Exchange report - incoming students
Home university: T.E.I. Athinon
Study programme: Occupational Therapy
Exchange programme: Erasmus
Semester: Autumn semester 2011/2012

Arrival and registration

Everything was perfect during the intropduction week and the staff in the health care center was very kind and helpful...

Acommendation

I applied through UAC, evrything was found to be good, the quality of the accomodation and the price were reasonable... The staff of the UAC was very helpful with some problems I had with the mates and the cleaning of the kitchen... Maybe you have to find a new way of organising or checking the cleaning of the kitcen... 

Leisure time and social activities

i participated in different events that Global Friends and KI arranged for us... All of  them was well organised and helped to my adjustmant in Sweden... And yes I made some Swedish friends and I am so proud of that....!!!!

Pre-departure

I wanted to have the experience of doing one part of my practical training in a country abroad and the other one in my country in order to have the opportunity to compare the two periods of clinical practice. We had 3 options one in Spain one in Finland and at Karolinska... Without second thought I chose Karolinska, I believe that it's the best University for my specialty (Occupational Therapy) and sweden of course is one of the countries I admire for how organised it is genarally.

Courses during the exchange period

EAR001 : Clinical rotation 1 for exchange students - occupational theraphy
Health Care Center in Nyckvarn despite it was far it was so nice to experience Occupational Therapy in the community. My supervisor Ann Oldebring, is a wonderful person and an excellent professional... It was so nice that some patients tried to speak in english and if this was not possible they tried to translate for me...
EAR002 : Clinical rotation 2 for exchange students - occupational therapy
Danderyd Hospital Geriatric Ward The Occupational Therapists there were really really good... Annete Lundgren my supervisor and Annika Hangman arranged for me some rotations in different wards in the hospital and some home visits to see different approaches... I have learned so many things there!!! It was so nice that some patients tried to speak in english and if this was not possible they tried to translate for me...
EAR003 : Clinical rotation 3 for exchange students - occupational therapy
Nacka Habilitering Center It was so nice that I became one of them the time I was there... The staff was so helpful and Kia Carlhamn my supervisor was good, she explained me the different strategies and approaches that she uses... I learned many things there and they included me in every event they organised... It was so nice that some patients tried to speak in english and if this was not possible they tried to translate for me...
EAR004 : Analyses of literature from an occupational perspective
The evaluation and the grade were reasonable. I worked on the project I chose for three months... The access I had to the library archives was really helpful both at the Library at KI Campus Solna and though the Internet...

Summary

All in all it was a worthwhile experience there in Sweden... The only thing that has to be changed is to take into consideration the preferences of the students...  Keep up the good job....

Language and Culture

The quality of the programme and the teacher was very very good, considering the fact that we he had to pay nothing... It was so helpful to learn some Swedish that led me to communicate easier and learned some things from the Swedish culture... 

Studies in general

Firstly, the Swedish courses were really helpful for my adjustment in the swedish way of thinking and living... My supervisors were really really good, I had three since I did my clinical practice there... the international coordinator had to send us an application to be completed and she did it one day before our arrival (it had to be sent earlier because we (we were two students from Greece) had to say our preferences for the clinical placements, but the programme was fixed when she did sent the application - so what was the reason for the application??? We finally be placed in placements that we were not interested... You have to fix this since we come there to see how things are in places of our interest not where you want to... The international department does not work very well at organising the placements... Plus my placements all three were too far from where I lived so I had to commute for hours every day..... the quality of the placements though was good) In our fist application in KI I stated that I wanted to be in Karolinska hospital in Astrid Lindgren Hospital beacause this would have helped me with my research, but nothing was done, they sent us for three days during Christmas at Karolinska Hospital in Solna, but this was not enough... Honestly we begged for this placements but niothing could be done...