The medical students of the UPV/EHU began the course 2020-2021 with this new normality, but with the incorporation of the new ones. The university has said that at this time of pandemic we will be guaranteed as close as possible to the formation of previous years, but what does this mean? Do we really know what the education of the leading doctors of these days is like?

Having kept the lack of information flow in the lockdown throughout the summer, we started September the same way. An article published in Gipuzkoa News has been the first sure information about the development of our practices. There the dean has proudly sold our practices, saying that they are “fundamental” and “essential”, but the reality is different.

Three days before the beginning of the course we realized that we were going to start the course of this year, without knowing the details or the conditions. In this ignorance, the 4th and 5th grade students were allowed to crush the hospital when we started the course and the 6th grade students were in internship. To do so, they made us sign the draft of a document, precisely setting out our duties and functions, but leaving our rights in the air.

Once again, in the view of young people, we have been seen as a mere transmitter of the disease when it comes to taking measures on safety. Thus, useless PCR tests have been performed to justify the safety of the hospital. In fact, while 6th graders did us a week after they started practicing, some of the 4th and 5th graders have made too much progress. On the other hand, we have had to take personal security measures even though we have not put in the means to do so, as we have paid out of our pocket the clothes and the kiss for the practices.

Having taken these measures and starting with the practices that the Dean claims to be irreplaceable, it has been found that the bad situation we had before has become apparent and has intensified. The few hours we spend in the hospital (15 hours per subject) and what we live in them are a sign of the lack of value given to practices. Far from being part of this “university” hospital, we are a hindrance.

The lack of organisation of the UPV/EHU makes these few hours often insignificant. The University only guarantees compliance with the minimum number of hours for obtaining the approved degree. Outside this bureaucracy, however, it does not give importance to the quality of this practice, trusting our experience to the tutor who is assigned to us randomly.

Although we are adults and doctors of the future, from the direction of the UPV/EHU they treat us as young children. We don't want to go back to the normalcy that understands us as passive subjects. In view of this, we want to become active agents, both in the university and in the hospital. It is time to reverse the system that prepares us to be exploited workers.