WHO Internship in Child and Adolescent Health Department (CAH), Geneva, May-June 2008 (repost)

Actually, my intern was conducted almost 3 years ago. But, I’d like to share again my experience to those who are interested to have internship in WHO HQ and encourage more people to have similar experience especially the medical student. Correct me if I am wrong, but based on the information I received, I was the first medical student from Indonesia who had internship in WHO Headquarter, Geneva, Switzerland. However, there were some Indonesian students other then med stud who already had internship in HQ. Yeah, of course it was difficult and expensive. But if you are serious, you’ll find the way..^_^

How I got the post?

Most of you are probably wondering how I got one internship post in WHO HQ. It was because I was entitled to have internship in WHO HQ as the project coordinator for Pediatric Survey with WHO which later on named “Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula/GSPC”. This project was initiated by Dr. Martin Weber in WHO HQ CAH Dept, WHO liaison to IFMSA and Dr. Sophie Gubbels, International Federation of Medical Students’ Association (IFMSA) Liaison Officer (LO) for WHO 2006-07. The project was under the Standing Committee on Medical Education (SCOME)- IFMSA.

Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula/GSPC, what it’s all about?

The Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula is an official trans-national project of IFMSA in collaboration with WHO Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development. The survey is being conducted by IFMSA SCOME from October 2007- May 2008.

The Aim and Objectives :
The aim of this project is to create a Map and Database of Paediatric Curricula around the world which enables us to get the information about the Paediatric Curricula. It is intended as a tool to gather and consolidate information on what medical students learn and understand, and also what skills they have in paediatric.

Referred to Integrated Management of Childhood Illnessess (IMCI) , WHO Pocket Book : Hospital Care for Children

More information please visit my previous note in the following website : http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=33441943168

Call for Application of Project coordinator for Pediatric Survey with WHO and Selection Procedure

The vacancy was posted in the IFMSA mailing list on 3 July 2007. There were 8 applicants and shortlisted by LO WHO and SCOME -Director into 4 candidates. The final decision was based on WHO selection, in this case, Dr. Martin and Dr. Frits de Haan were in charge because Dr. Martin who previously worked in WHO HQ moved to WHO Indonesia (WCO INO) and vice versa Dr. Frist who previously worked in WHO INO moved to WHO HQ. It took sometime to get the confirmation of the one who selected.

At that time, I was quite lucky because I received recommendation from Dr. Rudi Nuriadi, former WHO INO and my lecturer in pediatric, Dr. Roni Naning, Sp.A who were contacted by Dr. Hani Roespandi, former national consultant for CAH Dept, WHO INO. They provided me credit points for my application. On 22 September 2007, Dr. Sophie finally announced the elected Project Coordinator.

After being selected as the project coordinator, I started working on the proposal and established the online survey. I was assisted by some IFMSA officials Dr. Maxmillian Menhert, New Technologies Support Division Director IFMSA 2007-08, Dr. Menno Smith, Dr. Eric Tam (LO WHO 2007-08), Dr. Dani Rodrigues (SCOME Director 2007-08), Ms. Silva Rukavina (LO WHO 2008-09) my teacher Dr. Madarina Julia, Sp.A because she is in charge for IMCI program, Dr. Martin, Dr. Frits, etc.

For finalizing the survey, I had my internship in WHO HQ, CAH Dept for conducting data cleaning, data analysis, and paper writing. The online survey was open from October 2007 – May 2008 for medical students with certain criteria.

” As the project coordinator, I was entitled to get one internship post in WHO Headquarter, CAH Department.”

Internship in WHO HQ, CAH Department

Voila!!! Here we go!….It’s the best part.

It’s the matter of choice. You have to prepare the time availability, personal funding, and your brain.
Being an intern was not paid, must arrange their own return transportation to Geneva and accommodation during the stay in internship period. It was very challenging!!!!

1. I decided to skip my clinical clerkship from April – June 2008.
2. I had to prepare the funding (2 months in Geneva, the cities with high living cost)
3. FUNDRAISING…(money…money..money..)
4. Finalize the survey

I had limited time for fundraising. I supposed to have 3 months internship instead of 2 months. I was in the middle of the Internal Medicine Clinical clerkship which made me trapped in the hospital, duty travel in other city, paper works, night shift, etc. Just imagine how much fund I must prepare for staying in Geneva for two months??

“Dozens of million IDR..Wooow, that was fantastic number for an ordinary medical student like me !”

I almost cancelled my internship in Geneva and thinking to have the internship in WHO Indonesia. Fortunately, I could manage to provide the funding. I got scholarship, donation, free accommodation and networking from these following institution :

1. Public Diplomacy Department and Permanent Mission of Republic Indonesia to the UN and other international organization staffs in Geneva, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia
2. Travel assistance programme from and to foreign countries, the Bureau of Planning and Cooperation for Foreign Affair, Ministry of National Education. Klik this website : http://bantuan.diknas.go.id/data.php?app=ya&id=230
3. Ministry of Health of Republic Indonesia,
4. International Cooperation Office Gadjah Mada University,
5. Faculty Medicine of Gadjah Mada University
6. Asia-Link TB & HIV/AIDS Faculty of Medicine GMU

The General Procedure of Internship in WHO Head quarter

Actually, for those who wants to apply as intern in WHO HQ, you can apply online. For more detail, you can access in the following link :
http://www.who.int/employment/internship/en/

All applications should be made through the WHO e-Recruitment system. If you are new applicant, just sign in the link below :
https://erecruit.who.int/public/hrd-vac-newuser.asp?apptype=1&jobinfo_uid_c=1&o_c=1000&lng=en

Please be informed of the deadline of application submission are :

1. To be considered for a Summer internship, applications are received between 1 December and 31 January.
2. To be considered for a Winter internship, applications are received between 1 August and 30 September each year.
3. If you are applying outside of these application periods, write to interns@who.int
   I also did the regular administration procedure just like the other intern, however I have already had one seat for sure…^_^

Owh, nope..One problem solved and other challenge came in….what was it?

My supervisor was on leave and I had to extend the data collection period of the survey because the response was under our expectation…Of course we already have hundreds of med stud participated the survey from 61 coutries, however we felt that they did not representative enough for the entire region. So, we extended up to 16 June 2008. Bon chance, Fina !!!!

So far, I enjoyed my internship. I did the work, make friends with other intern, go sightseeing around Geneva, etc. Full story of my internship is available in the following link :
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0Bw7dDnQ_PFAnNmFlMjkxMjktNzUzZS00MjIyLTg5ZmEtMTEwZmQwMDg5NTY0&hl=en

The survey result was presented in Asian Conference on Diarrhoeal Disease and Nutrition (ASCODD XII) in Yogyakarta, 25 -27 May 2011.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0Bw7dDnQ_PFAnZmUwN2MyNjYtY2VhNi00YjNkLWJhMWEtNzYzYWY3Zjc0YzQ4&hl=en

My presentation could be accessed in this following link :
http://finatams.multiply.com/video/item/1

Internship in Geneva University Hospital

On the 2nd month of WHO intern, I also had my internship in Geneva University Hospital through SCOPE-IFMSA exchange. In the morning I had my intern in the hospital and after lunch I had my intern in WHO until 7 – 9 PM. Thanks god, it’s almost summer time. So, it was long day time! There were only two medical student had internship there. It’s me in Cardiology Department and one medical student from Tunisia, Sakr, in Orthopedic Department.

Interested to read my clinical internship in Geneva University hospital, please visit the following link:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0Bw7dDnQ_PFAnNDVhZjMyMWYtNDkxMC00ZWU5LTk5MzktNTVjYmRmMzFhYzNi&hl=en

For more detail of IFMSA please visit www.ifmsa.org

Presentation of my WHO HQ internship (presented during the meeting of the Rector of Gadjah Mada University and students’ parents is available below :
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0Bw7dDnQ_PFAnODNmNWIyN2QtY2Q4ZS00NDViLWFhYjItYWYwNGVlOGRmZmRi&hl=en

That’s all my stories goes…I felt so lucky to have this opportunity and it’s inspired me a lot. I would like to thank to everyone who support me and made this dream came true.

I LOVE GENEVA AND LONGING TO COME BACK AND WORK THERE AS SOON AS I GET THE CHANCE. HOPEFULLY IN THE NEAREST FUTURE….^_^

Visit my FB album if you want to see my internship

https://www.facebook.com/fina.tams/media_set?set=a.31417351740.53027.597971740&type=3

Just let me know if you need more tips and tricks to have intern in WHO HQ, I’d try my best to help!!