As part of Medical School in New Zealand, we have a three months period to have placements overseas. I have always been interested in seeing parts of Scandinavia, both the sights and the medical system. Luck has it that my Medical School has an exchange program with KI so it was relatively simple to set this up.
At first it wasn't clear to me what my placement would be in. I had wanted to do one month of Anaesthesia at KI and from the information I got from the KI website, it seemed I should choose Surgery and then state my preference is specifically in Anaesthesia. When I received the acceptance letter, it had just said my placement was in Surgery. It was after I contacted my supervisor that I found out my placement was in General Surgery. That said, I absolutely enjoyed my placement and was glad I got to see some great surgery as I would be doing aneasthesia for the next two months anyway.
I really didn't have to do much paperwork compared with my other exchanges for Dublin and Canada. There was no immigration paperwork, no visa required and I only had to get MRSA clearance once I got to Stockholm.
Lastly, I was contacted by Global Friends long before I was due to arrive and was introduced to my faddar. We had enough contact to set up a meeting once I got to Stockholm and I felt I had someone to go for logistical advice in case anything didn't work out.