Professional Exchanges

SCOPE (Standing Committee on Professional Exchanges) was the first Standing Committee which was made in IFMSA, when IFMSA was established in 1951. Medical Students, during that period, realized the dire need to understand and approach health in a global level so that health systems in all countries around the world could be developed, despite the political conditions that were taking place in each one of them. On the other hand, the intercultural part of the program was not only a benefit, but also something state-of-the-art for the first participants of the program. SCOPE combines medicine with social education, by organising Professional Exchanges in an international level.

Nowadays, in the 21st century, Professional Exchanges is the biggest exchange program for Medical Students around the world with more than 14000 participants worldwide every year, with the participation of more than 100 National Member Organizations (NMOs) of IFMSA, surpassing stereotypes and prejudices, widening horizons and showing the need of intercultural learning.

The organisation of the program in an international level for almost 60 years, and the continuous development of it shows that exchanges have not stopped covering the needs and expectations of medical students and they are a useful part of their medical career. The years passed, the global accounts develop and the Professional Exchanges program is compromising with the new needs that are appearing and take advantage of the new chances presented so  as to provide with new knowledge and a current view of what is taking place in health worldwide.

At the same time, in a period of values’ crisis, the intercultural communication of medical students can be a motivational force for creating a tolerant environment, free of stereotypes and taboo, in which health professionals will practice unobstructed the medical profession valuing equality and focusing on the people.

In Greece, the program has already given and it keeps giving the chance to 350 medical students every year to travel to another country, to attend a clinical clerkship of their choice, to meet people from all over the world and meet the international and the intercultural part of medical profession aiming to make them better health workers.

References: www.ifmsa.org

HelMSIC, as member of IFMSA, is organizing the Professional Exchanges program between medical students worldwide, providing medical students from Greece with the opportunity to attend a clinical clerkship abroad.

Every year, around 350 medical students from Greece travel to one of the available countries abroad and they attend a clinical clerkship for 4 weeks. The program is making students widen their knowledge about a great variety of different fields of medicine and come closer to different health systems. In addition, an exchange gives the opportunity to a medical student to travel abroad, to meet students from other countries, to gain knowledge and skills, while meeting a different culture. As a result, he lives a lifetime experience!

There are several preparation workshops which provide them with the appropriate knowledge so that they reap the greatest rewards by participating in the program.

A corresponding number of medical students from other countries is coming to Greece, in order to take part in a clinical clerkship in the university hospitals of Greece.

The aims of the program are:

• Gain new clinical skills and knowledge via attending a clinical clerkship
• Meet, collaborate and interact with medical students and health workers from different cultures
• Meet different health systems and healthcare systems
• Intercultural learning
• Broaden the horizons, meet and come close to the different culture, lifestyle and tradition of the hosting country

Externals: University Hospitals, Professors of the Medical Schools, Erasmus Students’ Network