First of all, I've always wanted to go to Australia! Secondly, having previous good experiences of studying abroad I felt drawn for another exchange. Thirdly, having the dream of working as a midwife in an English spoken country in the future, I decided to apply for the exchange.
Our midwifery course received information about offered exchange studies
through a seminar held by representatives from the Midwifery International
Committee (MINC) during the first semester. We were informed that Karolinska
Institutet had collaboration with institutions in the Netherlands, Malawi,
Australia and USA (Chicago). For more information, please visit the midwifery
program’s international website: https://pingpong.ki.se/public/courseId/6225/lang-sv/publicPage.do?item=3891341. Since you apply for the exchange studies within the
first two weeks during the second semester and given midwifery is a pretty
intense education program, I recommend you to commence you application
documents either during summer if you start the midwifery in January or in
November if start midwifery in August.
I was thrilled knowing I was accepted for an exchange clinical placement
in Melbourne, Australia! Even better was that I found out I was going with one
of my best friends in my class. We arranged a meeting with the
Midwifery Program’s international administrator five months before departure (December).
She informed us about previous students’ preparations for their exchange
studies; when to departure, where to look for a place to stay etc. We also
arranged a meeting a few weeks later with Karolinska Institutets International administrative officer. She completed documents necessary for us
to sign off before departure, e.g. Karolinska Institutets travel insurance and
the grant from MINC.
Magdalena helped us getting in touch with the responsible staff at La
Trobe University in Melbourne (the collaborative university). In late December
we received an email from La Trobe that included a lot of information about
which requirements were needed before departure. I’ve been trying to summarise
these requirements in a list down below, just to facilitate for future students
going to Melbourne and The Royal Women’s Hospital. There’s pretty much paper
work, so make sure you start in time:
•
Apply to La Trobe
University
We didn’t have to apply to La Trobe University separately. According to
our contact person in Melbourne at the university, the application in Sweden
was enough.
•
Vaccinations
The following vaccinations
were required from La Trobe University:
o
Diphteria, Tetanus,
Pertussis (dTpa) (no more than 10 years old)
o
Hepatitis B (full course
of 3 doses AND serology to confirm antibodies)
o
Hep A (full course)
o
Measles, Mumps, Rubella
(MMR – Full course of 2 doses)
o
Varicella (Chickenpox)
or serology confirming immunity
o
Poliomyelitis
o
Tuberculosis
(QUANTIferon Gold or or Mantoux Skin Test (=PPD))
o
Influenza
All the above immunisation requirements are to be summarised and signed
off by a doctor or Registered Nurse on the La
Trobe Univeristy Immunisation and Health Record Form - http://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/766148/Immunisation-form-version-17-11-2016.pdf. My advice is to let a doctor or Registered Nurse
working where you’ve been vaccinated before to fill out this form, since they
have the records in the computer. In order to fill out the form, it’s required
that you have some documents from your childhood – contact your BVC or
“Skolhälsovård” in order to receive these documents (for example when you
received the Poliomyelitis and MMR-vaccinations). I went to City Akuten in
Stockholm who helped me with everything. I’d recommend you to complete the
vaccinations at least three months before departure. Please read “Economy” for
detailed costs.
•
Swedish police
check
La Trobe Universiyt require a police check (valid from the year you are
travelling). You can order it from this website for a cost of 185 Swedish kr: https://polisen.se/Service/Belastningsregistret-begar-utdrag/belastningsregistret-anvanda-utdraget-utomlands/
•
Visa and passport
If you travel to Australia you must have a Visa. For a short exchange of
five weeks it’s enough with a tourist Visa. It’s for free and is called
Subclass 651 – you can apply online on this website: http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/651-. It took me one day to receive my Visa so this is a
simple procedure. About your passport, make sure it’s valid at least six months
after arriving home again.
•
CPR
Your CPR-certificate must be up to date. I contacted my latest nursing
job where I was still part time employed and I could take the course there. Once
it’s up to date, make sure the responsible for the course print and sign a
document saying you’ve taken the course. La Trobe Univeristy needs a copy of
this signed document.
•
Working with
Children Check
We were told that once arriving to Australia we should complete a Working with children check (WCC) with
the help from our contact at La Trobe University. Once in Melbourne, we were
told that we wouldn’t be able to commence our clinical practise without this
check (a requirement from the hospital). Unfortunately, before heading off we
hadn’t received what sort of check this was or what was required in order to
complete it. As a result we had know idea that we needed two Australian
identification documents to complete the check. Neither knew the staff at the
university this. Luckily, instead of WCC we could perform a police check on our
orientation day at the hospital. But in the future, please ask the responsible
at La Trobe if this WCC really is necessary, or if there’s enough doing a
Police check at the hospital as we did (you get more information about this
police check from the responsible at the hospital). For the police check
there’s only Swedish identification documents necessary.