#Proudofourstudents | The Med’Trotters, on their way to Togo!

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Did you know? This year, ACM's exchange program is organizing an international solidarity mission to Togo! Thirteen students will have the opportunity to fly there in July to join an association working to renovate a school. Interview.

Who are you?

We are Anouk Evrard and Claire Boin. Currently students in DFGSM3 at the Faculty, we are also elected members of the ACM. Our role as VP Exchange is to facilitate international exchanges (whether for incoming or outgoing students) or inter-CHU exchanges (exchanges between university hospitals during the summer internship). 

New this year is an international solidarity project called "Med'Trotter"! 

Can you tell us more about the Med’Trotter project?

Med’Trotter is a project that was conceived by Camille Borne, our former VP of Exchange, in 2019. Unfortunately, due to the health crisis, the project could not be completed, which is why we decided to revive it this year!

Specifically, this is a project linked to "Espace Hotsi." This is a Togolese association that sets up renovation projects to improve the quality of life of residents.

This year, the goal is to go for a month to help this association with the renovation of a school in Wli, near Tsévié.

How will you help Espace Hotsi? 

With elbow grease! We will be helping the association's members for a month to renovate four classrooms and the bathrooms. This is very important because the school teaches from kindergarten to elementary school, so it will benefit many children.

Since it is very hot in Togo, we will only be able to work on the construction site in the mornings. We have therefore planned to run workshops with the children and villagers in the afternoons. We have come up with several themes related to art, drawing, sculpture, sports, singing, dancing, and even gardening! Of course, we will also help by providing academic support and awareness-raising activities. To do this, we have drawn inspiration from the activities we carry out during our health services. We have also approached Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) for guidance on the most appropriate way to raise awareness. We really want to do things right.

And then in the evening, there will be an opportunity to hold gatherings. We want to share with the local population, exchange stories, cultures, and traditions.

 

How can we help you with this wonderful project?

This project requires €24,000 in funding. These expenses are divided between the construction site itself, the school and gardening equipment we need for the workshops, and, of course, everything related to transportation, accommodation, and medical expenses for the 13 medical students who are about to leave!

To raise this money, we have already applied for and received a grant from the FSDIE. This will enable us to fund the trip for five of the 13 students who are going. We have also applied for grants from the CROUS, the JSI (Jeunesse Solidarité Internationale, awarded by the Fonjep) and the department. We are currently awaiting the results.

Our last card is self-financing. To this end, we have set up the "Stand TOGO," which we install once a month at the Faculty. Our goal is to sell snacks and, above all, second-hand clothing to finance our trip.

 

You can help us by donating clothes you no longer want to the student union office and/or buying clothes you like when the stand is set up! Nothing goes to waste: clothes that are not too worn are donated to the ACM's ISS division during their outreach programs! 

We have also set up a donation fund for anyone who would like to make a contribution.

 

Make a donation

 

Finally, we are organizing a raffle in April! All you have to do is buy a ticket from the student union. The draw will take place at our Togo stand on April 21! Pins will also be on sale for the occasion, so don't forget to come and see us and follow us on our Instagram account: @med_trotter !

 

In short

  • The international solidarity project

    • Helping to restore a school 
    • Benefit from a unique international experience based on exchange
    • 13 medical students are participating in this adventure.
    • A project requiring €24,000 in funding

  • How can I help?

    • Donate clothes you no longer want to the student union office.
    • Buy secondhand clothing at the stalls.
    • Enter the raffle
    • Make a donation to the fund
    • Follow and share @med_trotter ! 

 

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PREPABLOC: An innovation recognized by the Academy of Surgery!

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After winning MUSE's Take-Off 3 competition, Dr. Herrero and Dr. Bonnel presented the PREPABLOC training course during the "Research and Surgical Innovation 2021" session of the National Academy of Surgery. The course was then awarded the prize for educational innovation! Let's take a look back at this unique training course.

 

 

 

PRÉPABLOC: training for tomorrow's operating room professionals

The construction of the project

The launch of PREPABLOC stems from a co-creation initiative led by Dr. Herrero, supported by Dr. Ferrandis. A multi-professional and multidisciplinary team was formed, bringing together:

  • The teaching staff at the CHU's IBODE school,
  •  Assistant Clinical Directors at CHU and ICM hospitals,
  •   the LIRMM teams,
  • Gipsotherapist in the Emergency Department of the University Hospital. 

 

Training program

Proposed and coordinated by the innovation extractor, this is an innovation marathon in the form of a competition between teams of around ten people. Creativity sessions enable participants to design useful projects in record time and learn how to pitch them at the end of the week. The five themes were stress, communication, the surgical teaching methods of tomorrow, the appeal of operating room professions, and inventing an "Escape Game."

 Future IBODES, who will mentor tomorrow's surgeons, had the opportunity to participate in various theoretical and practical workshops throughout a week-long "conference." IBODE school officials focused their presentations on hygiene and instrumentation. The assistant chief physicians at CHU andICM led theoretical courses, talking about their work as hospital surgeons, leading workshops on sutures and surgical knots, and allowing students to test their skills on a laparoscopy console.  The LIRMM teams also collaborated on the high-tech university hospital simulation platform at the Arnaud de Villeneuve campus, which Dr. Debien and his teams operate on a daily basis. A workshop was also dedicated to plaster casting with Christophe, the CHU's emergency room plaster therapist. 

 

The objectives of this course  

  • Train students before they arrive for their internship

    To be able to offer all medical students structured training that is harmonized prior to their arrival for surgical or emergency room internships.

  • Reducing stress for these students

    As well as that of the supervisors who welcomed them into the wards and who, in addition to the time needed to train them on top of their workload, were always anxious about them making mistakes due to a lack of knowledge in this highly controlled environment.

  • Raise awareness that harmonious teamwork is a factor for success.

    This will benefit not only patients but also the peace of mind of a demanding workplace.

  • Encouraging people to pursue these careers

    With objective information.

  • Introduce innovation methodology in "project" mode at an early stage

    Pso that students know how to create, structure, and present projects in line with their ambitions for their professional and scientific future.

A project supported by MUSE

This project was made possible thanks to financial support from MUSE (Montpellier University of Excellence) through a call for projects entitled " Take OFF 3 " call for projects won in June 2020 with the active help of the innovation extractor (Dr. Christophe BONNEL and Anaïs CAUSSE). The team at the MUSE Center for Educational Innovation (CSIP) also contributed to the project by creating a fun, interactive card game and writing the script for an "Escape Game" that will be offered next year.

 

PREPABLOC: a highly successful training program

The success of the project

The creation of this Open Teaching Unit was a success with students. Founded by a multi-professional and multidisciplinary team, this project was particularly popular with an interested audience of third-year studentsyear of medicine, engineering students from LIRMM (roboticists), and IBODE students (operating room nurses).

 

The future of PREPABLOC

The students particularly appreciated the experience and the winning project on the surgical teaching methods of tomorrow is being studied to try to give it a future. The teaching teams in Nîmes, already well versed in these concepts, are already involved in adapting it, and the PREPABLOC team will share its experience with all those who, at the national level, wish to draw inspiration from it in accordance with the wishes of the academy. 

 

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UE Savoir-Être: an ethical and educational innovation for our students

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As debates on student mental health have resurfaced in the wake of the health crisis and at a time of undergraduate reform, our teaching teams have developed a unique educational concept in collaboration with students and users. Temporarily named "Interpersonal Skills and Therapeutic Communication," this empathy-focused teaching program is a true ethical and educational innovation. To learn more, we turned to the project leaders: Dr. Amandine Luquiens and Prof. Céline Bourgier, as well as Théo Lacoste, a student member of the steering committee.

 

Genesis of a project focused on empathy

A need for evaluation arising from the R2C evaluation methods

In 2018, the draft reform of the second cycle of medical studies (R2C) was submitted to the various educational managers at the Faculty and caught the attention of Professor Céline Bourgier. She noted that the R2C assessment methods would include evaluating students' interpersonal skills and empathy through the clinical skills certificate (C3). However, at that time, our training program did not include any courses dedicated entirely to developing these skills. 

Joined in 2019 by Dr. Amandine Luquiens, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist at Nîmes University Hospital, the two doctors will work together to lead the project to develop an innovative teaching unit capable of meeting the requirements of R2C. Their first step is to study the current level of empathy among medical students.

 

A striking observation: medical students' empathy declines as they progress through their studies.

Their initial findings are surprising. Through their bibliographic research, the two practitioners discovered that medical students tend to experience a decline in empathy throughout their studies. "This decline begins at the same time as hospital internships. It would seem that the difference between 'the idealization of the healthcare profession' and 'the reality of the healthcare profession' is a triggering factor," explains Amandine Luquiens.

Another observation: this decline is strongly correlated with the problems of burnout and depression that health students may encounter.

 

Structured teaching to halt this decline and ensure better quality of care in the future

These findings motivated the project leaders to create a new innovative teaching unit (UE) with a dual objective: 

  • Equip students with the tools and skills necessary to improve the quality of careby instilling in them a person-centered approach rather than just symptoms/pathologies.
  • Preventing psychosocial risks, not only for patients, but also for students, future healthcare professionals.

These two complementary elements will therefore be co-developed by a dedicated committee composed of teachers, students, and users.

 

A jointly developed EU for acquiring skills related to empathy towards oneself and towards patients

Stages in the construction of the EU

Such a university requires a period of creation and experimentation, which will take shape within the Faculty in five major stages: 

  • STEP 1

    Creation of a cross-functional steering committee

    As this was a collaboratively created course unit, the teachers were keen to set up a steering committee involving students to ensure that the course unit was tailored to their needs as closely as possible. The committee is also supported by the Faculty's Teaching Council (then chaired by Professor Denis Morin) and is made up of teachers from different backgrounds and specialisms in order to ensure a comprehensive overview of the project.

  • Review of existing arrangements and expansion of the steering committee

    With the help of administrative staff, Amandine Luquiens and Céline Bourgier are identifying existing teaching units and courses within the training program, focusing on the patient-doctor relationship, building the care relationship, and interpersonal skills. This allows them to contact the teachers responsible for the existing courses and integrate them into the steering committee for the new teaching unit.

    STEP 2

  • STEP 3

    Revision of existing courses, development of the EU

    The steering committee is proposing a new organization of existing courses over a period of five years. This involves reorganizing them into a more logical order, with a more gradual implementation that is consistent with students entering hospital internships. In parallel with the reorganization of existing courses, new courses are being proposed to complement the training program, such as the therapeutic communication module, divided into three progressive levels, which will incorporate the existing theater workshop.

  • Integration of the EU into the pilot promotion program

    The DFGSM2 2021-22 cohort is the pilot cohort and will inaugurate the entire EU curriculum over the five years. A few modules are also being offered to DFGSM3 students in order to test the curriculum (step 6). 

    STEP 4

  • STEP 5

    Follow-up of a cohort of students to evaluate teaching

    In order to measure the impact of teaching on students, three cohorts are regularly assessed on criteria related to empathy, well-being, and the concept of the care relationship. The DFGSM2 21-22 class will be compared to the DFGSM3 21-22 class, which will have benefited from a lighter teaching load, and to the DFASM1 21-22 class, which will not have been able to benefit from the various EU modules.

 

A structured EU to facilitate students' acculturation in the subject of emotion management

As Théo Lacoste, Vice Dean of Students for 2021-2022, points out, medical students are "perfectionists": "They are selected because they are the best. And this selection process continues over the years. The need to be, or at least appear, 'infallible' at all levels—whether professionally or emotionally—continues until it becomes an almost cultural component of our way of thinking." 

However, it is precisely a acculturation on this subject that this EU should encourage: Amandine Luquiens explains: "We are seeking to acculturate students, and even the faculty as a whole. The faculty takes care of its students, and students must take care of themselves. We will therefore help them to acquire tools that will enable them both to protect themselves and to curb 'emotional suppression', a management strategy used for many years by doctors to understand the patient-caregiver relationship."

 PTo achieve this objective, the EU is structured around four major modules, all of which are mandatory: 

  • Introduction to mindfulness meditation Mindfulness
  • Peer-to-peer exchanges of practices : this module encourages open discussion and also provides a better understanding of professional communication within a healthcare team.
  • Therapeutic communication : a multi-year module with theoretical instruction on announcements, integration of theater workshops, and simulation workshops.
  • Stigmatization in healthcare : a module featuring user testimonials in front of students about situations they may have experienced during their healthcare journey

 

In summary: an innovative initiative in more ways than one

Humanism is a core value of the Faculty. It is an integral part of its history, but it is also a value that will shape its future, as demonstrated by this innovative program in more ways than one. Indeed, it represents an ethical and educational innovation : 

  • Co-created with students, teaching staff, users, and administrative personnel: a true example of cross-functional collaboration between the women and men of our community. 
  • who is interested in the real social and societal issue for health students and intervenes early enough enough in their studies to anticipate it and long enough to address it in depth
  • which incorporates theoretical modules but also, and above all, highly practical modules, focused on a human approach to the patient-caregiver relationship, particularly through simulation workshops.
  • creator of key skills key skills in empathy and interpersonal skills: essential tools for a more humane approach to medicine
  • carrying a message both for students and their future patients

 

Open perspectives on other courses

The introduction of this EU in the medical curriculum inevitably raises the question of other courses offered by the faculty (midwifery, paramedical). "Medicine is relatively behind compared to other courses," admits Dr. Luquiens. "Indeed, there are already course units in other programs, but not in such a structured way over time. The idea is therefore, once this course unit has been proven, to "spread" it to other programs, with a view to taking a transdisciplinary approach to these skills."

 

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