Exchange report - incoming teachers
Home university: Christian Medical College, Vellore
Study programme: Medicine
Exchange programme: Linnaeus-Palme
Semester: Spring semester 2010/2011
Duration: 27
Name: Minnie Faith Kalyanasundaram
Email address: minnie@cmcvellore.ac.in

Accommendation

The accomodation that was arranged for me was a small apartment in Jagargatan. It was nice and had all the facilities that were required.
I woke up everyday to the breathtaking view of the lake view from the windows.

I was supposed to vacate the apartment on April 25 2011 by 9 am but the incoming 2 guests turned up at 8.15 am. Except for this small inconvenience I enjoyed my stay in the apartment and I recommend it to all incoming teachers.

For one day April 25-26 2011 (I was leaving on April 26 2011), I was allocated a guest room in the Karolinska Institute which was also pleasant and nice.

Language and Culture


Most of the teaching activities were conducted in Swedish, though there were some in English too. It was revealing to realize as most of the medical terminologies were relatively the same, I was able to follow many of the sessions in Swedish.

All faculty and students know English very well in KI and hence interaction with them was easy.

Leisure time


I was able to see around the city with well meaning advice and tips from the many friends that I had made during my stay here.

I was fortunate to interact with Ester Mogensen, Senior Lecturer Emerita, who also spent some of her valuable time showing me the culture of Sweden.

Miscellaneous

I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few people, who made my stay here in Stockholm and at the Karolinska Institute an enjoyable exchange program experience.

I would like to thank Dr Sanjeevi Carani who is the coordinator for the India program, Dr Ester Mogensen, Prof Ake Rokaeus, Christina Jesinkey and Anna-Lena for their support and help in helping to participate in various academic activities and coordinating my visit. 

I would also like to thank the many faculty from the Center of Medical Education and the Center of Clinical Education for giving their valuable time to interact with me and help in understanding the principles of pedagogy and the educational practices which are unique to this institution.

Other activities

As part of my interaction with various faculty involved in medical education, I was able to explore common interests for future collaboration. Some of the areas that I identified were interprofessional education and inviting faculty from KI if possible to interact with the medical education department in our institution. 

There were a number of contacts made and i hope that these interactions would be ongoing and collaborative in nature.

Preparation

Christian Medical College, Vellore South India where I am a faculty has an on-going LInnaeus-Palme teacher and student exchange program.
I was selected by my institution to go on the teacher exchange program for the academic year 2010-2011.

Some of the prior preparation that I did was to read the history and current going ons of both the Karolinska Institute and Sweden as a country. The internet was very useful for this purpose. I read on the people, their culture as a whole, the geography, politics and beliefs. These readings did help me in a way to understand the country and its people.


Reflections

As the exchange program has drawn to a close, I realize that having clear objectives before coming for the program helps a lot in spending the time usefully in both teaching activities and meeting people sharing your interest. 

I also realized that prior reading and preparation regarding the institution, country and people helped to a large extent in actual ground situation. Prior interaction by mails with the concerned faculty helped a lot in getting to do things on arrival here

Teaching

 I took part in various teaching activities in the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics like small group discussions, seminars, laboratory practicals, discussions on writing and presentation of laboratory reports, oral viva examinations called dugga, question hours and lectures. I mainly interacted with the first semester medical students. My total number of hours amounted to 29 hours.

I enjoyed these teaching activities in the preclinical department and am thankful to the course director for making the necessary arrangements to ensure that I could participate in all these. These different pedagogical practices gave a glimpse into the medical education that the students were receiving in the Karolinska Institute. These were opportunities to also compare and contrast the various methodologies practiced in my own country and institution and also helped me to reflect on some of the merits as well as demerits inherent in each system.

Teaching hours

 I was able to participate in 29 hours of teaching activities and interaction with the students in total with regard to all the teaching activities that I mentioned earlier.

As this is a preclinical department, interaction with the students occurred daily. 

Apart from the teaching activities, I was able to attend research seminars by PhD and post doctoral students. I was able to spend meeting different people involved in medical education which is my field of interest. I was able to interact with many faculty involved in Interprofessional education and faculty involved in conducting the course masters in medical education.