AMSA

By Robert Marshall, AMSA PresidentAs 2011 draws to an end, the Christmas parades begin, and medical students around Australia celebrate the end of another (or final) academic year; my term as AMSA President, and that of our Perth based Executive, is drawing to a close. In October, the new Executive from Victoria was elected, headed by incoming President James Churchill, who will take the reins on January 1.

The end of the year inevitably conjures a sense of reflection on what has been an incredibly busy, productive, and successful period for AMSA. I’m sure every AMSA President must think that looking back on the year, as the retrospectoscope inevitably distorts our perception of both the importance and the effectiveness of 12 months’ worth of lobbying, advocacy and representation on a number of important issues. In 2011, however, I think it might just be true.

We began the year strongly advocating for an increased focus on the quality of medical education and training and continued to advocate and agitate on core issues affecting medical students in Australia. These have included:

• Our stance against the re-emergence of full-fee places for domestic students enrolled in the Melbourne MD degree;
• The impact on the quality of training caused by increasing student numbers;
• The issues of student overload and the prospect of International students missing out on internships;
• The importance of medical student wellbeing;
• The importance of ethical electives and opportunities for overseas and developing world experiences for medical students and junior doctors;
• Awareness of issues relating to the use of social media among the medical profession;
• Our successful agitation to over-turn student learning entitlement legislation;
• The importance of a workable and effective transition to e-health;
• The stance against bonding of students to rural areas and the need for support and assistance to recruit and retain rural origin students;
• The importance of recruiting and retaining Indigenous medical students and improved awareness of the discrepancies between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health outcomes;
• Focus on the development of medical education consistent with 21st century medical professionalism; and
• The need to get the current crop of students through the system before opening any new medical schools.

Most of these issues have had, at their core, the problem of a severely overburdened medical education system caused by successive and large increases to the number of medical students in Australia over the last decade - the responsibility of Universities and Governments alike. Finally recognising that this problem was not going to go away on its own, the Government established Health Workforce Australia (funded to the tune of $1 billion) and its National Training Plan. While we have continued to contribute and shape the modelling of the National Training Plan, and the final report released in December this year is sure to be crucial to addressing both workforce shortages and the myriad of problems with clinical training in Australia, it’s worth noting that the name is a bit of a misnomer. A far cry from a detailed ‘plan’, the best we can hope for at this stage is a series of calculations, models and data. Useful, certainly, but it will still be the politicians on the Hill who decide how and when medical education will be expanded, improved and properly funded.

Another big focus for 2011, as with every year, is our community and student events. In July, the AMSA Global Health Conference and AMSA National Convention were both held in Sydney. Attracting over 1600 students to both, these events offered world-class speakers, workshops and networking opportunities for students from all over Australia. In August the AMSA/NRHSN National Rural Leadsership Development Seminar was held in Victor Harbour, South Australia, and was also a resounding success.

In September, the AMSA National Leadership Development Seminar was held in Canberra at Parliament House, with 80 handpicked students from across Australia in attendance with the likes of AMA President Steve Hambleton, Deputy Leader of the Opposition The Hon Julie Bishop MP, HWA Director Ian Crettenden, MDANZ President Professor Justin Beilby, and AMA-CDT Deputy Chair Dr Rob Mitchell.

Throughout the year, we also held three AMSA National Councils, passing a myriad of new policies which underpins and continues to progress AMSA’s advocacy. We also finished the year with the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, Ms Helen Jentz, who commenced in Canberra in late November.

Even more recently, AMSA has embraced the men’s health campaign Movember, pitting medical schools across Australia against each other to see who can grow the best moustaches (for the 47.6 per cent of medical students in Australia who can) and, more importantly, which University raises the most money for men’s health organisations, most notably the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue: the national depression initiative. To date, the AMSA network has raised over $25,000, and in the process is drawing attention to the issues of men’s health. This is not the first time we have harnessed the competitive nature of medical schools to further a good cause; earlier this year the AMSA National Blood Drive saw 920 blood donations across the country, which the Australian Red Cross estimates as a contribution towards improving 2,760 lives. Our Pink Ribbon breakfast held during National Convention in Sydney raised a further $10,000 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Finally, AMSA has taken the Red Party project, which started at UWA in 2007, to both the national and international medical student communities, raising over $100,000 for HIV/AIDS in the process.
So, I think we can say that it has indeed been a very busy, very important year for AMSA. If I were to pinpoint what continues to make AMSA so successful  - and I think the same would be true of any professional association, the AMA included - it is that our members, the medical students of Australia, are ultimately the people who can effect change and progress the organisation. Students raise the issues, our representatives turn those issues into policies and solutions for a better way forward, and we get to present those solutions to the people making the big decisions in health and education. Throughout the year, it has become increasingly apparent just how important the message of medical student leadership is. All doctors are leaders, and it is our duty to step up to the role and be a part of the process of improving our health care system for the benefit of all Australians.

Ultimately, it’s hard to say if 2011 has been a particularly significant year in the medico-political landscape or if all of this is really just the beginning of some much bigger changes that are happening across the board to our healthcare system, our future profession and our education. Either way it has been an incredible opportunity to contribute in some small way to improving the experience of my medical student colleagues, and I know that next year’s Executive and the many medical students who get involved with AMSA in the future will continue to do their best to connect, to inform, and most importantly, to represent.