Medical students have a voice. During the recent AMA Medical Student Advocacy Conference, hundreds of students used that voice in conversations about key health care issues with lawmakers and their staff.
During the conference, a panel of AMA member medical student leaders offered guidance on how engagement with AMA can refine students’ voices as advocates and shape their careers for decades to come.
Now the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for the Governing Council of the AMA Medical Student Section (AMA-MSS), Charlie Adams began as a regional delegate to the section. It’s not difficult to get involved in advocacy as a medical student AMA member, Adams said.
As medical students we are still learning and growing as professionals, but we have a lot to say, said Adams, a third-year medical student at Kansas City University of Osteopathic Medicine. For students, there are 1,000 leadership positions. I applied for a lot at first and you don’t always get it [the position] but it was an opportunity to participate.
Adams, who, in addition to his work with AMA-MSS, is an alternate delegate for the Missouri delegation to the AMA House of Delegates, also promoted a mentorship opportunity that can help you meet the details of effective defense and advance your career.
Through AMA, almost immediately after participating and going to meetings, I connected with a mentor who was a national leader in my specialty. The more you get involved, the more things like this will happen.
Learn more from the AMA about medical student leadership opportunities.
As a PhD student, Natasha Topolski, who chairs the AMA-MSS Governing Council, is in her sixth year of training. As a member of the AMA-MSS during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to share the medical students’ perspective on the pandemic and ensure that it was considered in AMA policy.
When it comes to making policy, students can participate in the entire process, said Topolski, who is in training at the McGovern Medical School, located at the Texas Medical Center in Houston.
Each medical faculty is assigned a delegate and an alternate delegate [MSS], he pointed out. Everyone is welcome to attend [AMA meetings].”
He emphasized that beyond politics, medical students can also use the AMA as a place to grow their experience as a researcher.
Advocacy is only one avenue, he said. There is the AMA Research Challenge and we have poster displays at our meetings. You can make a poster about advocacy work or policy about medical education. This gives you a platform.
Learn more about the AMA Research Challenge, the nation’s largest multispecialty medical research conference for medical students and residents to showcase and present research. Laurel Road sponsors the grand prize of $10,000 for the winner. The deadline to submit an abstract is July 16.
Medical students have a seat at the table throughout the policy-making process. This includes a voting delegation to the AMA House of Delegates (HOD), the legislative and policy-making body of the Association. Any AMA medical student member can write a resolution. If adopted by AMA-MSS, it may be submitted for consideration by the full House of Delegates and become AMA policy. Watch this video to learn how AMA policy is made.
Justin Magrath, a seventh-year MD/PhD student at Tulane University School of Medicine, has seen the process unfold firsthand as a former member of the AMA-MSS Governing Council and as alternate delegate of the HOD.
The resolution-writing process through the Medical Student Section is a great way to get involved, said Magrath, who is also a member of the AMA Medical Services Council. It’s great to advocate for an issue that someone has put in front of you, but it’s even better to advocate for something that you take from idea to resolution to bringing it before the AMA House of Delegates.
The way to start, Magrath added, is to attend an AMA annual or interim meeting. Start talking to people and they will help you find your starting point.
Learn more about how medical students are helping to shape AMA policy and the future of medicine.
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