Achtung Liebe is a Swiss-wide non-profit organization of students who are committed to contemporary and age-appropriate sexuality education through self-guided school outreaches. It was founded in 2001 and is currently represented in Basel, Bern and Zurich.

The basic philosophy of Achtung Liebe is that less taboo and more openness in sex education lessons can have both a preventative and a promotional effect. For a responsible and self-confident approach to sexuality, it is important that all unanswered questions from young people can be clarified. The students therefore used interactive methods to familiarize pupils from primary 6 onwards with the topic of sexuality and love. Due to their role as peers outside the school and the fact that no teachers are present during school visits, they create an informal atmosphere in which there is room for every question. The members are trained and supervised at national and international workshops, both by us and by experts in the fields of sex education, infectiology and gynecology.

In addition to school visits, the association also carries out active public relations work, including participation in the media discourse, campaigns for LGBT* rights (e.g. stand campaigns for Internal Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia) and educating people about STIs (World Aids Day).

As part of swimsa, Achtung Liebe is an active part of the Standing Committee on Sexual and Reproductive Health including HIV/AIDS [SCORA]. The student association is also a member of the umbrella organization SEXUELLE GESUNDHEIT Schweiz.

AGT is a voluntary smoking prevention project run by medical students for pupils in grades 7 to 9. The concept is modeled on the German anti-tobacco education program and has also been running at schools in Bern since September 2013.

In Switzerland, 36% of 15-24-year-olds already smoke, and most of them start smoking without realizing the consequences. We, a team of medical students from the University of Bern, have set ourselves the goal of educating young people about the dangers of smoking to enable them to make an independent decision.

Here you can find our Facebook page with information about our current activities.

ASTiM “Association of Medical Students from Ticino” is the name of our association, which brings together all Ticino medical students from Switzerland and Europe. We organize exciting activities for our members, such as the Teddy Bear Hospital and many workshops to familiarize ourselves with the various medical & surgical skills such as suturing techniques, laparoscopy or ultrasound. Every year, we visit the high schools in our region to inform high school students about our association. The aim is to help each of our members to start and then complete their medical studies as well as possible. We also maintain contact with the cantonal health services.

Contact: info@astim.ch

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The CLASH Lausanne association – Collectif de Lutte contre le Sexisme en milieu Hospitalier – works to raise awareness of the reality and extent of sexism in the medical system and its impact on women. They offer support to victims of sexism and advocate for equal rights in medical education, postgraduate studies and the profession. In the long term, they work towards a sexism-free and safe environment for all those who work in hospitals.

The “Doctors & Death” project looks at what happens around death in the medical world. We begin our studies with anatomy on cadavers, which leaves no one totally indifferent (and rightly so!).

Students are then confronted with life in the clinic, with gloomy prognoses, bad news, accidents, team discussions, families and… PATIENTS.

It’s difficult to become a healthcare professional and have to deal with death, suffering and breakdown. These subjects are part of the phases of life in which patients find themselves, and in which we intervene on a biological and human level.

Who knows what the patient is thinking or feeling? But who’s really afraid? Patient or caregiver? How do you respond to a family in distress? How do we talk to a child? How do we deal with our own grief?

There are so many difficult situations when we enter the clinic that prior reflection seems as necessary as knowing which germs are sensitive to penicillin.

The project offers practical, interactive afternoon workshops with medical professionals, focusing on a specific issue.

For example, we can go into more detail:

• • Talking about death: What is it like for me? And for the patient?
  • How to break bad news?
  • How to talk to children?
  • What to do if a patient asks for Exit?
  • What to do in an organ donation situation…
  • Or when suicide strikes a family…
  • If there’s anything else you find difficult to deal with, let us know!

What’s more, thanks to an excellent collaboration with the Lausanne School of Medicine, the project will accompany the introduction to the dissecting room and contribute to the academic development of this theme! Are you interested? Do you have a burning question?

doctorsanddeath@swimsa.ch

doctorsanddeath_lausanne@swimsa.ch

doctorsanddeath_fribourg@swimsa.ch

EROS is an association that was founded in 2017 by medical students in Lausanne. The aim is to improve knowledge and training in the areas of sexuality and sexual health. In order to provide patients with the best possible care, future doctors need to be informed about this taboo subject. Awareness of the broad topic of sexual health needs to be raised among medical students, future health professionals and school pupils. This project takes place in an era of sexual revolution and the pursuit of equality. The lack of knowledge about topics such as intersexuality, transsexuality and homosexuality still weighs heavily. People who are discriminated against by society because of their sexual orientation or sexual developmental variance are exposed to a high level of psychological stress. This stress must be reduced and medical care improved.

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The escolhares association was born out of a collaboration between Swiss and Brazilian medical students. It organizes ophthalmological examinations in schools located in underprivileged districts of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Together with other local health experts, the children are given a full eye examination and provided with glasses if necessary. The association acts on different levels by also talking to the teachers and parents, raising their awareness of the importance of vision and the right glasses for children’s development and educating them on how to recognize signs of common visual impairments.

We have already screened more than 3,000 children since 2017.

We are also active in Switzerland, raising awareness among medical students and the general population about children’s eyes and the benefits of early eye examinations.

Contacts:

www.facebook.com/escolhares
www.instagram.com/escolhares
esco@swimsa.ch

(Group for sub-assistants and medical development cooperation)

gruhu was founded back in 1978. As former interns from developing countries wanted to facilitate the deployment of their successors, gruhu was founded back in 1978. They wanted to ensure that they could be deployed as effectively as possible in an institution for basic medicine.

gruhu wants to bring students into contact with the idea of medical development work and give them a platform on which they can deal with the subject, exchange ideas and make contact with professionals from development work. In addition, students should be encouraged to do internships in basic medical treatment.

Each semester, gruhu organizes two lectures by students who report on their experiences in an internship in a developing country, as well as a weekend with two further student lectures and a lecture by a professional from development work, followed by a discussion round. gruhu works closely with the TPH Institute in Basel as well as with other large organizations such as Red Cross, MSF and SolidarMed. Once a year, gruhu also organizes a discussion round in cooperation with the Association of Independent Doctors (VUÄ).

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JSEMS – Junior Sports and Exercise Medicine Switzerland – is dedicated to the promotion of sports and exercise medicine among medical students and residents as well as students and young practitioners of allied health professions. The section is led by a committee composed of students and residents representing all Swiss medical universities, language regions and genders.

Marrow Switzerland is a student organization dedicated to the fight against leukaemia and other diseases of the immune system. Marrow’s aim is to sensitize potential donors to blood stem cell donation, to inform them and to include them in the international donor register.

The various sections of Marrow Switzerland are involved in promoting donation by organizing events such as conferences, fundraising campaigns, information stands and registration events. Marrow Switzerland is also actively involved in founding new Marrow sections in Switzerland and worldwide.

Marrow Switzerland grew up as a swimsa project and now consists of six active sections, a national board and a national coordinator who acts as the contact person for swimsa. Since October 2015, Marrow Switzerland has had a dual role: as an officially founded association and as a swimsa-associated project. This foundation also allowed Marrow Switzerland to draw up a partnership agreement with the Swiss Transfusion SRC / Swiss Blood Stem Cells (SBSC) in January 2016.

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The aim of MedSICS is to promote the mental health of medical students. To achieve this, we use three axes:

Activities: Organizing activities for medical students to talk about mental health, to inform and destigmatize.

Activism: Objectifying and publicizing the state of medical students’ mental health to the medical school and hospital establishment.

Resources: To connect students to the various resources available to them on campus and at CHUV. To make visible the various resources already available.

Contact: medsics@swimsa.ch

Our vision is a mustachioed world where men don’t have a life expectancy 5 years shorter than women, where they consult GPs as much as women, where they’re not afraid to talk about depression and addictions.

Begun in 2012, Medstache has brought together the various local Movember efforts of medical faculties under a common name. Initially involving Geneva and Lausanne, Medstache grew the following year to include the faculties of Zurich and Fribourg. Medstache is a young initiative that is looking to expand into faculties where it is not already active.

Medstache aims to promote the Movember Foundation’s action within Switzerland’s medical faculties. We’re encouraging students to grow their moustaches during the month of November, with the aim of raising funds for prostate cancer research, starting discussions about men’s health and encouraging prevention.

M.E.T.I.S. (Students’ Association for Equal Access to Healthcare for All) was founded by medical students from the University of Lausanne after they were confronted with the living conditions of the most vulnerable population groups and the discrepancy of factors influencing health in Switzerland and abroad.

M.E.T.I.S. has united behind a common vision: “A world in which everyone has equal access to healthcare.”

Its goals include improving the level of knowledge and openness of the general population towards the most vulnerable populations here and abroad, improving the skills of medical students in international healthcare, and improving access to healthcare.

M.E.T.I.S. organizes monthly conferences and debates with professionals to stimulate thinking, share ideas and increase expertise. They support local associations and design projects to promote access to healthcare for the most vulnerable groups in Lausanne at our level.

The NCWiki website provides information, tips, experience reports and practice materials for preparing for the Numerus Clausus (officially EMS, aptitude test for medical studies) in German, French and Italian.
NCWiki also offers free test simulations and preparation courses. The content is created on a voluntary basis by medical students.
The NCWiki project was launched in March 2021. The project is backed by medical students from all over Switzerland who have made it their goal to achieve equal opportunities in the race for coveted medical school places.
It is important to the NCWiki team that the chances in the Numerus Clausus do not depend on the financial resources of the medical student candidates. Private providers of preparation materials and courses advertise that you are guaranteed to pass with their offers. However, you have to dig deep into your pockets for this. Preparation courses costing several hundred to thousands of francs are not uncommon. NCWiki wants to counteract this commercialization of the Numerus Clausus.
Another concern of the NCWiki team is equal language opportunities in the Numerus Clausus. Before NCWiki, there was hardly any practice material for French- and Italian-speaking medical students. Thanks to the linguistic diversity of the NCWiki team, the website is also available in French and Italian.

The Chiropractic Medicine degree program is unique in the world in the form in which it is offered at the University of Zurich. There are 25 places available each year, which merge with the human medicine students up to the 4th year of study – because chiropractic students go through the entire human medicine curriculum with additional specialization in the musculoskeletal system, imaging and manual therapies. Then, for the last 2 years of the Master’s program, the focus is exclusively on chiropractic. The Swiss Chiropractic Students (SCS) association sees itself as a professional association for students of chiropractic medicine at the University of Zurich. As an association, we represent our members to the management of chiropractic medicine at the University of Zurich, are in active contact with the professional association of chiropractors in Switzerland (ChiroSuisse) and, as a member of the WCCS (World Congress of Chiropractic Students), strive for international exchange with other chiropractic students. However, the focus is on having fun in and with our studies. With various events, be it cozy meals, sporting activities, further education events, exam preparation afternoons or cheerful evenings, we try to promote the exchange between the students and the joy of studying and chiropractic.

The Young Sonographers are a group of students and doctors who are committed to early training in basic ultrasound applications. We are active throughout Switzerland at universities and in some hospitals. Our goal is to ensure that all interested parties can one day learn the basics of ultrasound.

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