The arrangements were good but there was a problem in locating the international student coordinator as the office had recently changed. I think it won't be a problem for future students. Maybe we could have a short tour of the hospital showing us the main areas and facilities. The student health service was fine. I had no problems in reaching them.
I made some friends via Global Friends. I went for some activities arranged by Global Friends. Other than that, i took part n the swedish festivals such as Valborg and Midsommer. The info provided was really useful.
I wanted to experience a different type of Health System and mode of dealing with patients as well as teaching. Since Karolinska is considered as one of the best Universities in the world, i chose KI. All information provided before and after my arrival was very useful. It helped me prepare for what i was going to experience. I was asked to undergo a screening test for MRSA and the same test was repeated after I came here
ELAXX6 : Surgery 1
Very good. it was very well organised. And we were made to do an presentation on a topic using EBM. I learnt a lot about EBM and how to gather data. This was our examination, and it was quite effective. We were in different surgery units each week so we couldn't learn enough at each place. Maybe 2 weeks in a unit would be better. Few theory classes but they were good. The doctors/tutors were especially good. I don't see any need for improvement except the number of days in each unit.
ELA005 : Internal Medicine 1
There were not enough cases or discussions. The time spent in each unit was good but it being only one student in each unit resulted in us being ignored at times. If a few groups classes were introduced I think the course will be better. The doctors were really good and tried their maximum to show me things in the patients available. I think they should take students to see more procedures instead of us sitting in out-patient where language prevents us from understanding what is going on. The was no examination. Please have something to evaluate students by. That gives an added incentive for us to learn more.
ELAX20 : Internal Medicine - Inflammatory Diseases
There were a lot of theory classes which were very good. All aspects of inflammatory diseases were covered. I was very happy with this course. The in-charges were excellent. we were shown many patients, many cases were discussed and I learnt a lot. But the evaluation mode should be changed. something more challenging should be expected of the students. just presenting a case is not a very difficult thing to do. At some points the level of teaching was a bit high, but most of it was relevant to our degree
Thank you for a wonderful three months. I have never enjoyed myself so much before. The facilities and teaching offered were really good. I should think this is one of the best exchange programs in the world. If possible could you provide a brief write-up on each course offered when we are giving our course preferences while applying for the program. It makes it easier for us to select something that we are interested in. The type of course and what it covers may be mentioned there. It has been a great experience for me learning the Swedish culture and way of life. Karolinska played a big part in teaching me that. Thank you again
Yes I did. I think there should some modifications to what is taught to short-term exchange students. We don't need to know all aspects of the language like rules of grammer. The focus of the course should be to teach us everyday conversation sentences and help us be fluent enough to talk to patients and understand what they are saying. But for what it was, the course was wonderfully structured and well taken.
The relationship with all staff and patients are very friendly. They encourage us to learn. But the only problem is the language barrier, which is expected. But i feel that some more case discussions should be done so that we can understand real-life situations. Some departments didn't have much of theory while some others had too much. so an ideal balance has to be arrived at by everyone. At home we have more hours of theory plus a case discussion every day. and we are made to talk to the patient and find out the medical history instead of just reading it off the computer. this way we can learn to arrive at diagnoses on our own. That is a very important skill required for doctors. I have learnt how to search for information online and get correct data quickly. Also here the importance of doctor-patient relationship is stressed with the patient being taken care of really well. All needs are met