Inform, connect and represent

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The medical study cohort of the 21st century  is more diverse than ever. The peak medical  student representative body, the Australian  Medical Students’ Association (AMSA), is constantly adapting to meet the needs of the student cohort it represents. With the mandate to inform, connect and represent, AMSA has served medical students from around the country for over 50 years  writes Ben O’Sullivan.

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AMSA’s genesis came about in 1960 with the first national conference for medical students in Brisbane. The National Convention continues to be held annually and still carries some of the traditions formed in that first meeting 55 years ago. AMSA, however, has evolved over the decades and now has many facets enabling engagement with each and every one of the 17,000 Australian medical students.
In 2014, AMSA is a diverse association which organises events, advocates on medical and health issues, runs educational short courses, and represents students at the local and national level. With no ceiling in sight yet, each year AMSA becomes bigger and better.
CONNECT
ASMA National convention
The ASMA National Convention is AMSA’s premier event and the 55th staging this year in Adelaide attracted more than 1800 medical students from across the nation. The National Convention is held each year in July and runs for seven days, encompassing five days of packed academic program and seven sensational social nights. This year the event involved speakers such as Dr Bob Brown, Dr Patch Adams and Dr Andrew Rochford to address the delegates. Each year, as the event travels around the country, it challenges a new cohort of medical students to test their networking skills, their opinion on controversial topics, and finally their willpower and stamina. Convention has a sacred reputation with medical students and will continue to provide great experiences for the medical cohort for decades to come.
National Leadership Development
Medical students are the future leaders of the health force and potentially the country. AMSA holds the National Leadership Development Seminar each year in Canberra to foster the leadership within the student ranks. The event, involving less than 100 hand-picked medical students following a rigorous application process, challenges the leadership skills and opinions of delegates. Furthermore, over the last few years NLDS has provided students the opportunity to meet with members of parliament face to face and lobby for issues affecting medical students. This year, students met with members from every state to discuss issues ranging from the medical pipeline and internship places through to asylum seekers and refugee mental health. The event is just one example for how AMSA is preparing the leaders of tomorrow.
Global Health Conference
The third major event AMSA runs is the annual Global Health Conference (GHC). Over the recent decades, medical students have taken an ever increasing interest in global health and the popularity of GHC indicates this is unlikely to abate. This year, held in Sydney, GHC will be headlined by a teleconference by the controversial Julian Assange.

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“Over the last few years NLDS has provided students the opportunity to meet with members of parliament face to face and lobby for issues affecting medical students.”

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REPRESENT
AMSA Advocacy
AMSA prides itself on both the power and breadth of its advocacy. The Orange Book, AMSA’s policy platform, available through the website, reveals an Association that is willing to advocate with passion on issues as diverse as the student cohort. In 2014, the AMSA National Council outlined three major advocacy campaigns for AMSA to focus upon: the provision of sufficient high quality medical internship places, student mental health, and the quality of medical education.
Medical Internships
Over the last 15 years, the number of medical students being trained has almost doubled. This was required to match the expanding population and to address the chronic shortage of medical practitioners. Despite the large increase in the number of medical student positions, there has been a lag  in the number of internship positions available nationally.  In order for a medical degree to be worth its salt, the graduate needs to complete a one year internship in a teaching hospital. Failure to do so would effectively render the degree useless.
Unfortunately, for the last few years, the number of  internship positions available have been less than the number graduating, resulting in medical graduates being  left unemployed. With projections stating that Australia  will still be overly reliant on overseas trained doctors in 2025, it seems farcical to not utilise the graduates that Australia has trained. AMSA continues to push for the development of additional positions to ensure that Australia can maximise the investment it has made in medical education. Despite increasing in the last few years, there are still hundreds that miss out.
Student mental health  
More than a quarter in the 16-24 age group experience a mental health disorder in a 12 month period. Youths are also, however, less likely to access mental health services. AMSA, as an organisation made up of primarily young people with an interest in health, finds this alarming and a great challenge to be addressed. The situation is perhaps even more alarming among medical students, with a BeyondBlue survey showing high rates of depression, suicidal ideation and alcohol misuse. AMSA has been engaging with various bodies, and has launched its own Student Mental Health and Wellbeing campaign, to act on this issue.
Provision of quality medical education  
Medical education in Australia is chronically underfunded. Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand estimate that this underfunding is in the order of over $20,000 per student per year. This is compromising the quality of our future doctors, and the Commonwealth contribution to medical education is lower than other OECD countries. Unfortunately, this issue turned on its head in the Federal Budget, with the announcement that the government’s solution to this would be deregulation of university fees, and further reduced Commonwealth contributions to tertiary education. Unfortunately, this is likely to deter students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, outer metropolitan communities and rural and remote communities from studying medicine. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest it will drive graduates into more lucrative specialties than, say, general practice. The impact on the health workforce will be staggering, and as such AMSA has been active politically in ensuring these consequences are known about.

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“Medical students may be no longer expected to name every layer of fascia, however the modern graduate needs the toolkit to engage on a broad range of topics.”

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INFORM
AMSA Academy  
A new initiative in 2014 is the AMSA Academy. A series of online educational short courses, the Academy is deigned to engage medical students with topics not traditionally taught thoroughly in the medical curriculum. Currently, AMSA Academy is running courses on sexuality and sexual health as well as a course on mental health and resilience. The courses have been well subscribed and offer students an alternative means of obtaining a rounded education. Medical students may be no longer expected to name every layer of fascia, however the modern graduate needs the toolkit to engage on a broad range of topics. AMSA Academy is helping to produce this kind of graduate.
AMSA Blood Challenge – Vampire Cup  
Each year the medical student cohort rolls up their collective sleeves to save some lives in the name of competition. The Blood Challenge, ran in association with the Red Cross Blood Service, both encourages students to donate as well as providing the opportunity to advertise the need for more donations. The medical society with the largest percentage of students donating is awarded the Vampire Cup. One in three Australians will require blood products during their life, AMSA is doing its best to ensure that those products are available when required.

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“A series of online educational short courses, the Academy is deigned to engage medical students with topics not traditionally taught thoroughly in the medical curriculum”.

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