Government Affairs and Advocacy

Welcome to the Government Affairs and Advocacy branch of the CFMS!

We are passionate about supporting medical student advocacy at the federal, provincial, and local level. Supporting an effective and sustainable health care system is our shared goal. As we advocate for the interests of Canadian medical students and patients in discussions with the federal government, we invite you to connect with us to ensure we provide excellent representation.

What do we do?

1. Medical Education Day of Action: The Medical Education Day of Action focuses on advocating issues that pertain to the pipeline of medical training to medical practice. This lends to a broad range of issues pertaining to medical students, residents and physicians
   Issues of focus include: training positions and residency spots, barriers to accessing primary care, retention of healthcare workers, national licensure or workforce planning.
   

   The goal of MEDoA is to provide a collaborative approach with provincial and federal governments to highlight and address pertinent growing issues within medicine

2. Day of Action: Each year, medical students from across Canada gather in Ottawa to meet with Parliamentarians and propose positive changes for the Canadian health care system. In February 2020, our theme was Access to Contraception.
3. Policy Documents and Position Statements: Policy documents and position statements are evidence-based resources that identify the Canadian medical student perspective for a variety of health systems issues. These documents guide our advocacy efforts. All members of the CFMS are invited to contribute to policy creation.
4. Rapid Response Task Forces: We have a variety of strong student-led task forces on emergent topics and health issues. 
5. Advocacy Education: We seek to provide medical students with the resources and skills they need to become better advocates for their patients and communities. Learn more about our CFMS Longitudinal Advocacy Training Series and the Advocacy Toolkit.

Our Government Affairs and Advocacy Newsletter

This newsletter, to be published on a recurrent basis throughout the year, is meant to help educate the CFMS general membership on current events that occur outside the walls of our schools and clinics. These events will impact the lives of our future patients, and the world we will practice medicine in. Keeping up with the news can be taxing and politics confusing, so the Government Affairs team developed this newsletter to help keep Canadian medical students informed.

February GA Newsletter EN

February GA Newsletter FR