Croatian Medical Students’ International Committee (CroMSIC) is a non-governmental and non-profit association of medical students in the Republic of Croatia. Since 1992, it has been one of the 130 full members of IFMSA – the International Federation of Medical Student Associations, which has over a million members worldwide.
The Association’s goals are:
- promotion of humane ideas, ethical principles and human rights, and contribution to the education of medical students
- popularisation of all forms of health education to the wider population
- additional education of medical students through the international medical student exchange
- other activities necessary for the achievement of the Association’s goals, primarily in the field of human health care.
Representatives of the Association:
- Jakov Jurić (President of the Association and Local Committee President)
- Contact: president@cromsic.hr
- Bruno August (Secretary of the Association)
- Contact: secgen@cromsic.hr
The Association is actively implementing numerous projects. Below you can read something about each of them.
International student exchange
An exchange programme is an experience that fulfils a student’s life – both professional and private. For many years, CroMSIC Rijeka, together with IFMSA, has been participating in the organisation of professional and science student exchange programmes that are held during the summer for one month. Science student exchange offers medical students of all years of study the opportunity to participate in research projects. These exchange programmes provide opportunities such as mastering laboratory skills and the basics of writing scientific papers. Professional exchange programmes are conducted at a hospital department where students want to acquire new clinical skills. One of the more interesting segments of exchange programmes is the social programme – the culturally fun part. CroMSIC Rijeka organises trips to the island of Krk, Istria, Plitvice Lakes National Park, National Food and Drink Party, trips to the beaches and many other events for incoming students. On average, 70–80 exchange students from around the world come to Rijeka to acquire new knowledge at the CHC Rijeka or the Faculty of Medicine, and about 50 students from Rijeka go on exchange programmes to other countries.
Inside Out
Inside Out is a CroMSIC project whose goal is to promote mental health, especially among young people. The central part of the project is the education of students who visit high schools around Rijeka as peer educators and hold workshops on various topics related to mental health. The workshops have different themes, and the student educators are supervised monthly by a psychiatrist who is an expert associate on the project. Mental health is a topic that, despite the many benefits of the modern world, is still unknown to a large number of people. In certain situations, it is even a taboo topic. Through this project, we educate young people about the importance of mental hygiene and health. At the same time, peer learning also benefits students who deal with similar problems as high school students.
Clinical Skills Competition
Clinical Skills Competition is CroMSIC project intended for students of clinical levels of medical studies, who team up, attend a two-day education and compete in the learned skills on the third day. The project covers the topics from emergency medicine, internal medicine, anesthesiology, radiology and pediatrics, as well as a practical part that covers the skills expected of a young physician to acquire upon completion of education. The main goal is the education of medical students, whereas other goals include: developing teamwork skills, organising the team in a given time and improving medical students’ knowledge and practical skills.
mRak Campaign
mRak (meaning “cool” in Croatian, and “rak” meaning “cancer”) is a long-standing CroMSIC project that was created to educate the general public about HPV and ways to protect ourselves from benign and malignant changes caused by viruses. The project aims to educate young people in a fun and interactive way about the consequences of HPV and the importance of vaccination against this virus. Student volunteers first undergo education under the supervision of our school physician and then hold lectures and workshops in high schools. Thanks to the project, more than 2,500 high school students in Croatia have been educated so far.
Let’s Talk About Vaccination
The goal of this CroMSIC project is to inform high school students, college students and parents about the importance of vaccination. The vaccine is one of the most important inventions in history and saves millions of lives every year. Unfortunately, in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of vaccine hesitancy and refusers, which has led to a decrease in acceptance of this disease prevention method. The World Health Organization classified the anti-vaccination movement as one of the 10 biggest threats to human health. This is precisely what motivated us to start this project. By organising lectures, workshops and brochures, we want to educate the public about the importance of vaccines, clarify the most common myths and refer to accurate and relevant sources. The biggest part of this project is the education of high school students conducted by our student volunteers.
Public health projects
Under the Standing Committee on Public Health, we also mark the dates that are of public health importance. On those days, we try to organise blood pressure and blood glucose measurements for citizens at busy locations such as Korzo, Tower and ZTC shopping centres with the aim of early detection and prevention of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. To mark these days, we also create brochures to educate citizens on important public health topics. So far, we have created brochures on diabetes, antimicrobial resistance and vaccination. Blood pressure and blood glucose measurements are also carried out through Rural Health and Health Island projects. These projects are organised in a way that volunteers go to smaller municipalities in Gorski Kotar and the island of Krk and measure residents’ blood pressure and blood glucose since these areas are predominantly populated by elderly people, among which cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are common.
Eco-action
To mark Earth Day, Eco-action is annually organised to encourage students to protect the environment and educate them about environmental pollution problems. We usually mark this day by cleaning the courtyard around the Faculty and polluted beaches of Rijeka. In the future, we hope to organise more events to raise awareness among students and citizens about environmental pollution. All students and staff are welcome to join our campaign events.
Every year, we also organise the humanitarian action From Plastic Caps to Expensive Medicine, where our students can bring plastic bottle caps which we redirect to the Croatian Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In exchange for the caps, the association receives money to buy expensive drugs for their patients.
THE Talk
THE Talk is an educational project about sexual and reproductive health. It refers to some topics parents and teachers should traditionally discuss with teenagers and adolescents. After completing their education, our students visit high schools and educate young people about how to protect their sexual health. They also talk about the biology of our reproductive system, its structure, protection and family planning. The level of knowledge in this area is very low, even in the student population.
Our mission is to bring this inevitable topic closer to everyone and thus try to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and encourage awareness and a healthy lifestyle.
Be Someone’s Santa
Be Someone’s Santa is a humanitarian action organised annually during the holiday season, where we collect Christmas gifts for orphans and children of low socioeconomic status. We cooperate with the Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Children’s Home, which sends children’s wishes to us, and our students buy gifts and write letters to children to brighten their holidays. We believe such humanitarian actions are extremely important, especially for medical students, whose profession is closely related to compassion and helping others.
Self-defence Course – Women’s Day
Every year we hear about the devastating statistics that indicate the increase of violence against women. Therefore, on International Women’s Day, we are organising a self-defence course for all our volunteers in cooperation with Krav Maga Centre Rijeka. The goal of the workshop is to provide our female (and male) volunteers with the opportunity to master basic self-defence skills, hoping they will never have to use them.
MedSkills
MedSkills is a project for clinical education intended for medical students on their preclinical years of study. It was designed to increase the practice and facilitate the transition to the clinical part of studies. It is a two-day event with various workshops – basic clinical skills, first aid skills and clinical scenarios.
KosaRi
KosaRi is a project initiated by currently fifth-year medical students. Since last year, it has been implemented as part of CroMSIC and in cooperation with the Firefly Association. It is a humanitarian project whose goal is to help children with malignant diseases by making wigs and organising education about their problems and mental health.
KosaRi offers many activities this year: educational workshops for elementary school students conducted by KosaRi volunteers, celebration of the International Childhood Cancer Day (February 15) and making wigs for children who have lost their hair.
Puzzles of Heredity
Puzzles of Heredity is a project designed by CroMSIC and the Centre for Genetic Education (GenRi) at the Faculty of Medicine. The target group for the pilot year are children of early school and preschool age, whom our students, after passing the genetic educator course, introduce to their body structure, the concept of genetic inheritance and the idea of accepting and appreciating their uniqueness as part of the workshop. This is implemented through educational games that were purposefully designed and created in cooperation with a school counsellor and a psychologist. Before the workshops with preschool children, our “genetic educators” pass a course and a test that qualifies them for this type of work with children. We also organise lectures about genetics for parents to introduce the field of genetics into the “general culture”.
Diving Medicine Summer School
Diving Medicine Summer School is a project that started back in the 90s. It was initiated by our professor and pulmonologist Igor Barković and the current dean Goran Hauser in their student days when they were members of the CroMSIC association. The new edition of the project is being held for the fifth year in a row. Students from various countries come to Rijeka and spend a week taking our diving course and simultaneously taking lessons held by our experts on the still underresearched diving medicine and undersea and hyperbaric medicine. After 7 days, the participants are awarded a certificate for scuba diving up to 18 meters.
In addition to educating students, the goal of this project is cultural exchange. International cooperation through this project is very important to our association, the CHC Rijeka and the Centre for Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, as well as the Rijeka Tourist Board and the Jadran Galenic Laboratory (JGL), which are our long-term partners.
Mentor-Student and CroBuddy
The CroMSIC association assigns mentor-students to freshmen who help them with book purchases, studying and everything related to university life in order to facilitate their adaptation to the new academic environment. It is essential that we support each other and make this Faculty a better place for our younger colleagues, just as our senior colleagues did for us.
CroBuddy is a project through which the CroMSIC association helps our foreign students studying medicine in English to facilitate their stay in a new city and a new country. Every foreign freshman has their CroBuddy, who is a senior medical student and who can help them with accommodation, documents, places to hang out and go out, and the like.