by Alice Accoroni
“Our Union is an area of freedom, values, opportunities, and solidarity unique in the world. As we are emerging stronger together from the pandemic, the 2022 European Year of Youth will foster these principles for and with our younger generations across Europe. It is our duty to protect and empower them because their diversity, courage and boldness are essential for our future as Europeans.”
Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission
In the European year of youth, while we are transitioning towards new forms of exchange and participation, the 3rd National Representative Network meeting of the EAN Resident and Research Fellow Section (RRFS) took place both virtually and in person in Berlin on 15-16 October 2022. This event, hosted by the German Neurology Society, brought together passionate young trainees and researchers from 36 different countries to openly discuss their views on the future of neurology.
During the meeting, the new RRFS national, committee and task force representatives were introduced to the RRFS family and through an exciting and fruitful exchange, we worked all together on the definition of common RRFS plans and strategies to tackle important topics for the academic year 2022-2023.
This meeting was also a special moment for colleagues from all over Europe to reconnect and network, after two years of COVID-19 pandemic and virtual exchanges.
We discussed current and future projects of the RRFS, and many working groups were formed to define and launch new surveys and exciting projects that will be disclosed during the upcoming months. Furthermore, the results of the RRFS survey on burnout prevalence among neurology residents and fellows were presented, and we brainstormed on how to find new tools and creative ways to tackle this growing issue. Finally, we talked about how to create and support the growth of neurological junior societies, and the representatives from Portugal and Italy provided their feedback and their personal experience on this topic, showing how the association of young neurologists can lead to the creation of very interesting projects, supporting the personal and professional growth of their members.
At the end of these two days, we returned to our respective homes recharged by the energy of the fruitful exchanges we had had within the RRFS family, full of passion for our fascinating speciality and eager to improve, as young European neurologists, the future of our training and the care of our patients within the EAN.
