What does NZMSA do for you?

1. A is for Advocacy

Lots of what we do is advocacy, i.e. making sure that when things that affect us all are in the pipeline med students get a voice the best possible deal. Unfortunately, advocacy inevitably involves committees, and committees breed acronyms. The following is a bit of NZMSA A-Z guide on issues and committees that we’re involved with on your behalf.

  • ACE is the Advanced Choice Employment program which matches TI’s with House Surgeon jobs in DHBs around New Zealand.
  • DFFPS are Domestic Full Fee Paying Students. Currently, only international students pay full fees at New Zealand universities. It has been suggested that the medical schools could recoup some of their costs by having some New Zealand students pay full fees.
  • DITC is the Doctors in Training Council and is one of the NZMA sub committees.
  • NZMA is the New Zealand Medical Association. NZMA is for grown up real doctors.
  • NZUSA is the New Zealand University Students Association. Obviously we have a fair bit in common with them, especially fee setting issues. They also helped out with the Doctors and Debt casebook.
  • TI Grant is the training grant the government pays you in 6th year. Our lobbying helped get it increased in 2005 and we’re now trying to sort out some logistics issues, like whether you can still have a Community Services Card or make loan repayments.
  • UMAT is the Undergraduate Medical Admissions Test

2. Communication

NZMSA also works to make sure that medical student community know about issues and opportunities of relevance to them. This Fresher Booklet is in introduction and each year we provide a similar Year Guide with all the inside tips and tricks for the year ahead. We send monthly email bulletins with information about conferences, events and other opportunities you may be interested in. Any vitally important advocacy/government issues get a bit of air time too. We want to keep you in the loop!

3. Member Services

We do tangibly useful things as well….

  • Step up scholarship audit - In 2004 a new government scholarship scheme for students from low income backgrounds studying in human and animal health. Since the first step up scholarships NZMSA requested information from Study Link about how many scholarships were awarded. We have also surveyed out members of find out if any applications were inappropriately turned down. In 2004(?) NZMSA successfully appealed for sixtwo students to have the Step Up Scholarships awarded retrospectively, (worth quarter of a million in total).
  • ACE survey - Each year we survey 6th year students about their experiences with ACE and where they ended up gaining employment. This helps us keep track of the system and ensure it is working like it should.
  • Bulk buy - It’s hard to be a doctor without a stethoscope and NZMSA has helped bring you the tools of the trade in the last few years. We have bulk buy arrangements for some text books and stethoscopes and pass them on to you without any profit. However, it’s not a perfect system and we’re looking into ways to make it cheaper and easier to get all your essential doctor accessory kit.

4. Events

  • When we’re not busy advocating or providing services we try and do things to bring New Zealand med students together at our annual conference
  • ACE Information evenings - your local NZMSA reps work with ACE to run information sessions about how to apply for a house surgeon job in New Zealand.
  • Beyond the med school gates
  • Charity event

5. NZMSA Partners

This year we have formalised our relationships with sponsors and affiliated groups and become partners. This means we can provide you with information and updates about the things you really need.

6. NZMSA Friends

Even with all this going on, we know we can’t be all things to all people! We are proud to be able to work alongside number of other medical student groups in New Zealand and Australia - The Australian Medical Students’ Association, Global Health Networks, and MAAP to name a few.