AMEE-2023 conference: feedback from participants

The #AMEE2023 conference is the world’s largest annual medical education conference, bringing together all professionals involved in education: doctors, nurses, veterinarians, and other medical-related professionals. We couldn’t miss it!

This year, our Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, Olga Korolenko, reported remotely on the work of the peer group in Ukraine at one of the sessions of the AMEE conference.

“We can only be human through other people! Everything we do should be imbued with humanity and the desire to understand others. At the conference, I was impressed by the level of discussion about creating a safe space for students to discuss even painful and unpleasant topics to honestly admit that they do not have ready-made answers to situations that occur in practice every day. This kind of space creates an opportunity for the development of future professionals,” Olga summarises her participation in the conference.

Olena Ignashchuk, Medical Education Coordinator, traveled to Glasgow (Scotland), where the AMEE conference was held for several days, to experience the full range of opportunities for participation in conferences of this scale. Olena shared her impressions:

“If I were to describe my experience in a few words, it would be networking and idea generation. Three thousand participants from all over the world, from different industries and occupations related to medical education. This is an incredible experience, success stories, and ideas that circulate in conversations.

It is also important to say that special attention was paid to medical education in countries where the war is ongoing. The symposium “Postgraduate Medical Education in Unstable and Conflicted Environments” was dedicated to Ukraine and Myanmar. I am very grateful that the organizers and participants of the conference said words of support.

Just one example – at the workshop “The Global Importance of Medical Education: Considering the Past and Rethinking the Future,” colleagues from New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, China, and Ethiopia discussed this issue at the same table with me! It is incredible how the conference reduces the distance between our countries and creates a platform for discussing issues that are relevant to everyone.

The key topic of the conference was inclusiveness in medical education and science: gender issues, opportunities for people with disabilities, and cultural and geographical barriers. Incredible stories of educators, scientists and students about barriers in their education and work. It is impressive how a human-centered approach overcomes these barriers.

In my opinion, the issues of humanity and empathy, curriculum redesign, focus on clinical and soft skills, development of science, in particular research in medical education, support for self-directed learning, medical communities for reflection and self-directed learning, etc., were highly relevant to Ukrainian medical education.”

Conclusions of our participants:

• Confidence that the joint efforts of our project and the pilot institutions to develop medical education align with the direction in which world medical education is moving.
• A sense of gratitude for all the support we received in response to the question, “Where are you from?”. Ukraine is in the hearts and minds of everyone: Brazil, the Netherlands, India, the USA, Canada, Belgium, the UK, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Thailand, Ethiopia, Sweden, etc. We thanked everyone for their support and told them about the invincibility of our soldiers, doctors, teachers, and students!

Next year, the conference will be held in Basel, Switzerland. This is where the Swiss Institute of Tropical and Public Health is located – it is our project’s home!

So, we are confident that a potent team will represent the Ukrainian delegation and share their resilience experience.