external representation & academic recognition in exchanges

Manual

External representation &Academic recognition in Exchanges

Edition 1.0 - 2016

medical students worldwidewww.ifmsa.org

IFMSAThe International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-partisan organization representing associations of medical students internationally. IFMSA was founded in 1951 and currently maintains 124 National Member Organizations from more than 100 countries across six continents with over 1,3 million students represented worldwide. IFMSA is recognized as a non-governmental organization within the United Nations’ system and the World Health Organization and as well, it is a student chapter of the World Medical Association. For more than 60 years, IFMSA has existed to bring together the global medical students community at the local, national and international level on social and health issues.

Imprint

SCORE International TeamTara D’Ignazio - SCORE DA on AQKoen Demaegd - SCORE Director

SCOPE - International TeamMaud Harding - SCOPE RA EuropeOmar Cherkaoui - SCOPE Director

SCOME - International TeamLukas Rodrigues de Souza - SCOME RA AmericasStijntje Dijk - Liaison Officer for Medical Education issues

PublisherInternational Federation ofMedical Students’ Associations

General Secretariat:IFMSA c/o Academic Medical CenterMeibergdreef 15 1105AZAmsterdam, The Netherlands

Email: [email protected]: www.ifmsa.org

This is an IFMSA publication© Portions of this publication may be reproduced for non political, and non profit purposes mentioning the source provided.

DisclaimerThis publication contains the collective views of different contributors, the opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of IFMSA.

The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the IFMSA in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

Notice: All reasonable precautions have been taken by the IFMSA to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall the IFMSA be liable for damages arising from its use.

Some of the photos and graphics used are property of their authors. We have taken every consideration not to violate their rights

Imprint

SCORE International TeamTara D’Ignazio - SCORE DA on AQKoen Demaegd - SCORE Director

SCOPE - International TeamMaud Harding - SCOPE RA EuropeOmar Cherkaoui - SCOPE Director

SCOME - International TeamLukas Rodrigues de Souza - SCOME RA AmericasStijntje Dijk - Liaison Officer for Medical Education issues

PublisherInternational Federation ofMedical Students’ Associations

General Secretariat:IFMSA c/o Academic Medical CenterMeibergdreef 15 1105AZAmsterdam, The Netherlands

Email: [email protected]: www.ifmsa.org

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Dear reader,Welcome to the manual on external representation and academic recognition in exchanges. This manual aims

to guide Exchange Officers and Officers on Medical Ed-ucation through the process of achieving external repre-sentation or academic recognition through their faculty or an external organization and can be used as a sup-plement to any training in this field. For any additional support, please consult one of the additionally existing manuals, or contact the SCOPE, SCORE or SCOME In-

ternational teams.

Best wishes,The International Teams of 2015-2016

Manual on External Representation & Academic Recognition in Exchanges - version 1, 2016

Introduction to External Representation

Definition of Academic Recognition and External RepresentationAcademic Recognition: It means that the exchange is recognised as a formal part of the curriculum. The exchange can take place either during the elective period of the student or not, but it would mean that students receive the credit hours that they have spent on their exchange and they would not need to obtain those hours through their own curriculum anymore. Ex; an elective rotation being replaced by a profes-sional exchange (SCOPE), a research exchange (SCORE) being credited as an optional course in re-search, research from a research exchange (SCORE) being presented at a faculty congress, etc.

External representation: The contact an organization has with other organizations/institutions/companies. It is done in order to achieve goals that we cannot reach only by ourselves, defend our point of view to others and establish partnerships. Ex: endorsement letters from external organizations that recognize the quality of the exchanges, promotion of exchanges through external networks, recruitment of tutors/pre-ceptors through external networks, guidelines for proj-ects revised by professionals, quality control checklist for exchanges made by professionals, or negotiations with faculties on the inclusion of exchanges within the formal curriculum.

Why is it relevant and beneficial for both your organ-isation and for the students?If professional exchanges are credited as being at par with rotations offered by the home university, more institutional support could be put in place to ensure

the academic conformity of the students concerned. The university might choose to provide more structural support in the form of financial aid or academic flex-ibility to students going on exchange, or they might even give the students credit hours for the work they have achieved during their exchange. They might also choose to be involved in the promotion of the exchang-es.

If research exchanges are credited or acknowledged as legitimate research that can eventually be present-ed at faculty conferences and have a significant con-tribution to medical science, then this provides a new and interesting way to introduce students to research. This may provide research opportunities to students that would not otherwise exist due to the research pro-gram of the original university, as not all universities have internship programs organized. In this sense, the exchanges can serve as an initiation to research and all of the competencies it develops in a future medical practitioner. Research exposure in medical school has been shown to improve the overall medical education system. Some references of this have been added at the end.

Endorsement letters, which legitimize the exchanges, can be used to convince deans and people from the education department that our exchanges are of qual-ity and acknowledged by those major organisations. You can find some examples of these endorsement let-ters here. Another good resource is the Profile Book which outlines the scope and the growth of the ex-changes through images such as the one below.

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How to start: setting goals

1) What would you like to achieve for your NMO in terms of recognition of your exchanges or changes in your medical curriculum?

Before beginning to approach your faculty, you should have a solid idea of what you would like to achieve for your NMO in terms of recognition of your exchanges and/or changes in your medical curriculum. For this, you should have a firm understanding of your current medical curriculum and the competencies that it seeks to develop in its students. You must also take into ac-count what is logistically feasible for your medical cur-riculum.

Examples of what you might like to achieve in terms of recognition include, but are not limited to:- SCOPE exchange as an accredited (alterna-tive) external rotation- SCORE exchange as an accredited (optional) course in research

2) Why are the SCOPE and SCORE exchanges rel-evant to your particular medical education system? How do the exchanges provide an added value to the current medical curriculum?

These questions will help you to gather elements that can convince the decision-making party to recognize your exchanges.

Following suit with the previous point, it is important to understand which competencies your medical curric-ulum seeks to develop in its medical students. In light of this, you can reexamine the entire medical educa-tion system and find ways in which the exchanges program provides an added value to the curriculum and solutions to the underdevelopment of certain com-

petencies. The ultimate goal of the exchanges is to make better doctors by increasing exposure to other cultures, other health care systems, and to research.

For example, your medical curriculum might seek to develop an interest in continuing education and aca-demia in its future practitioners, which is often achieved through some level of research involvement. Howev-er, there might be a lack of exposure to research in the current medical curriculum or a lack of access to research internship opportunities. In light of this, you could propose the implementation of optional SCORE exchanges to the medical curriculum as a solution to this discrepancy. Another recurrent pitfall in many medical education systems is the lack of an internationalization compo-nent. Students may never be affronted with medical systems or different cultures other than their own, and may be limited to learning only the scope of medical conditions and practices of their home country. The implementation of professional exchanges through SCOPE would allow for students to explore the advan-tages and disadvantages of another medical system, learn about the medical conditions specific to another population, and bring this expertise back to their home country. These experiences of cultural exchange is of course also an argument for SCORE.

Lastly, we should not forget the non-formal education aspect of exchanges. Above what the exchanges bring to a medical curriculum, it is important to also consider the learning opportunity they present to medi-cal students as individuals. Exposure to a new medical system is a non-negligible form of non-formal educa-tion which may foster language development, interper-sonal development and encourage adaptability and resourcefulness.

Exchanges provide:

- An internationalization component - Exposure to research through hands-on experi-ence - Enhanced communication skills - Exposure to a different health care system - Exposure to diseases that might not be common in the sending country


Creating a strategy

Before you present any proposal to your faculty or to an external organization, you should already have a certain academic quality threshold achieved in your NMO. You cannot ask for external recognition if your program is not already of high academic qual-ity, meaning that the students have a proper learning process and receive training for scientific skills and re-search techniques during the exchange that you prom-ise to deliver.

1) Determine who you should present to in light of your goals - Stakeholder mappingFirst, you must determine who you would like to be in-volved in your exchanges program and their possible motivations to grant you recognition. For each of these stakeholders, you should try and appeal to their cor-porate or personal interests. You should have an idea of why they might be motivated to help your program. Examples can be found in the textbox on the right.

2) Determine what has already been done by other organisations/other faculties- Include pre-existing letters of endorsement (available on IFMSA website) as a form of quality assurance for the exchanges as attested to by external organizations- Have knowledge of the recognition that other univer-sities provide, how they achieved this, possibly their legal conventions. Be prepared to acquiesce their de-mands!

3) Personalize the message to your intended audi-ence. Think of the specific advantages for your dean/faculty/external party. These can include: - Visibility of your university (to visiting students, inter-nationally, taking national lead in this field, etc.)- Internationalization- Teaching experience for tutors- Language experience for staff and students- Curriculum development, added value to the curric-ulum- Appreciation by the university’s own students for the offered opportunities- Means to recruit new students- Lowered burden of not having to establish a similar program from scratch by themselves

Faculty staff (dean of medicine/medical education center/internationalization office): Their goals likely concern the enhancement of medical education outcomes as discussed earlier.

NGO (Non-Governmental Organization): Shared joint goals with your organization are most proba-bly at the top of their interests, therefore, you might want to highlight this when approaching them (ex; internationalization of health care, improving the knowledge of medical students in a specific area, such as a particular neglected disease, or commu-nication skills with underrepresented groups within your own country)

Foundation: They give attention to the activities that are in line with their mission and vision, there-fore your goals need to reflect that (ex; improving access to healthcare, internationalization of health-care, etc.). Foundations often have extended lists of criteria established on their websites that specify the kind of partners and initiatives they are looking to support

Individual - student: The students might see the ex-changes as a way to achieve personal growth and as a learning opportunity. There might be second-ary reasons for them that make an IFMSA exchange additionally compelling, such as the unique aspects of the program being run by students on the local level, or a lower financial burden.

Individual - tutor: Why might a tutor like to take on an intern? Many have intern quotas, some may feel personal satisfaction, and some appreciate the pedagogical component.

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Approaching the target audience

If the target audience does not have a firm understand-ing of IFMSA and its goals, then you should begin with an introduction to IFMSA and its vision, which we in-tend to achieve through exchanges. Each organiza-tion, including your faculty, has its own vision and strat-egies. If you can formulate your vision and initiative to fit theirs, you would have a compelling argument to request their support.

For example, if a faculty’s strategic plan includes in-creased communication skills and development of cultural competencies, a way to approach them using the Why, How, What method, starting with the most important of the story, the why. An example might look like this:

The main goal is to pitch the idea of exchanges to your intended audience while highlighting its strengths and anticipating the audience’s concerns. Solutions for these concerns should be elaborated before present-ing to your target audience. You should also make a case for the authenticity of the exchange program you are promoting. This model of approach is called the Pain, Gain, Unique Claim Theory and is further elabo-rated upon here:

1) Address Pain: Anticipate concerns of your audience and provide solutions for thembefore the pitch. Concerns might include: “Implementing this proposal will only cost me time and money”; the exchange program is run on a voluntary basis and helps to achieve faculty goals. The program requires no investment, as the model already exists and is successful.

“Exchanges will bring a lot of liabilities to my faculty and could do harm to its reputation”; have a firm un-derstanding of insurance requirements for exchanges and the logistical issues they may cause for the faculty. A collaboration between faculty and students could ensure that the right preparations and legal actions be taken in advance

“The exchanges might be an expensive all-in-vacation paid and supported by my faculty, while this time is taken away from their formal education.” Advance the steps already put in place to ensure academic quality, and reiterate the additional value of exchanges in the medical curriculum:- Rigorous student selection for the exchange program- Pre Exchange Training and Upon Arrival Training- Quality control of research projects through Super-vising Board- Student handbook to ensure student participation/to assess competencies acquired by student on exchange- Impact assessment through Evaluation Forms- Certificates awarded and signed by the tutors only after completing the exchange

WHY

HOWWHAT

WHY = The PurposeWhat is your cause? What do you believe?

HOW = The ProcessSpecific actions taken to realize the Why.

WHAT = The ResultWhat do you do? Result of the Why.

WHY = We believe medical students should be equipped with the skills and values needed to pro-vide the best possible care for the communities they will serve.

HOW = We intend to do this is by providing com-munity-based opportunities to medical students to develop skills through hands on experience in other cultural settings.

WHAT = We make this happen by organising SCOPE and SCORE exchanges on a global scale, and we would like to work together with you to achieve this.


Approaching the target audience

2) Prove Gain to Medical Education System:

- Demonstrate the success of previous exchanges: this can include reports and quotes from the university’s students who have been on an exchange that describe the added value to their curriculum, the number of stu-dents that have gone on exchange, interest polls/sur-veys from students that want to go on an exchange to prove the existing demand, the number of years exchanges have already been run. If your NMO is starting up SCOPE and/or SCORE, you can use statis-tics from the international level or perhaps neighbour-ing NMOs as well. Please refer to the Profile Book for more information regarding IFMSA statistics. - References from literature: to prove added value of exchanges in terms of increased learning outcomes/competencies among students having gone on ex-change. Some examples can be found at the end of this document. - Quality of work during the exchange season: collect data on the exchanges and present it to your faculty as a form of outcome analysis. Have statistics regard-ing your own NMO; for example, how many incom-ings, outgoings, and researchers were involved in the previous exchange season? Were the tutors/students satisfied? Find a way to evaluate the success of the program and present it.

3) Unique Claim: Why is IFMSA in particular THE best partner to work with, and THE best organization to achieve these goal or to provide exchanges? Some examples:

- We are the THE oldest medical student exchange run program, the most experienced federation with the largest number of countries participating in exchanges- Depending on the NMO: We are THE official rep-resentative student body within this faculty, making us the most suited organization to speak on behalf of medical students and their needs. - We are the only student run exchange program within the country that works directly with students on the lo-cal level. Our work with bilateral contracts ensures the ethical responsibility of the faculty. Our students have the unique opportunity to be supported and guided by local students in the host country

Follow Up In order to ensure continued good standing with your faculty, they should be as involved as possible in the exchanges procedures. As their trust in the profession-al structure of your exchanges grows, their willingness to increase the recognition for exchanges will likely increase.

Ways to do this include: - Involving the stakeholders in the development and implementation of academic quality: The faculty might like to see what is included in the Pre Exchange Train-ing and the Upon Arrival Training, and might suggest some topics be covered. - Involving the stakeholders in the process of outgoing selection, exchange attribution, and conditions for out-goings. For example, they might want their outgoings to write a scientific report or to sign up for a particular class in order to go on exchange so that the exchange may be recognized. They might like to have a legal convention signed with your NMO in order to ensure that the incomings meet the exchange conditions of your NMO and to provide insurance to these incom-ings. - Provide an annual report that summarizes the ex-changes and send it to all tutors and to the faculty.

Congratulations, you have succeeded in (ex)chang-ing your faculty!

Suggested References for the impact of exchanges in medical education:

1. Mutchnick E, Moyer C, Stern D. Expanding the Boundaries of Medical Education: Evidence for Cross-Cultural Exchanges: Academic Medicine [Internet]. LWW. 2016 [cit-ed 5 January 2016]. Available from: http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Full-text/2003/10001/Expanding_the_Boundaries_of_Medical_Education_.2.aspx

2. Drain P, Primack A, Hunt D, Fawzi W, Holmes K, Gardner P. Global Health in Medi-cal Education: A Call for More Training and Opportunities: Academic Medicine [Internet]. LWW. 2016 [cited 5 January 2016]. Available from: http://journals.lww.com/academicmed-icine/Abstract/2007/03000/Global_Health_in_Medical_Education__A_Call_for.4.aspx

3. The Erasmus Impact Article. EU Publications [Internet]. 2016 [cited 5 January 2016];. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/study/2014/erasmus-impact_en.pdf

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IFMSAInternational Federation ofMedical Students Associations

Algeria (Le Souk)

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of (MSA-DRC)

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external representation & academic recognition in exchanges

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