Name : Fina Hidayati Tams, B. Med
School : Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
Year : 6th Year of Study
Department : Child and Adolescent Health and Development (CAH), the cluster of Family and Community Health (FCH)
Period : May 1-June 30, 2008
Objectives : As the project coordinator of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) to create a map and a database of the content of Pediatric Curricula in medical schools with specific objectives to : (1) clean and input the received data in a database, (2) analyze the data in the database and prepare and present a report, (3) prepare a publication on the results of the survey for an international public health journal, and (4) become acquainted with the work of WHO and especially WHO/CAH at Headquarters level.
Supervisor : Dr. Reijsenbach de Haan, Medical Officer, CAH Dept. WHO Headquarter
Switzerland
The federal of Switzerland is famous an eternal neutral country. It’s located in the central of Europe and surrou nded by Germany, France and Italy. No wonder that this country has Germany speaking part (such as Zurich, Bern, etc), French speaking part (such as Geneva, just near the France border, etc) and also Italian speaking part. It’s a comfort country to live in but the living cost is really high.
Geneva
Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland. It’s the French speaking part of Switzerland. Geneva has 441,000 inhabitants, 38.7% of them are foreigners, from 180 different countries. Geneva is widely regarded as a global city, mainly due to the presence of numerous international or ganizations about 200 head offices of the United Nations agencies including World Health Organization (WHO). A lot of international conferences were held in Geneva every year such as the Annual World Health Assembly (WHA) which is held every May.
World Health Organization
It is a specialized agency within the United Nations which has objective e.g. the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health. WHO Headquarters has 8 clusters : (1) Health Action and Crises, (2) Health Security & Environment, (3) Information, Evidence and Research, (4) Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health, (5) HIV/AIDS, TB Malaria & Neglected Tropical Diseases, (6) Family and Community Health, (7) Healths Systems and Services, (8) General Management. Under the clusters there are many departments WHO Headquarters led by Director General (DG). The current DG is Dr. Margareth Chan from Hongkong.
Child and Adolescent Health and Development Department (CAH)
I had my internship in the cluster of Family and Community Health, Child and Adolescent Health and Development (CAH) Department. It’s under the supervision of Dr. Reijsenbach De Haan, one of the medical officers in CAH Department WHO HQ. He comes from the Netherlands and was former WHO Staff in the CAH Department, WHO country office, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Internship in WHO HQ
Internships are available in a wide variety of areas related to the technical work of WHO. Most WHO internships are based at Headquarters in Geneva. The duration of WHO internships is between a minimum of 6 weeks to a maximum of 12 weeks. WHO internships are not paid. Travel costs, travel arrangements (including visas), and living accommodations are the responsibility of the intern or their sponsoring institution. Interns may participate only once in the WHO Internship Programme. Interns do not have the status of WHO staff members and shall not represent the Organization in any official capacity.
Permanent Mission for Republic Indonesia to the UN and other international organization in Geneva
I got sponsorship to conduct my internship in WHO HQ from several sponsors. The most came from the Permanent Mission for Republic Indonesia to the UN and other international organization. It is institution under the Ministry of Foreign Affair, Republic of Indonesia in order to link between the country to the UN and other international organizations related affairs. There are two places in the world, one is in New York, USA and another is in Geneva, Switzerland. I got free accommodation and I stayed in an Indonesian guest house. It’s located just in front of the WHO HQ building next to the UNAIDS building.
Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula (GSPC)
I have my internship related to the project work of IFMSA named Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula. It is an IFMSA official project in collaboration with The Child and Adolescent Health and Development (CAH) Department of WHO which is carried out by IFMSA Standing Committee on Medical Education (SCOME) from October 2007- May 2008. The aim of this project is the creation of a Map and Database of Paediatric Curricula around the world which enables us to get the information about the Paediatric Curricula. It can be a confirmatory tool about what medical student learn and understand and the skills in paediatrics.
The main objectives of this project are : (1) to describe what medical students learn during their paediatric curricula, (2) to describe clinical skills taught in Paediatric Curricula, and (3) to find out what medical students know and learn about IMCI in their paediatric curricula.
My task
As I am the project coordinator named Global Survey on Pediatric Curricula (GSPC) of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) to create a map and a database of the content of Pediatric Curricula in medical schools with specific objectives to : (1) clean and input the received data in a database, (2) analyze the data in the database and prepare and present a report, (3) prepare a publication on the results of the survey for an international public health journal, and (4) become acquainted with the work of WHO and especially WHO/CAH at Headquarters level.
Schedule
1.05-15.05 Data collection and evaluation
15.05-21.05 Geneva Seminar on Global Health and Globalization
19.05-24.05 World Health Assembly
21.05-30.05 Continue Data Collection
01.06-15.06 Extended data collection
15.06 – 30.06 Analyze and making report
I started my internship by continuing the data collection of the survey. The survey results were not enough to be analyzed so I should try to get more responses on the survey. My works were calling medical students around the world to socialize the survey and also the posted more email through the IFMSA mailing address.
Geneva Seminar on Global Health and Globalization
During the data collection period, I took days off to attend Geneva Seminar of Health and Globalization from May15-21, 2008. I am interested in global health and I want to pursue my careers in global health in the future while doing my clinical work as general practitioner and or become a pediatrician. There were eight medical students representing IFMSA in this seminar. By attending this seminar, I had the opportunities to acquaintance with the global health activities within WHO and other international organizations such as UNICEF, Mediciens Sans Frontiers (MSF), International Labor Organizations (ILO), etc. I also have the opportunity to attend World Health Assembly whereas the world health policies were discussed and set up.
61st World Health Assembly (WHA)
Although I was not the participant during 61st WHA, I still can attend the WHA in the public gallery provided for the public who wanted to experience the atmosphere of WHA. I could follow the discussions about particular health agenda proposed in this WHA such as the effect of climate change on health, Alma-Ata conference, and chronic diseases. I could also meet the Indonesian delegates in WHA from the Department of Health and also Dept of Foreign Affair of Republic Indonesia led by The Health Minister of Republic Indonesia .
In between the seminar and WHA, I met the IFMA officers in order to evaluate the GSPC progress. Parallel to the WHA, there were exhibition on the WHO’s departments. They exhibited the project within the year, selling the publication of the department, etc.
Daily Schedule
8h00-8h30 Come to the office
8h30-12h15 Work
12h15-13h00/14h00 Lunch including seminar and training
13h00/14h00-17h00 working
15h30 Coffee break
17h00 Go home
My daily activities in WHO were contacting more medical students as many as possible in order to participate in the survey by calling via phone and sending personal emails. I also documented the data collection and preparing the data analysis, and writing a publication. However, due to the limited survey responses, the team extended the survey deadlines.
I attended the WHO Library training which help me in searching the literatures needed for my publication paper. Every weeks, there were several seminar and also training with several topics about global health such as the seminar on history of Asthma, Break the Tobacco marketing net for the celebration of World no Tobacco day, etc. I had to do my works while I still could have fun with my friends. During the hectic works, I usually have coffee breaks with my friend and after I could continue my works
WHO Intern
During this summer, there were lots of interns conducting their internship in WHO HQ. The interns were invited to join the mailing list where many information given such as the interns events including the intern lunch which usually held every Monday and Tuesday at 12.15 and interns drink on the same days at 18.00. The other event is the intern’s opportunity to meet WHO-DG which was held on last July, 2008.
Intern’s Lunch and Drink
The intern’s lunch and drinks seems to be a good opportunity to get to know each other with the other interns. I and other interns usually gather in the front of big painting, the favourite meeting point in WHO HQ since everybody can easily find it. After that we usually go together to the cafeteria to have our lunch while sharing our story about how we can get the internship, our works in WHO, and sometimes to arrange a social programs together.
WHO Staff in CAH Dept.
I also had the opportunity to join the gathering with other WHO staffs in CAH Dept. Sometimes they made a small party celebrating good moments in their life such as the wedding ceremony. Furthermore, there are Indonesians working in WHO HQ such as Mrs. Ida, Ms Sari in Media Department, Ms. Monica, Ms. Mieke, etc. However, none of them is doctor. It encourages me to pursue my career in WHO in the future.
Result on the survey
After having the extended survey deadlines, finally I got 600 responses from medical students around the world. The number was still under our expectation but we don’t think we’ll try to extend the deadline more since we considering that the people become bored because it was to long enough. However, we had offer an incentive, an WHO Pocket Book : Hospital Care for Children for medical students who participated the survey.
Obstacles
It was a pity whenever my supervisor was not at the office during my internship. It’s because he was in his sick leave. However, he appointed the other staff named dr. Susanne Carai to help me working on my survey.
Conclusion
I have a great time during my internship. However, I am not really satisfied with the survey result which is below the target. In overall, the internship is valuable for me because I can be acquaintance with the work in WHO HQ, meet the other interns and people who might give me networking in the future.
Recommendation
- Encourage medical student to have internship in WHO
- Encourage institutions to give the sponsorship for any medical students who want to have the internship.
- Provide relevant networks for future intern from Indonesia
SPECIAL THANK
Ministry of Foreign Affair especially Public Diplomacy Department and Permanent Mission of Republic Indonesia to the UN and other international organization staffs in Geneva, Ministry of National Education of Indonesia especially the Bureau of Planning and Cooperation for Foreign Affair, Ministry of Health of Republic Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, Faculty Medicine of Gadjah Mada University, Asia-Link TB & HIV/AIDS Faculty of Medicine GMU, IFMSA, CIMSA, My host family Mr& Mrs. Toto, Mr& Mrs. Di Nolfi, Dr. Friesjenbach de Haan, Dr. Martin Weber, Dr. Susanne Carai, and the entire WHO CAH dept. staffs, Dr. Madarina Julia, Dr. Rudi Nuriadi, My intern friend in WHO HQ, and other parties who helped me in this internship.
More information
WHO internship :
www.who.int/employment/internship/en
Contact Detail :
Fina Hidayati Tams
6th year student, Faculty of Medicine Gadjah Mada University
Address : Farmako Street, Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta
Email : fina.tams@gmail.com
GSPC survey :
http://tools.ifmsa.org/surveys/survey.php?sid=39
IFMSA
www.ifmsa.org
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