
Research is essential for improving knowledge and health among medical students. However, medical students are often discouraged from getting involved in research because they think it is too complicated and challenging. To address this, SCORE & MERC Must Know That Research is Fun (SMURF) was created.
The main aim of SMURF is to encourage medical students, especially first year medical students who have never been exposed to basic research, to take an interest in research by participating in the activity to increase their motivation to start their own research projects and make meaningful contributions to education and improving health.
SMURF (SCORE & MERC Must Know That Research is Fun) is a collaborative workshop with MERC, Faculty of Medicine, Jenderal Soedirman University, featuring lectures, hands-on activities, and group discussions. It starts with a Pre-Activity which was successfully held on 14th December 2024, in the Building E, Faculty of Medicine Jenderal Soedirman University. This activity achieved a good enthusiasm from 54 participants. The two topics we had discussed are “Introduction to Basic Research” by IFMSA Certified Research Trainer, Brilevia Sava Daratama Putri and “Statistic Inferential” by IFMSA Certified Research Trainer, Naura Daniswara.
The Main Activity was successfully held on 22nd December 2024, in the Hall of Building C, Faculty of Medicine Jenderal Soedirman University with 54 participants from medical and health science students. In the Main Activity, we held a lecture and hands-on session includes three topics: “Community-Based Research” by Dr. dr. Agung Saprasetya Dwi Laksana, M.Sc, PH, “Laboratory-Based Research” by Dr. dr. Nur Signa Aini Gumilas, M. Biotech, and “Literature Review” by Dr. Joko Mulyanto, M. Sc, Ph.D. After the lecture, we had a “Stick Your Ideas” session with all participants and OCs to write their future research title on a sticky note and stick it on the board. The participants were very enthusiastic about this event.

After all of the activities session, we concluded that this event has been quite successful, its showed from the improvement for Pre and Post Test scores. Pre- and post-test results highlighted significant knowledge improvements. Participants’ understanding of basic research increased by 21.89% after the Pre-Activity, while the Main Activity saw a 32.27% improvement in knowledge of research methods and literature review. For the Post Activity an infographic about medical students’ interest in research and an After movie video was produced and posted on CIMSA Unsoed Instagram account and gained 61 likes on each post.
