education
AK/COFO: (EX)CHANGE MEDICAL EDUCATION Text: Matias Jacomet | Vice-President for Education It is Saturday morning at the main train station in Bern. Some people hurry swiftly over the stone tiles to their next point of destination. A few eyes look tiredly at the cups of coffee in front of them, while they wait for the next train to arrive. Others flick through the latest newspaper or focus on the screen of their phone. And in between all this hustle and bustle of an early October weekend there are two people waiting. One of them is wearing a blue college-jacket. “I’m really excited to meet all the delegates!”. The hand of the big clock at the meeting point takes another leap: It is 9:30. It was at this moment, that the eyes of the two people lit up, as they spotted the people they were expecting… Few minutes later. The delegates of the Ausbil dungskommission/Commission de la formation (AK/CoFo) are assembling in their conference room (just steps away from the meeting point) to hold their first meeting of this term. Well-equi pped with croissants, fruits and coffee the discus sions start: “Will podcasts continue to be availa ble at your university, now that more in-person education takes place again?”. “How are the co vid-certificates implemented at your university?”. “How did you welcome this year’s freshies?”. As the delegates begin to gather a general update of what has happened and what is going to ha ppen at their universities, it once again becomes evident how big the differences between the universities can be.
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But the AK/CoFo is not only exchanging and sharing information about what happened to medical students. It is also about how medical students themselves can make change happen within their medical education. And there are many things that could be improved from a stu dents perspective: Making our exams more trans parent. Getting more and better feedback on our performance. Make sure that the input from the students is not only heard, but as well implemen ted. Increasing the quality of our practical and cli nical courses, so that our medical studies prepare us even better for our work as future doctors. Just to name a few. Ok. But where do we start? And how do we make things happen? One strength of the AK/CoFo is that students from all universities are represen ted and that information can be exchanged very fast between universities. We decided during our first meeting to make this strength available to all medical students as best as we can: The on going project of the national comparative sur vey, which aims at a statistically founded com parison of student satisfaction between all Swiss universities regarding eight aspects of medical education, has been approved by the delegates and is now going to be distributed to all medical students in the course of this semester.
