What's new in the studentBMJ
The
studentBMJ is changing in line with its readership and
developments in medical education, as Deborah Cohen and others
explain
Starting
this month the studentBMJ and studentbmj.com have
changed their content to reflect our growing international audience and
the changing face of medical education. The internet now plays an
important part in education and medical students increasingly have
options to work abroad and to study subjects that are not directly
related to medicine. The changes also come from our recent market
research and strategy days and from the opinions of medical students
from the United Kingdom and around the
world.
Professional
exchanges
The Standing Committee on
Professional Exchange (SCOPE) was set up in 1951 when the IFMSA was
first formed. Since then it has continued to be one of the most
important core activities of the IFMSA and has continued to grow and
expand rapidly-increasing from 11 countries and 906 exchanges to
78 countries with over 6000 exchanges a
year.
Most exchanges comprise a four
week clinical bilateral exchange; however, preclinical or unilateral
exchanges may also be offered in some countries. To enable this scheme
to function, national exchange officers from each country meet twice a
year to sign contracts and help people in their country to arrange
exchanges.
The aim of SCOPE is to
promote international understanding and cooperation among medical
students and health professionals, promoting understanding of medical
and social conditions in different
countries.
New features on
studentbmj.com
One major change to
studentbmj.com is removing the dedicated elective section. We felt that
it was becoming repetitive-we have covered a large number of
countries in the 11 years that we have been running this
feature-and UK students predominantly wrote for this section,
giving a biased view of the world. There are lots of opportunities for
medical students to go abroad and participate in projects other than
the elective period.
Both the
studentBMJ and International Federation of Medical
Students' Associations (IFMSA), who organise experiences abroad
for medical students (see boxes), are inundated with people asking for
more information about other students' experiences in different
countries. So we have created a new online resource for students to
share their experiences, which is on studentbmj.com under
the "Elective and Exchange" banner. In this section, you
can write about your elective or exchange using an electronic form and
read other students' reports. This will then be sent directly to
both the studentBMJ and the IFMSA (if appropriate), who will
select submissions to post on Elective and Exchange. In time, this can
also be used as a valuable resource so you may opt just to read rather
than post submissions. (This does not signal the death of diary style
articles based on travel experiences, and we continue to encourage
students to write about their experiences if they feel if they have
something worth sharing.) On the world map in our Elective and Exchange
section you will also find links to most medical schools in the world,
student associations, and medical websites linked to the relevant
country.
Research
exchanges
Another opportunity to escape abroad
comes through the Standing Committee on Research Exchanges (SCORE).
Rather than swap clinical rotations-which would only be an option
for clinical medical students-a research exchange allows you to
do a basic science or clinical research project at an institution
overseas. Currently 37 countries are involved in research exchanges
offering a wide range of projects for between one and six months. This
means that host institutions can find a space in their timetable to
accommodate students whether it is for a special study module or an
entire summer
holiday.
We have also introduced topic collections on
studentbmj.com so that you can easily search by topic all material that
we have published since January 2000. We have over 120 topics and have
divided them into clinical and non-clinical categories to help
you find what you are looking
for.
The studentBMJ has
almost 100 advisers from all over the world. Countries represented by
our team include Australia, Austria, Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada,
the Dutch Antilles, El Salvador, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq,
Lithuania, Mexico, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Slovenia, Sudan, Turkey,
Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our advisers are
listed on our website and are the first port of call for queries about
the
studentBMJ.
Content
changes
We are introducing many
changes to the actual content of the studentBMJ. From this month
onwards we are having new magazine style features called
"Spotlight on," which will allow students to cover topical
and controversial subjects in a lighter way than an
editorial.
We will also be phasing
out book reviews (from next month we will no longer have them in the
paper version but will continue to have them on the
web)-books have different publication dates and are often
prohibitively expensive-in favour of reviews of websites
(What's on the web), workshops, films, and art exhibitions. Short
punchy Viewpoints replace "Personal views" and Soundings.
These will be no longer than 500 words and cover opinions about all
aspects of medical student life. From this month, we have also replaced
Minerva with Eyespy, which will still report on quirky medical news
from around the world but will be submitted by you-medical
students everywhere. We have updated the authors' guidelines on
our website giving further details about these
changes.
Deborah Cohen, student editor, studentBMJ
Email: dcohen@bmj.com
Se Eun Jung, UK representative SCOPE
Email: Leo_rums@hotmail.com
John Forrest, UK representative SCORE
Email: john@sharkswimmer.co.uk
studentBMJ 2004;12:133-176 April ISSN 0966-6494
