Advocacy in Medical Education Training – IFMSA

Name of the activity: Advocacy in Medical Education Training

Country/NMO: IFMSA

Program: Medical Education Systems

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Capacity Building

General description:

Making young voices heard is one of the cornerstones of IFMSA, as we are the official voices of medical students worldwide. Training our members in student representation and medical education shapes not only the quality of our future doctors, but also the quality of healthcare by becoming change agents in the Health Systems and
Health advocates. The AMET (Advocacy in Medical Education Training) aims to give skills to participants in a way that they are able to lead, advocate, empower and make a change in (their) medical education after the workshop.

AMET’s core target is to instigate high impact advocacy, structured plans and initiatives to tackle medical education issues on a national/local level and deep knowledge in medical education, specifically targeted at the individual participants needs.
AMET covers topics for those keen on medical education and at the same time gives them the opportunity to further explore and understand student advocacy on a deeper level as decision makers and part of the medical education chain, which is the core of the Standing Committee on Medical Education. By attending AMET, participants should
expect to be able to implement their own Medical Education plans on the local, national and international level as well as IFMSA’s adopted policy documents. Furthermore, by setting quality standards to the AMET workshop, the participants will transpose it to their work and activities their implementing. The workshop include topics and provide tools that are relevant for members of all IFMSA Standing Committee.

Focus area:

Students’ involvement in medical education | Non-formal/informal education

Problem statement:

Making young voices heard is one of the cornerstones of IFMSA, as we are the official voices of medical students worldwide. Training our members in student representation and medical education shapes not only the quality of our future doctors, but also the quality of healthcare by becoming change agents in the Health Systems and
Health advocates. The AMET (Advocacy in Medical Education Training) aims to give skills to participants in a way that they are able to lead, advocate, empower and make a change in (their) medical education after the workshop.
AMET is intended to create a new generation of medical students that are not only knowledgeable about topics such as curriculum design and development, evaluation, research, learning methods and how to be part of the medical education system, but to give more in-depth skills to enable them to actively take part in the
development of their education programs, such as policy making and advocacy, leadership, research in medical education, assessment, transformative learning and more. We aim to empower participants to create national, regional and international initiatives to promote better medical education, equipping them to be best student representatives they can be. AMET differs from a TMET (Training Medical Education Trainers workshop), as TMET aims to graduate trainers with general Medical Education knowledge, capable of training and empowering their peers to develop relevant
skills, knowledge and attitudes to impact the field medical education in various areas. While AMET’s core target
is to instigate high impact advocacy, structured plans and initiatives to tackle medical education issues on a national/local level and deep knowledge in medical education, specifically targeted at the individual participants needs.
AMET covers topics for those keen on medical education and at the same time gives them the opportunity to further explore and understand student advocacy on a deeper level as decision makers and part of the medical education chain, which is the core of the Standing Committee on Medical Education. By attending AMET, participants should
expect to be able to implement their own Medical Education plans on the local, national and international level as well as IFMSA’s adopted policy documents. Furthermore, by setting quality standards to the AMET workshop, the participants will transpose it to their work and activities their implementing. The workshop include topics and provide tools that are relevant for members of all IFMSA Standing Committee.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Participants with experience and interest in Medical Education/Student Representation.

Objectives and indicators of success:

Obj.1: After participating in the workshop participants are able to implement advocacy actions in the local or national medical education system.

Indicators:
1.1-75% of participants outline an action plan to tackle a local or national medical education problem during the AMET workshop.
1.2-60% of participants action plans outlined in the AMET workshop initiated in the 1st month follow up.
1.3-30% of participants action plans outlined in the AMET workshop ongoing in the 6th month follow up.

Obj 2:After participating in the workshop, participants are able to identify and involve relevant stakeholders in the advocacy actions.

2.1- 50% of participants action plans outlined in the AMET workshop include
participation of other students, authorities or other relevant stakeholders.
2.2-30% of participants action plans outlined in the AMET workshop continue in the 6th month follow up with the involvement of relevant stakeholders.

Obj 3: After participating in the workshop, participants are able to locate medical
education resources about existing guidelines, (medical) education theories, evidence-based models and educational trends.

3.1-All resources used during the AMET Sessions are shared with the
participants maximum 1 month after the end of the workshop.
3.2-Participants are able to locate medical education references mentioned
during the training and find new medical education databases.

Obj 4: After participating in the workshop, participants are able to recall knowledge and apply skills to advocate in medical education.

4.1-60% of participants report an increase of knowledge between pre and post assessment.
4.2-60% of participants report an increase of advocacy skills perception between pre and post assessment.
4.3- 75% of participants report an increased self confidence on taking action as a student representative.

Methodology:

The workshop sessions will include a 3 day training sessions and is structured by the AMET Framework (Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15pWFWwWAGb94V540cAtSKBrKhzxRVqHV/view?usp=sharing) and AMET Guidebook (Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1531hoS7m2u5NUHmNnK3yFLy5G1vRsGlX/view?usp=sharing) This document states 5 Thematic Blocks, that have been developed according to the medical education worldwide needs and priorities. Each block contains a set of 5 subtopics that can be chosen according to the participants’ needs, the aim of the event and the facilitator’s approach, the subtopics are chosen to give an individualized and need based experience to the participants. AMET has a Guidebook which defines how many Sessions from each Block have to been selected.

Plans for evaluation:

As part of the SCOME Workshops, the AMET follows the impact assessment SCOME format, which includes a pre and post assessment + evaluation, to measure the impact that the workshop had in participants. As well as the AMET Report form, that is mandatory to be filled. This is the tool used by the SCOME IT to track the impact of each workshop and the individual progress of the workshop participants. As the AMET is focused on creating high impact medical education advocates, the workshop includes a working time in which each participant develops a local and specific Medical Education problem statement that was asked in the pre assessment form. During the workshop, participants, with the help of the trainers, workshop mates and the tools learned, will develop a working document that has an action plan and timeline to tackle that specific medical education issue. The facilitator’s team will mentor the participants, help them get in contact with National Officers, and help them work on their own action plans. This will be monitored by a tracking sheet where the basic principles, goals and timeline of the activity are set, as well as the space for the 1 month and 6 month follow up done by the facilitator with the participant.