gms | German Medical Science

To honor the increasing committment of students in the education of their fellow students, the "GMA Award for Teaching Students“ was granted to outstanding projects concerning education in university medicine at the annual conference of the German Association for Medical Education (GMA) for the second time.

Background is the still increasing involvement of medical students in the improvement of the education of fellow students, for example in peer-teaching-courses, the development of teaching materials, curriculum planning and development as well as scientific research projects concerning medical education. The "GMA Award for Teaching Students” wants to support and honor this kind of student involvement. The award is granted by the Executive Board of the GMA to outstanding achievements and projects in academic medical education, especially for

• the (co-)development and implementation of curricula or extracurricular elements (peer-teaching courses, modules, classes, etc.)
• the (co-)development and the successful implementation of teaching and learning materials
• the (co-)development and implementation of innovative assessment methods
• other measures for the improvement of curricula or medical education in general (for example counseling and supervision, quality assurance, etc.)

The "Award for Teaching Students" was developed last year by the Executive Board of the GMA and the "Young Educators"-committee follwing the model of the "GMA Award for Young Medical Educators".

After the call for applications this spring [1], 13 applications were handed in.

To review all the applications eight medical students and eight medical teachers were recruited, each of them reviewing five applications. The criteria for the review process were the same as last year [2].

This year´s winning project oft he "GMA Award for Teaching Students“ is the project "Improvement of Basic Cardiological Skills in Medical Schools“ by Annemiek Leson from Marburg, Germany.

The following projects are the equal finalists (in alphabetical order):

• "The Emergency Medical Service-Rotation in Freiburg“ by Ralf Henkelmann and Bastian Herbst from Freiburg, Germany
• "Development of Workshops for Teachers in Palliative Care“ of the Standing Committee on Palliative Care of the German Medical Students´ Association (bvmd), especially Johanna Hildebrandt from Greifswald, Germany, and Benjamin Ilse from Jena, Germany.

Special acknoweldgements go to the 16 reviewers who volunteered to read and review five applications each as well as gave valuable input for the improvement of the applying projects and the implementation of this award:

• Teresa Henke, cand. med; Daniela Kampmeyer, cand. med; Anke Busse, cand. med; Mathis Gittinger, cand. med; Oliver Metzing, cand. med; Bastian Barran, cand. med; Anke Meier, cand. med.; Patrizia Kündig, cand. med.
• Dr. med. Kai Schnabel; Prof. Stefan Herzig; Dr. Jan Ehlers; Dr. Anne Simmenroth-Nayda; Prof. Jerome Rotgans; Dr. rer. nat. Katrin Schüttpelz-Brauns; Dr. Christoph Stosch; Dr. Claudia Kiessling

This year 13 projects applied for the "GMA Award for Teaching Students“ which shows again the great activity of students in medical education. Once again this also shows a great need for gratification for this mainly voluntary commitment of medical students. The granting of this award, also in the future, will offer an opportunity to share successful projects with other universities so that they may profit from these ideas and innovations.

In 2012 the Executive Board of the GMA will likewise grant the “GMA Award for Teaching Students”. Application deadline in 2012 will be January, 15.

For further information about the award and the application process please see the homepage of the GMA at http://gesellschaft-medizinische-ausbildung.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=427&Itemid=622&lang=de.

The author declares that she has no competing interests.