Towards Better Medical Education – Egypt (IFMSA-Egypt)

Name of the activity: Towards Better Medical Education

Country/NMO: Egypt (IFMSA-Egypt)

Program: Medical Education Systems

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Capacity Building

General description:

“Medical Education should be a concern of every medical student as it shapes not only the quality of future doctors, but also the quality of healthcare.”

Realizing our role in medical education is not an east task. Getting student to understand their role is even more difficult.
But this is why Towards Better Medical education came to be. We aim to empower medical students all over Egypt with the knowledge and skills to be actively involved in their schools as a medical education stakeholder.

Focus area:

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

Problem statement:

“Medical Education should be a concern of every medical student as it shapes not
only the quality of future doctors, but also the quality of healthcare.” (1)
In Egypt, medical education level hasn’t been satisfying for decades. Most of the
medical schools are going with the traditional discipline-based system and using
out-of-date curricula and biased methods of assessment. The teaching methods
depend mainly on theoretical lectures with minimal levels of clinical exposure of
students.
On the other hand, medical students in Egypt don’t play their role in the medical
education development process. They lack the knowledge about the other
continuously developing medical education systems in the world, and most of
them don’t pay much attention to the quality of their education and its
accreditation, and they are not oriented about their importance.
In a survey titled “Students evaluation for medical education level in Egypt”
conducted in 2017 by IFMSA-Egypt SCOME and reached more than 2000 medical
students in all the Egyptian medical schools, students were asked if the teaching
methods in lectures are effective and attractive to students. 34.2% of students
were strongly against, 38.2% were against & only 5.3% agreed. They were also
asked whether students’ feedback about the education process and their
recommendations are periodically taken. 31.3% of students were strongly against,
28.2% were against & only 16% agreed. These are major indicators that medical
education in Egypt needs a lot of development.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Target groups:
1- Medical students: through capacity building.
2- NGOs working on Medical Education Development: to support capacity building and developing a solid plan for improvement.
3- Governmental Organizations: Supreme Council of Universities as the major stakeholder of Medical Education in Egypt.

Beneficiaries: As previously stated.

Objectives and indicators of success:

Goal 1: Establishing official stable strong partnerships for IFMSA-Egypt with the
major medical education stakeholders in Egypt.
Obj. 1.1) Advocacy efforts at the Supreme Council of Universities in Egypt to
involve IFMSA-Egypt in the Medical Education Reform Program as an Official
Representative of medical students in Egypt, by the end of February 2017.
Obj. 1.2) Initiate partnerships with different Students’ Organizations all over
Egypt, throughout the year.
Obj. 1.3) Establishment of partnerships with other governmental, non-
governmental and private sector stakeholders on both national and international
levels, by February 2018.
Obj. 1.4) Establishing strong partnerships with the local Medical Education Units
and Quality Assurance Units through our LCs, by May 2017.

Goal 2: Building a strong capacity of well-oriented medical students around
Egypt about the core medical education aspects.
Obj. 2.1) Organizing a series of capacity building sessions on the national and local
levels targeting 250 medical students around Egypt, by the end of February 2018.
Obj. 2.2) Organizing a national medical education camp in cooperation with our
partners, by January 2018.
Obj. 2.3) Organizing a TMET in Egypt to have at least 3 new medical education
trainers in Egypt, during the Pre-Winter Camp 2018 in Egypt.
Obj. 2.4) Continuing the capacity building sessions both locally and nationally
targeting 800 medical students around Egypt by September 2018.
Obj. 2.5) Holding online campaigns to introduce basic medical education values
and the Medical Education Reform Program to the Egyptian medical students,
through IFMSA-Egypt and LC’s pages, periodically.

Goal 3: Involving the students in the process of medical education development
as a major stakeholder in the process.
Obj. 3.1) Creation of a platform gathering innovative medical students and
educators from around Egypt to find solutions to our medical education
problems, by mid-February 2018.
Obj. 3.2) Activate the partnerships with the local MEUs and QAUs to involve local
students and educators in the reshaping of the Egyptian medical education
system, by May 2018.
Obj. 3.3) Seeking grants to send 1-5 students to actively participate in
international medical education conferences, in cooperation with IFMSA-Egypt
and LCs’ fundraising divisions.

Goal 4: In coordination with IFMSA-Egypt RSDD, conduct a study on student
involvement in medical education process.
Obj. 4.1) Evaluate this project impact via post assessments after the capacity
building and involvement phases, measuring the students’ perception of their role
in education process.
Obj. 4.2) Analyze the results and introduce them to our partners and use the data
to guide our next steps.

Success Indicators:
1-Recognize IFMSA-Egypt as part of the program as the students’ body
representing medical students all over Egypt.
2- Initiation of partnerships between IFMSA-Egypt and interested student
organizations and supporting governmental and non-governmental bodies.
3- Capacity building of Egyptian medical students to be able to be part of the
education development as follows:
– Having more 3 international medical education trainers.
– Having 20 national medical education trainers at least (one per LC).
– Empowerment of 1000 medical students around Egypt via online campaigns and
training sessions.
4- Getting at least 250 students involved in the medical education process and its
development both locally and nationally.
5- Having Egyptian student representation in medical education international
platforms.

Methodology:

1. Preparations and Situation Analysis:
– Creating situation analysis Google Form and disseminate it among the LCs’
LOMEs to assess their needs and know how good their relationships with their
faculties’ administrations are, by the end of November 2017.
– Opening a call for Local Coordinators and a national team consisting of (10-15)
members of the most dedicated SCOMEdians to help with Generating ideas, Data
Collection and Monitoring.

2. Capacity Building:
* Organizing a National Medical Education Camp for 2 days, by the end of
December 2017, to facilitate capacity building in the LCs, through the following:
– Contacting IFMSA-Egypt NOME and the medical education trainers to facilitate
the sessions or suggest topics and/or other speakers for the sessions.
– Coordination with the PR to contact any speakers outside IFMSA-Egypt.
– Opening a call for a hosting LC and selecting one of them according to the votes of the LOMEs upon the presented hosting proposals.
– Coordination with the hosting LC and monitor the organization process to
ensure all the needed materials are provided.
– Opening a call for delegations from all LCs; each one consists of 4 members
maximally (including the LOME).
– Following up with the speakers and the delegations till the end of the camp.
* Conducting 2 waves of local capacity building workshops and training sessions with the help of the members who attended the national camp;
– The first one is targeting (250-300) students, starting just after the National
Medical Education Camp and ending by the end of February 2018.
– The second one is targeting (700-800), from April 2018 till the end of the term.
Seeking for organization of TMET during the pre-Winter Camp 2018 in Egypt, in
coordination with the NOME and the Winter Camp Head of OC and working of
producing at least 3 new Medical Education trainers for IFMSA-Egypt.
* Collecting Data from each LC about the most innovative and collaborative
medical students and doctors that could help in creating Medical Education
Forum to find solutions to current Medical Education problems, through the
following:
– Creating Google Form to collect the contacts.
– Investigating the suggested contacts and ensuring their efficacy in achieving our goal.
– Contacting the accepted doctors and/or students and check their availability for physical meetings.
– Appointing a suitable time for our medical education forum and gathering all the nominees.
– Opening a call for an organizing committee for the forum and appointing a
suitable venue for it.
* Initiating a long-term online campaign to introduce basic medical education
values and the Medical Education Reform Program to the medical students in
Egypt, and disseminating the campaign among the LCs’ pages, in coordination
with the PNSD, through the following:
– Holding a meeting with the national team physically or online to receive their
inputs for a creative and presentable online campaign.
– Selecting the item we would like to highlight in our campaign.
– Dividing the national team into sub-teams and distribute the data collection task among them.
– Approaching the NOME to check the validity of the online materials.
– Approaching the PNSDD to finalize the needed designs for the campaigns.

3. Partnerships:
* Continuing the progress made with the Supreme Council of Universities and
establishing official partnership with them in coordination with the PR, by the end of April 2018.
* Setting a list with all the approachable partners and their contact and creating
SCOME partners’ database in coordination with the PR, throughout the year.
* Encouraging the LCs to get involved into local partnerships with other Students’
Organizations, Medical Education Units and Quality Assurance Units in their
faculties.
* Seeking grants with the help of IFMSA-Egypt FR and PR to send excelling
Egyptian Medical Students to international medical education conferences.

4. Research:
* Analyzing the data from the old survey created by SCOME contribution team.
* Contacting the Research Support Division Director, in coordination with the
NOME to create a new survey to monitor the students’ involvement in Medical
Education in each LC after each Capacity Building workshop, and then present the
results to the faculties and our partners to advocate for our message.

Plans for evaluation:

Monitoring:
1-Online communication with the Local Coordinators.
2- Regular LC visits to ensure the efficacy of the capacity building.
Evaluation:
1-Capacity Building Phase: Pre-Post Knowledge Assessment for the participants,
2-Students Involvement: via the periodic reports required from each participating LC.
3- Medical Education Forum: Through feedback forms distributed on the participants, speakers and facilitators, in addition to the actual impact of the platform.