Exchange report - incoming students
Carcavelos, ca. 30 minuter från lissabon med tåg.
Home university: Aarhus Universitet
Study programme: Medicine
Exchange programme: Erasmus
Semester: Autumn semester 2014/2015

Arrival and registration

I arrived a week before the introduction day. I didn't know anyone in the city and I had to spend 7 days on my own. Luckily I had my bike, so I was driving around town and experienced a lot. If I should recommend anything: buy a bike! You see so much more and it is so nice to have. I think you can buy them very cheap from other exchange students who are leaving.

The introduction days were very nice. All the exchange students at KI were gathered in Aula Medica at KI Campus. There were some introduction lectures and “guided tours” on the campus. It was a good way to meet people from the other educations. We had to do an MRSA-screening test on the introduction day before working in the hospital. 

Sintra

Acommendation

I arranged the housing myself. I found a room on Blocket.se. So I lived in an apartment in Vasastan. I had my own toilet and then we shared kitchen and shower. I think the rent was a little expensive. I paid 5.800SEK/month but I loved to live there. It was in the heart of Vasastan and close to KI Campus in Solna. It was important for me to stay in a good location. I wanted to experience the city and the life there. Of course, sometimes I did regret I didn't stay at a KI Housing, because you didn't get to know that many people when you are not around each other all the time. On the other hand - the standard of the KI Houses were very different. I would have been very disappointed if I got a room in Jägargatan. They are very small and so are the kitchens. I think it depends on you patience and how prissy you are with cleaning and stuff like that ;-) Some of the others lived in Pax in Solna and it was better. We had dinners and parties in the common kitchen and the rooms are big enough to have some friends visiting. 

Vår närmaste tunnelbana station, Rossio. Vi bodde längst upp vid slottet.

Leisure time and social activities

In the beginning I participated in the social activities like parties, day trip to Tyresta National Park and different guided tours around Stockholm. Later on the semester the clinical rotations took so much time and I made some good friends from my class – both international students and Swedish students. I think one of the best parts of the course was to be integrated in a Swedish class. We did a lot of different things with the Swedish students and they were so nice to welcome us in the class. There were a lot of different social activities arranges by the different organizations, so there were many possibilities to get involved and meet some other people than your classmates. 

Colombos, en av Europas största shoppings centrum.

Pre-departure

I wanted to go on exchange because I think it was a great way to meet people from other countries, try to study in another language, get to know my neighbour country and try to live in a different city. I chose KI because it has a good reputation and because I was on vacation in Stockholm with my family years ago and at that time I decided - I want to study and live  in this city. I simply fell in live with Stockholm. So when I found out I had the opportunity to go abroad, there was no doubt about where to go. I got a lot of help from my home university with the paper work and so did I from the KI. If I had any questions I could email the international coordinators at KI and I always got the answer very quickly. I don't think it was as difficult as I expected it to be. j

Sintra

Courses during the exchange period

D8XX01 : Clinical Medicine - Surgery
I attended the Clinical Medicine - Surgery course. Our course started with a crash-week with introduction to all the different specialities. It was a lot of information during the days but a good way to begin the course. From Thurs-day to Friday there was planned a cruise for all of us with the teachers. It was so nice and a very good way to get to know your new classmates. We had some lectures aboard and of course some time to have a beer or two ;-) We had clinical rotations for 14 weeks where we shifted between different specialities like surgery, urology, orthopaedics, anaesthesiology, primary care, oncology and the emer-gency department. I think it was interesting to see so many different specialities. We were divided in small groups of three and two groups had the same rotation. We had seminars during the rotations in our two groups, so totally 6 people. It was really good. We had all the seminars together in the two groups with one teacher. It made you feel very confident and you didn’t feel stupid if you had questions or didn’t something. On the other hand I think the study load was very heavy. There was not enough time to get deep into the theoretic knowledge in so little time. So the result for me was a superfi-cial knowledge of the specialities. Compared to my university at home the time spend on theoretic part was smaller. We ended the semester with three examinations: a practical, a written and an oral examination. I think it was a little too much with three examinations. We didn't have some time off before the exams and I had an evening shift the night before the practical exam. I really need some time off to study for an exam and I think that is the general problem with this semester. There is not enough time to study. I think the oral exam could be skipped, I don't think it is necessary.
En härlig oktober kväll, nära Rossio, centrala Lissabon.

Summary

It has been the best 4 months of my medical education so far! I am so happy I did it and I think I left a little bit of my heart up there in the Swedish archipelago.

When people say the exchange period was one of the greatest experiences in life I now understand what they mean. It is awesome to be away from home and meet students from all around Europe. I think I learned a lot about myself, my country and how we could do things different. It has been much more than just a semester at a different university.

And a big thank to all the people at Huddinge Sjukhus for making this semester so great and making us feeling so welcome. 

Language and Culture

I was not allowed to participate in the language courses because I'm Danish. In the beginning I was a little frustrated about that because I didn't understand any Swedish. So the first 3-4 weeks were a little confusing and with a lot of misunderstandings. I think I reached my limit for possible awkwardness during that month ;-) At the end of the semester I understood almost everything and I spoke Danish/Swedish with the patients and the Swedish students. 

Cascia,

Studies in general

I think the Swedish government allocates more money to education than in Denmark.

We had our “own” ward where we were responsible for taking care of the patients in cooperation with nurse students, physiotherapist students and occupational students. Of course we discussed everything with a supervisor but we took care of the patients. That would never ever happen in Denmark. There was a huge focus on good working relationship between the different professions. I think that is different from my home country. Of course we have focus on that too but not as much as here where we practice it.

I think there was less hierarchy in the hospital. It was expressed in the way that everybody wore the same clothes, no matter if you were a doctor, nurse or assistant nurse. That differs from Denmark. Here the doctors wear blue clothes and a white coat, the nurses wear white dresses or white pants + t-shirt and the assistant nurses wear white pants + t-shirts.

The relationship between the teachers and the students is closer. You have the same teachers during the semester and when you have seminars in groups of 6, it’s much more informal than having lectures with a whole semester of 250 students.

Another difference is that their examinations are graded with passed/failed. In my home country almost every examination is graded with grades. There is a more relaxed atmosphere about the examinations. 

Utanför Universitet i Lissabon