Get Involved
National Working Groups
National Working Groups are teams that work on specific areas of Medsin, providing a bridge between local and national. They are open forums that you are free to contribute as little or as much as you want. No background knowledge is required – NWGs are a shared learning experience, which aims to capture the enthusiasm, skills and knowledge of individuals from across the country.
Click here to sign up to our National Working Groups
We currently have NWGs on the following areas:
- Communications (producing the Medsin Magazine, blogs, website, merchandise and branch resources)
- Finance (fundraising through grants and sponsorship and supporting branch fundraising)
The groups are organised online and discussions take place through the newly designed Google Groups, with Skype calls where necessary (don’t worry if you haven’t used either of these before as we can teach you!) In addition there are often in-person meetings at Medsin conferences and assemblies, although this is very much optional.
policy and advocacy nwg
The policy and advocacy NWG connects like-minded individuals and enables collaboration in Medsin’s policy and advocacy work. To define what we stand for, we need enthusiastic and dedicated individuals, such as YOU as part of our team!
The aims of the policy and advocacy NWG are to:
- build and translate knowledge on specific issues
- write evidence based policy statements so that Medsin members have a common platform from which they can launch their voices
- design and communicate a vision for change
- create strategic plans for advocacy that can be enacted nationwide by using the manpower of the Medsin network.
Through the policy and Advocacy NWG, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute to big picture discussions on health policy, economics and conflict, or to focus on topic specific areas.
Click here to sign up to the Policy and Advocacy NWG
UPDATE: NEW ROLES AVAILABLE- CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE
global health education nwg
The Global Health Education (GHE) National Working Groups are all about educating people about Global Health as well as trying to get more global health into curricula. Previously the Global Health Education Project has had big successes, ranging from establishment of many global health intercalated courses, significant input into the latest edition of Tomorrow’s Doctors, to a prolonged focus on Medsin in a recent New York Times article on holistic medical education.
This year the Global Health Education NWG aims to focus on:
- creating GHE Resources, both for provision and implementation of good global health education.
- promoting Ethical Electives
- assessing global health content in medical school curriculum
- supporting local groups in advocating for increased global health in their curricula
Click here to sign up to the Global Health Education NWG.
training nwg
It’s easy to say training should be the backbone of the network, but it’s harder to put into practice. The skills and knowledge you can gain from training can equip you to effectively manage your local branch or activity, be a successful advocate, and make a real difference in global health. Ultimately in the training NWG we want to create a network of qualified trainers to deliver quality sessions to Medsin members across the UK at a branch, regional and national level.
Our key aims are:
- train keen members with training new trainers course
- keep trained trainers involved in the Medsin network
- deliver high quality, relevant training at national conferences
- improve the quality of the material for current Medsin training sessions
- add new training sessions to Medsin repertoire
- create an online evaluation system for trainers and participants to evaluate their sessions
We need you to get involved – whether you’re interested in becoming a trainer, developing new training resources for our trainers, or building the foundations of the Medsin training network, we want you.
Click here to sign up to the Training NWG.
communications nwg
The Communication NWG is a large and varied working group; consisting of writing, resource, website and media teams. We publicise the broad range of MEDSIN’s activities and support members across the network to have their voices heard in line with our vision and mission.
This year we hope to work in the following areas:
- Writing: producing our 6-monthly magazine, promoting and supporting blogging, and contributing to and developing our social media presence
- Resources: generating promotional materials to be created and circulated to support our branches, including posters, leaflets, videos and merchandise, as well as supporting local publicity efforts
- Press: Generate and respond to press attention to promote Medsin’s vision, mission and range of activities.
- Website: Manage, review and develop our website, in collaboration with Dynamic Design UK.
Through the NWG there will be an opportunity to lead in the following positions: Magazine Editor, Blogging Editor, Social Media Editor, Resources Manager, Merchandise Manager, Press Officer, and Website Manager.
Click here to sign up to the Communication NWG.
finance and fundraising nwg
We are looking for some energetic people to work with the treasurer to secure Medsin’s financial security. This is necessary for Medsin UK to continue to provide assistance and support to branches, maintain the website, produce the magazine, support our amazing national conferences and all the other amazing things Medsin does.
Within the NWG there will be opportunities to lead on:
- grants: obtain short and long term funding, mostly approaching educational organisations or charitable trusts
- sponsorship: work on how to market Medsin to sponsors and get funding in return for advertising in our magazine and website and also coming up with new ideas for what we can offer sponsors
- branch fundraising support: providing fundraising resources and support for branches and local activities
We’re looking for enthusiastic people and if you have any experience or tips that would be brilliant - your skills and experience would be highly valued!
Click here to sign up to the Finance NWG.
Topic-specific Nwgs
This is your network and we aim to be educating, advocating and acting in the areas which YOU feel passionate about and where YOU want to see change.
Please let us know if you have specific areas of interest that you’d like to focus on and contribute to so that we can further our vision of achieving a fair and just world where equity in health is a reality for all. Hopefully most of the groups will start work soon, but depending on interest some may not be launched yet.Some suggestions are below, which reflects areas where prior interest has been shown, but we’d love to also hear new ideas.
-Maternal and Child Health
-Mental Health
-Conflict and Health
-Non-Communicable Diseases
-Economics and the social determinants of health
-Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
-Beyond 2015
-Health Systems Strengthening
-The UK Health Service Campaign (Formerly the NHS)
-Legal issues and Global Health
