I wanted to do an Erasmus exchange since I first heard of it
in high school. For me, it is a great opportunity to study in a different
university, in a different country and in a different language, and you meet
people from all around Europe! I choose to study at KI because it is known as
one of the best medical university in the world. And the students who went on
exchange before me were very enthusiastic about their experience at KI. Also, I
wanted to go to Sweden, since I like northern country and I wanted to see if
what was said about the Swedish social system, gender equality and environment
was true.
I got good information about the application process, the
programs, and how to prepare before departure on the website of KI. When I had
questions, I could ask them to the coordinator and got quick answers. I also
got information with the documents I received when I was accepted for the
exchange.
I don’t remember if I needed to be vaccinated since it is
already a requirement in my home country to work in the hospital. I had to do
an MRSA test when I arrived in Sweden.
D8XX01 : Clinical Medicine - Surgery
A very well organized course, with rotations in many different wards : general practice, general surgery, surgical emergency, orthopedic surgery and orthopedic emergency, anesthesiology, urology. There are lectures every fridays and small seminars during the week, with one teacher for 5 students. Swedish students and Erasmus student are mixed in the groups so that it is easier to meet the Swedish people. We had to do an evidence based médicine project and we had writtent, practical and oral exams at the end of the course, which encouraged me to study. It is possible to see quite a lot of different surgeries and sometimes to assist the surgeon. The course started with a cruise which created a good atmosphere for the whole semester. So far this is the best course I had during the whole year. I highly recommand students to do it!
ELAX16 : Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Different parts of the specialty are covered in this rotation. I went to the delivery ward, to the outpatient clinic, to gynecological surgery and emergencies. I assisted a C-section. I followed doctors but also midwives to see uncomplicated deliveries. There is seminars once a week during which we meet the other Erasmus students and lectures at the beginning of the rotation. We had to present an evidence based médicine project at the end of the course about a topic of our choice in gynaecology or obstetric. It would have been good to have a theorical exam instead to evaluate our progress.
ELAX20 : Inflammatory Diseases
A very nice course, with lectures concerning different specialities (pneumology, nephrology, neurology and rheumatology of course) and seminars. We also go to clinical practice in rheumatology, in consultation or in the ward. At the end, we had to present a patient we had seen during clinical practice. This course could have been longer in order to see more patient in clinical practice. Also it was not easy to present a patient case without access to the medical journal in Take Care.
I was very satisfied from this course otherwise, I learnt a lot with the lectures.
ELA001 : Dermatology and Venereology 1
I think this rotation was a bit too intensive since we had to do a lot of evidence based medicine projects and write about the patients we had seen during the rotation. As a result, I saw my friends very seldomly and spent most of my week ends working. I wish there was more time to study dermatology theory, because despite all the time I spent working during this rotation I didn't learn enough. It is a shame since there was a lot of interesting patients to learn from, particularly in the field of inflammatory skin diseases.
ELA005 : Internal Medicine 1
You can ask in which medical ward you want to be placed in this rotation. I went most of the time in the emergency room. In this department it is easier to do things instead of following the doctor every time. I could see my own patient first and report to the doctor later. It was nice to have some autonomy, and to think by myself of the possible diagnosis and of the tests to do. I also did on-duty nights. And I went with the doctor to see very acute patients. There was no lectures or seminars during this rotation. The learning environment was good because there were enough doctors in the department for the number of patients, and we had time to discuss patient cases.
At the beginning of the year, KI offered for exchange student to take a language course. It consisted of 3 intensive days and three evening
courses after that. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn that much during the course,
since our group changed a lot of time of teacher, who started from the
beginning again and again, and focused too much on pronunciation when we didn't even know how to say "how are you" or "good bye". I bought books to learn Swedish in the end since it
is very helpful in the hospital. Most of the consultation were done in Swedish
and the doctor translated later for me, even when both the doctor and the
patient could speak English. At the beginning it was difficult and boring to
witness a conversation between the doctor and the patient without understanding
anything, but after a few months I could understand most of it and asked only
to be sure I understood correctly and for additional information.
So I strongly recommend future exchange students to buy a
book to learn Swedish and to listen to the language before departure, if you are going to
work in the hospital.
In general, compared to my home country there is more budget
allocated to education and it shows: we had access to training center with
advanced simulators and mannequins, we had a good access to computers, and there were less students per teacher, with sometimes only 5 students for a seminar. The teacher/student
relationship is quite informal, with less hierarchy (and this also apply to the
work at the hospital, with easier communication between senior doctor and
residents or between doctor and nurse for exemple). It is easier to ask
questions and to discuss cases due to these facts, and the teacher never try to
humiliate students if they don’t understand something or ignore something. The patients expect the doctor to call them
by their first name, which would be unrespectfull in my country, or very
familiar at least. There is also more importance placed on research since the
students are expected to do a research project during one semester of their
studies and I had to do several evidence based projects while I was there. The students are less stressed because they don’t have to compete to choose their specialty. And there is less competition in the Swedish system in general. Attending lecture or seminars is sometimes more important than having excellent result during exam, it is the opposite in my home country. In Sweden, we were very often asked to give our feedback, about a teaching, a rotation, a seminar.
Clinical practice starts approximately at the same time
during the medical studies in both countries. But the Swedish students see a
lot more since they change of ward every week or two weeks, they see almost all
specialities. As a drawback they are less integrated in the ward and have less
responsibilities than French students who stay several months in the same ward,
and sometimes I felt a rotation was too short because there was still a lot of
pathologies of a given specialty that I didn’t have time to see before changing of
ward. Also, clinical practice take most of the time, and there is no specific time dedicated to studying by yourself. Sometimes, I wished I had more study time in order to benefit more from clinical practice.