How does swimsa advocate for you? swimsa advocating for human and

HOW DOES SWIMSA ADVOCATE FOR YOU?

Text: Emilie Kabase (NORA), Gaia Grigorov (NPO), Nico Friedrich (NORP), Matias Jacomet (VPA), Rahel Laager (VPG), Amedeo Giussani (VPE), Kate Gurevich (President)

Dear medical students,

We, the people working on all the wonderful projects within swimsa, frequently get asked “so what does swimsa do, exactly?”. Sometimes, the concept is hard to grasp. However, swimsa does wonderful things, ranging from helping you go on an exchange to promoting various public health issues. One thing swimsa does is give a voice to you, dear medical students, on a national level. How do we do this? Read below!

Representing the opinion of medical students

Policy Papers Policy Papers are used to represent the stance of medical students on a general topic. They are adopted by the Delegates’ Assembly of swimsa. At these meetings, which take place once per semester, you are indirectly represented by your local association (e.g. FaMBa for Basel). The representatives appointed by you vote on the adoption of the Policy Paper, thus indirectly representing the Swiss medical students’ stance on a certain topic. A Policy Paper provides background information regarding one broad subject, as well as a call to action for different stakeholders. You can find all of our policy papers on the swimsa website. This type of document can only be adopted after being voted on at the Delegates’ Assembly and represents the opinion of medical students for the next 5 years on a topic. Once approved, a Policy Paper can be used to advocate for change. What sort of Policy Papers do we have? Just last autumn, three new ones, among them one on STI prevention and one on equity in healthcare, were adopted; in 2020, swimsa issued one on quality medical education as well as on comprehensive sexuality education. You can find all of them on the swimsa website.

Statements A statement is more specific - it usually states the opinion of medical students on a particular, punctual issue , e.g. the initiative on tobacco advertisement the Swiss population voted on in February. Sometimes, a statement can derive from a Policy Paper. In this case, it automatically represents the opinion of medical students and requires no other legitimisation. However, a statement can also tackle a completely new topic. In this case, the statement is sent to all the local associations and associate members, which have the opportunity to give a two-week referendum vote.

What do we do with these documents? Whenever a topic comes up where we feel that we, as medical students, should react, we use these documents to approach stakeholders or post on our social media. Recently, we even got in touch with the Federal Council, starting an exchange on the accessibility of vaccines and sustainable health crisis management after we sent them a letter voicing our concerns.

What can you do with these documents? Not only swimsa can use these documents to demand change. Medical students and local associations in certain faculties have also brought up these documents while asking, for example, for particular topics to be included during their studies. As Policy Papers and Statements are available on swimsa’s website, they can be used by everyone.

Who can write these documents? Usually, the topics are brought up by swimsa internals (e.g. someone from the EB or a National Officer) who is passionate about a certain subject, and who decides to open a call to create a Small Working Group (SWG). The SWG then works to redact the document which later needs to be approved by the swimsa members. Associate Members have also been active in coming up with ideas for Policy Papers, and they have participated in the writing process, bringing their precious input and experiences to the table. But every medical student in Switzerland is automatically a member of swimsa, meaning that if you are passionate about a specific topic, you can contact us, share your ideas, and work with us to create the basis for a new advocacy project. You can also join one of our existing commissions (CoSH, CoPHR, AK/CoFo) and bring your opinion, give us your input, and start to get active in swimsa. Why is all this necessary? The way we advocate for you, medical students, is rather bureaucratic and often a tedious and long process. However, with this we try to ensure that what we say and stand for actually represents your opinion. Are you wondering if there is something more interesting we do? Indeed, keep reading on.

German Learn more about our Policy Papers!

French Representation towards various bodies

As the national organisation of medical students, we are frequently asked (or we try to sneak our way in ourselves;)) to represent your opinions to a certain organisation. Here, we strongly base ourselves on our policy documents listed above to make sure we represent your opinion to the various bodies.

Oftentimes a Liaison Officer (LO), a specific position appointed by the swimsa EB, has the task to represent swimsa in one specific setting, while in other cases members of the Executive Board participate in meetings and delegations. Moreover, for the past two years, three Public Health Coordinators have been appointed to focus on Planetary Health, Mental Health and Covid-19, and have been active in working groups collaborating with our external partners.

SMIFK/CIMS/JCSMS

The Joint Commission of Swiss Medical Schools (JCSMS) is a body consisting of all the Deans of Medical Schools in Switzerland. And - that’s right - swimsa has a guest seat. This is an incredible opportunity for us to promote the opinion and ideas of Swiss medical students regarding, for example, the medical education curriculum, and to direct them to the local associations of students, should they want more in-depth information about the student body at their respective university. For example, in March 2022, swimsa presented to the Deans the results of the National Comparative Survey (NCS) - an extensive piece of work completed by representatives from various universities under the lead

of our Vice-President for Medical Education. The survey features student satisfaction divided into 8 variables for each university. You can find more information about the NCS on page 27.

FMH & VSAO/ASMAC

The Swiss Medical Association (FMH) and the Association of Junior Doctors (VSAO/ASMAC) are close partners of swimsa. swimsa frequently cooperates with these organisations to make the voice of medical students heard. As an example, at the Ärztekammer/Chambre Médicale of the FMH, swimsa and VSAO presented the Climate Motion, which was adopted by the doctors of Switzerland and asks for a more environmentally conscious and sustainable health system.

WHO/OMS

That’s right, swimsa has a delegate to WHO! Well, not exactly. Up to the start of the pandemic, swimsa was able to send a youth representative to WHA (World Health Assembly - the decision-making body of the WHO) meetings along with the Swiss Public Health Office delegation. However, swimsa was recently able to restart discussions for the re-integration of the youth delegate.

BAG/OFSP

Sadly, youth and especially medical students are not represented much within the public health office of Switzerland. Nevertheless, swimsa sends a delegate to the meetings of the group focusing on the future of medical education. In the future, we hope to be more represented and have the possibility to directly have an impact on the decisions made that influence the healthcare system of Switzerland. Examples of how we have used the opinion of Swiss medical students - read and be inspired!

Emilie Emilie, our NORA (National Officer on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights incl. HIV and AIDS), wanted to organise an event during this summer’s Pride. The Pride being a festive event reuniting many people and providing space for prevention, she found it important to take this opportunity to advocate for safe sex including sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV. Thus, she built a small working group to write a policy paper on this subject. In the end, besides offering the possibility to work on STIs for the Pride, this policy paper helped her in an unexpected task: it contributed to convince Geneva’s Hospital Fondation Privé about the importance of STIs among young people, so that they provided a fund to put into place a project to facilitate young people’s access to STIs screenings.

Marc Marc, our Liaison Officer to the VSS/UNES (the national organisation of all university and higher education students), recently exercised his advocacy rights by not only writing a statement for the initiative on animal and human testing, but also being able to present the opinion of Swiss medical students at a press conference. You can read more about it on page 34.

LO-BAG/OFSP - a beautiful example The Public Health Office of Switzerland has so far been rather unapproachable to swimsa and medical students in general. We decided to change this. Since the beginning of our term in September 2021, we have been trying various ways to show why meaningful youth participation on a national level benefits both the youth and the decision making bodies. Together with the VSAO/ASMAC, we wrote a letter to the BAG demanding that medical students and young doctors get the opportunity to have a seat at the table. In January 2022, we sent a statement not only to the BAG but also to the Federal Councils demanding more equitable COVID-19 vaccine

distribution and once again asking for a seat at the table. And we were heard! The Public Health Office answered swimsa that it wishes for more collaboration with the medical students.

What do other countries do?

Some countries have come much further than Switzerland. Recently, we sat together with representatives from the Portuguese Medical Students’ Association (ANEM-Portugal) and asked them to share their experiences. In Portugal, a Youth National Council exists. The government runs major decisions by this council to make sure youth is in favour of said decisions. This is an incredible advocacy tool not only for medical students but all young people! However, the government has been reluctant to have a Youth Delegate directly integrated into the Public Health Office of the country. As direct negotiations between the medical students’ association and the government have failed, ANEM-Portugal is now using the existing Youth National Council to try and get a seat. Other countries such as Belgium and Australia have been more proactive, with successfully integrating youth delegates in various meetings such as the UN General Assembly.

What’s ahead? What do we dream of?

Let's take a time machine and travel a couple of years into the future. You stroll into the Parliament Building in Bern, find the right room and take a seat. You greet your friends who you have met before at these meetings, some of them nursing students, others studying pharmaceutical sciences or another healthcare profession. Some of them are medical students just like you. The other people at the table are full-time politicians, spending day after day discussing the next steps in the healthcare system of Switzerland. Discussions start. The first topic on the agenda is the future of the medical school curriculum. You are asked for your opinion. Thankfully, you came prepared. You, along with the help of your fellow youth delegates, have drafted a statement advocating for more future-centered, practical, interdisciplinary medical education. You tell the participants about the existing policy papers of swimsa and how they represent the opinion of all medical students out there. Last but not least, you bring some concrete examples for possible changes. Your voice is heard. You are asked some follow-up questions and are asked to lead the group on the efforts to improve medical education in Switzerland. It was a good day.

Useful contacts

Not sure who to contact in case of questions on advocacy? Feel free to contact the people directly! For questions on and around Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights including HIV and AIDS contact our National Officer responsible for the topic, Emilie Kabasa: nora@swimsa.ch For anything related to Public Health, contact our National Public Health Officer, Gaia Grigorov: npo@swimsa.ch. For questions around Human Rights and Peace, contact our National Officer, Nico Friedrich: norp@swimsa.ch. For Advocacy around medical education, contact our Vice-President for Medical Education, Matias Jacomet: vpa@swimsa.ch.

Sources:

• The United Nations Guide to the Youth Delegate Programme 2nd Edition. United Nations, New York, 2020 • World Health Organization Youth Delegate Toolkit.

IFMSA, Denmark, 2020