Arbeitsbedingungen einsetzen. Die Attraktivität unseres Berufs hängt davon ab.»

Die FMH will nun verstärkt auf diese aktuelle Thematik aufmerksam machen. Ein erster Bericht zum Thema ist unter dem Titel «Teilzeit und Karriere – Die Ärzteschaft fordert die Spitäler» bereits in der Schweizerischen Ärztezeitung erschienen. Weitere Berichte zum Thema werden folgen. Die FMH will aber auch mithelfen, Medizinstudierende noch besser auf den Einstieg ins Berufsleben vorzubereiten. Hier sei auf das Mentoring-Programm «Coach my Career» hingewiesen. Andererseits wird sich die FMH weiterhin unermüdlich für gute Arbeitsbedingungen einsetzen, und dafür, dass die medizinische Tätigkeit weiterhin klar im Mittelpunkt des Arztberufs steht.

Die Attraktivität unseres Berufs hängt davon ab.

1 swimsa-Journal, Oktober 2019 2 Masterarbeit «Die professionellen Bedürfnisse der Ärztinnen und Ärzte der Millennial-Generation – Eine Mischverfahren-Studie», Linda van der Wee, 2020

Nach dem Bachelorabschluss können Medizinstudierende der FMH gebührenfrei beitreten: Die Studierenden-Mitgliedschaft ist unter anderem verbunden mit einem kostenlosen Abonnement der Weiterbildungszeitschrift Swiss Medical Forum und der Schweizerischen Ärztezeitung. Anmeldung: www.fmh.ch

UNE ÉTUDE DE LA FMH LE MONTRE :

LES HORAIRES FLEXIBLES SONT TOUJOURS PLUS IMPORTANTS POUR LES MÉDECINS Dr. med. Michel Matter, Vizepräsident der FMH, Departementsverantwortlicher Dienstleistungen und Berufsentwicklung / vice-président de la FMH, responsable du département Prestations et développement professionnel

L’entrée dans la vie professionnelle, que ce soit en cabinet ou à l’hôpital, représente une étape majeure pour les médecins fraîchement diplômés. Toutes et tous sont cependant déjà au clair sur ce qui sera le plus important pour eux durant leur future carrière. Comme le montre une étude réalisée par la FMH, le bien-être et la conciliation de la vie professionnelle et de la vie privée dépendent directement de leurs conditions de travail et donc de la flexibilité de leurs futurs employeurs.

En octobre 2019, nous vous avons annoncé le lancement d’une étude focalisée sur les étudiants en médecine de niveau master de toute la Suisse et leurs attentes professionnelles1. C’est le fruit d’un travail collaboratif avec la swimsa, qui a été un partenaire important pour la réalisation de cette étude, dont les premiers résultats sont désormais disponibles.

Au total, nous avons mené 13 entretiens qualitatifs et analysé 380 questionnaires comportant 35 questions.

Nous avons mis l’accent sur les trois thématiques suivantes : « formation postgraduée et entrée dans la vie professionnelle », « gestion de sa propre santé » et « politique de la santé / professionnelle ».

Sur les nombreuses données que nous avons récoltées, un message clé en ressort : « Dans le processus de conciliation de la vie professionnelle et de la vie privée, la flexibilité d’un employeur est l’une des conditions de travail les plus importantes pour les médecins de la gé-

« La FMH continuera à travailler sans relâche pour garantir de bonnes conditions de travail. L’attrait de notre profession en dépend. » nération Y. Par rapport aux générations précédentes, la génération du millénaire a une conscience accrue de sa propre santé et combine cela avec la capacité de faire face à des situations difficiles dans ses études ainsi que dans son activité professionnelle ultérieure. »2 La FMH souhaite dorénavant attirer une plus grande attention sur ce sujet d’actualité. Un premier rapport sur le sujet a déjà été publié dans le Bulletin des médecins suisses sous le titre de « Temps partiel et carrière – l’hôpital au pied du mur ». D’autres rapports thématiques suivront. Cependant, la FMH veut aussi aider à mieux préparer les étudiants en médecine dans leur insertion professionnelle ; elle a notamment mis sur pied le programme de mentorat « Coach my Career ». Par ailleurs, la FMH continuera à travailler sans relâche pour assurer de bonnes conditions de travail et garantir que l’activité médicale reste au centre de la profession. L’attrait de notre profession en dépend.

1 Journal swimsa, octobre 2019 2 Travail de master «Die professionellen Bedürfnisse der Ärztinnen und Ärzte der Millennial-Generation – Eine Mischverfahren-Studie», Linda van der Wee, 2020

Les étudiants en médecine peuvent s’affilier gratuitement à la FMH après le bachelor et bénéficier entre autres d’un abonnement gratuit au Swiss Medical Forum et au Bulletin des médecins suisses. Inscriptions : www.fmh.ch.

WWW.FMH.CH | INFO@FMH.CH | +41 31 359 11 11 swimsa

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SWIMSA IN PICTURES

Have you ordered your swimsa Socks and Shirt yet?

Erstsemestertag

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#exchangetheworld

New reading-material out now

So many positions that want to be filled

Our EuRegMe Group

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ROOM FOR THOUGHTS

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THESE ARE YOUR LOCAL PROJECTS

THIS IS YOUR LOCAL STUDENT COUNCIL

which work on different public health and human rights topics. You can join any project you like or even start your own.

for all the medical students at your university. They organize social events, parties, represent you to your faculty and fight for your medical education.

THIS IS YOU, a medical student in Switzerland

THIS IS YOUR NATIONAL ORGANISATION swimsa is the umbrella organisation for all Swiss medical students. Its members are 8 student councils and the local projects. In the comittee for education, swimsa works towards an improved education on a national level. Via the IFMSA, it enables worldwide student exchanges. Twice per year, it organises the SMSC-Conference with students from all parts of Switzerland. An event you MUST have experienced at least once!

... AND THIS IS HOW WE CHANGE THE WORLD TOGETHER The International Federation fo Medical Students‘ is the umbrella organisation for all the national associations of more than 120 different countries worldwide.

They gather twice per year in the so-called General Assembly (GA), where 1000 students come together and exchange ideas. swimsa is always represented by a Swiss delegation, which YOU can be part of as well! www.ifmsa.org