Five doctoral students of the Nursing programme at the Faculty of Health Sciences completed an international course in clinical tools for health assessment, organized by the University of Turku, Finland. Among other benefits, the students appreciated improved skills in English and the chance to see other forms of education.
They took part in the course thanks to an initiative of Helena Kisvetrová, guarantor of doctoral study programm at the Faculty of Health Sciences, who involved fresh Ph.D. students in international activities right in their first year of study. “It was truly an intensive week: we were at school from morning until evening and then worked individually, studied literature and so on. We were able to see the city only shortly before departure. It had nothing to do with holidays,” Petra Kašparová, one of the participants, commented on the introduction to the course.
The introductory week was held on the premises of the hosting medical faculty and was followed by online tutoring during the spring months. The course should have ended with a two-day closing seminar in Finland, but was cancelled due to the coronavirus epidemic. Instead, there was a videoconference where participants could present and discuss their theses.
“The course focused on the development, assessment, and implementation of clinical tools in nursing and other healthcare areas, and in practice. For instance, the content included the concept of health, its meaning and assessment, validity and reliability of assessment tools or the problem of implementing these tools into practice. The teachers were experienced scientists, very knowledgeable about the issue, with great didactic skills. We were really drawn into the topic,” Jitka Tomanová explains. She also appreciated that the results were not evaluated only by the lecturers, but also by the students. “The tasks we completed were evaluated by the lecturers as well as other students, who pointed out the benefits and strengths or failings or weaknesses of the presented work. All comments had to be dealt with and settled. From my previous experience, I was not used to this kind of work.”
There were many tasks to finish and plenty of materials to study. “It was difficult to manage it all: read scientific literature in English, do translations, grasp the materials, prepare necessary statistics. It should be noted that there were students from the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, or Japan, from schools of different levels. Each had their own perspective and it was necessary to get to know how they think. I believe these are well-deserved credits,” Petra Kašparová adds with a smile.
Both students agree that an internship or a course abroad is a “must” for every student. It is a priceless and mind-opening experience. They say the people in Finland are nice, warm-hearted and used to foreigners. “We were very well taken care of in Turku. We absolutely recommend it,” summarised the successful duo.