Clinical clerkship in Oulu week 1/4
Prologue
Why Medium?
I have always been thinking about running a blog and describe what I am up to. Not that I think my happenings are so important that they deserve a wider audience, but to keep a journal of the things and experiences that happened to me in Finland. Maybe this blog will help others make a better informed decision on travelling to Oulu or doing a IFMSA clinical clerkship. I hope that you find my writing interesting and thank you for giving me your time.
Please note that most of the information is anecdotal and not double checked. Some things might have gotten lost in translation. Please also excuse me for all of the grammatical mistakes, I am writing this during nights as our days are fully packed with adventures.
Something about me
Hi My name is Luka Petravić and I have just finished my 5th year of medical school. I come from a small town of Novo mesto (population of 37,615) in Slovenia and I study in Maribor (population of 113,004), which is our nations’ second biggest city.
I love going outdoors, trying out new experiences and meeting different people. This year I’ve been given the opportunity to head to Oulu, Finland for a clinical exchange on departments of (1) plastic surgery and (2) hand surgery. I decided to choose August 2022 as it best fits my exam periods back at home.
Some of the projects I am currently working on include
Socials
You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter or just send me an email.
What is this exchange
The International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) is, as the name suggest, an international organisation connecting medical students from all around the globe. Its’ biggest strength are the exchanges. There are two types of the exchanges (1) research and (2) clinical. I am currently on a clinical one, doing a traineeship in surgery. The exchange length is always 1 month. For this one month you have to pay 240 EUR, which covers the accomodation and one warm meal per work day. This makes it possible for students from smaller economies to dream big and try living in really expensive countries, like Finland, which would not be possible otherwise.
To apply for an exchange you have to go through selection process which includes stiff competition. This makes it hard for Slovenian student to go to a popular countries in a lower year of medical school (so here I am after my 5th year).
Basically, to get to Finland I had to get more points than any other of my peers "beating them” to Finland.
Exchange details
I will be in Oulu from 31st of July until 1st of September 2022. I will be getting experience in Oulu University Hospital (OYS). As said above I will join the team of Plastic surgery for the first 2 weeks, followed by another 2 weeks on the department of Hand surgery.
Oulu
Getting here
My hometown of Novo mesto is 2,225.94 km away from Oulu, driving would take 37 hours… So getting on a plane was the only realistic option for me.
I booked a GoOpti from Ljubljana to Venice Marco Polo airport (VCE). An alternative to this is prevoz.org, which is less certain but might get you a better deal. Either-way, for shuttle to VCE I paid around 25 EUR.
I took a flight from VCE to Helsinki airport (HSE) and changed planes from HSE to Oulu airport (OUL). The cost was quite steep, 320 EUR. This included an economy return ticket and additional suitcase (25 EUR per one way). To fly I choose FinAir as it was the cheapest and fastest. To find this flight I use skyscanner.com, I think it gives me best results.
The first cultural shock was already at HSE. I was sitting in the terminal and waiting for the connecting flight and eating a sandwich. I held the plastic wrap in my hand and was just minding my own, when a friendly worker came past me and kindly offered to take the wrap and take it to trash. The Nordic experience thus commenced.
About the city
I will begin with some facts that I find interesting from the English Wiki page.
Oulu is located on the north side of the Baltic sea and close to the Swedish border.
It has 209,648 residents making it the 5th largest city in Finland. The city was founded in 1605. And is surrounded by Baltic sea and Oulujoki river delta. This makes the water much less salty than the sea I am used to from the shores of Slovenia and Croatia (Mediterranean sea).
The "main” attraction is the statue of policeman, who worked in the town square for 40 years. He got a statue for his perseverance in keeping order and his big looks.
The city is home to the University of Oulu. Into which I have enrolled to grant me foreign student privileges. I am "studying medicine” for a month at the Faculty of Medicine, Oulu. They even gave me an email.
The city is surrounded by water (picture bellow). Everything is connected between with bridges. What is even more interesting, that most of them are meant for cyclists and pedestrians, not cars!
Weather
The weather has a bit of an attitude problem. It is mostly moody, with rain usually prevailing. As you can see, on a graph bellow, August is quite rainy, but also the warmest part of the year.
Beach
We visited the Nallikari beach almost the same second as I had arrived to the city. It is mesmerising and beautiful. Definitely a must go for every first time visitor of the city. If you are brave you might even try a quick dip in the sea.
Why? Because Finland 🇫🇮 — my first impressions
Some general observations
- Toilets
The toilets have this little tiny shower near them, going from the sink. What could it be? Well actually is a bidet.
- Tiny little lock above the normal lock
The thing I like better in Slovenia is that we use a door knob as a lock. Here you have to press the door knob and also unlock the door.
- Showers
Now this is a big one! Here we shower whilst standing on the bathroom floor. No shower space made of porcelain like at home. There is a duct in the middle and you have to use a little mop to push the water into the drain.
- It is day, almost all the time
You probably know in the northern Europe, there are parts of the year that have only night. Well turns out, that in the summer it’s the opposite. So we have really bright evenings. It is something that takes some getting used to.
Studying medicine in Finland
To get in to an undergraduate program you have basically two options. First your A levels and GPA (which is a novelty here) or the entrance exam. You can choose which one you want to take and try to do your best to get it. High school actually takes only 3 years (compared to 4 in Slovenia), but sometimes medical students stay there for 4 years, as it is difficult to get into a faculty of medicine. Study of medicine takes 6 years and dental medicine 5 years. The first two years are the same for both programs and it then divides.
After you get into a medical school first a guild experience awaits. You can join a guild (like a student club in Slovenia) and experience the full student life. You have to go through initiation, doing all sorts of fun games with fish and other nordic simbols. You also get special pants on which you collect patches, similar to scouts.
They have no exam periods, the exams are taken after the course ends. What is more, they do not have mini tests (slo. kolokviji). You get graded by your results on the exam, which can be written, practical or oral.
Another cool thing is that all of the books they need for their studies are digitally published by their library. No need to buy a book, just download a pdf and learn from there.
Talking to students here, I am only now realising Slovenia has a long road ahead to be really student friendly. We have student food coupons, but that ends the things that we are doing better.
Students have specially organised primary care. So they get a dentist and a family medicine doctor to take care of them whilst studying.
Moneywise, they are supported by the government. They get multiple stipends, one to cover the housing costs (around 400 EUR), one to cover studying costs (around 250 EUR) and what is really interesting, they get an opportunity to take a 650 EUR loan every month if they wish to. And the loan gets partially paid of by the government if they graduate inside 7 years (you get 1 gap year) of beginning medical school!
Making money as a student is not hard. We all know that wages in the northern Europe are high. But I never realised, that even students get paid a lot, lot more than we do in Slovenia. A medical student has to do 1 month of clinical clerkship in every year of studies (but can do more). But this is not unpaid volunteering, like we do it in Slovenia; they actually get paid. A LOT! A monthly wage for this is, depending on where you are doing clerkship, between 3000 and 10,000 EUR. You heard that right! The money is better if you choose rural en peripherial areas. The lowest money can be made in university hospitals.
But the money gets even better. After finishing the 4th year of general medicine you get a license. This license gives you the ability to prescribe drugs to patients. Students work their apprenticeships in family medicine and on primary level. And get paid about 3000–10.000 EUR (before the license they get 1500 EUR per month). They take real responsibility and make real decisions about patients that come to see them. They might diagnose a STEMI and transfer them to a specialist centre or just prescribe paracetamol tablets for something not life threatening. Of course they work under supervision, but the patient is theirs and they take responsibility for his care.
I will try to cover what happens after graduation in my next blog post…
What was I doing for the first week
Day 1 (Sunday, arrival to Oulu)
I arrived to Oulu late in the afternoon. My Kummi (contact person) was already waiting at the airport, thank you! We took the city bus (4,2 EUR) to the city centre. I was taken to my appartment, which is gorgeous! What is more, it is something an average student can rent, it is situated in the students’ dorm complex.
Day 2
On monday I started going to the hospital. First, I rode a scooter. I was using Lime and it was quite expensive, 10 EUR for 24 hours of free use of scooter. Without that subscription you have to pay for a starting fee and 20 c for every minute of use.
We met at the hospital where we changed. Everybody gets a fresh scrub in the morning and a white coat for doctors. You also get hospital socks. And there is enough scrubs for everyone, not the case in hospital I am coming from (we also don’t get socks or a coat).
I was accompanied to the Plastic and reconstructive surgery department where I began my apprenticeship. I was met in silence at first. The doctors were talking in Finnish and did not really give me much attention. But after an hour of sitting there they started getting used to my presence. We started talking and they took me with them for the morning rounds. They have around 15 plastic surgeons working on the department (some specailists and some residents). They talked to patients in Finnish but commented on each and everyone on the hall.
I was then invited to assist on my first surgery there. Right away, no unecessary “watching first, doing maybe later”. We had some interesting cases. What I learned is that they do not use breast implants, they prefer doing a latissimus dorsi flap, because of the unacceptable incidence of breast implant disease. This is quite different from things I saw in Slovenia, where I never saw a flap surgery.
I then did some grocery shopping. It is not that much more expensive in Slovenia. Have a look yourself.
Then I met at a beautiful beach house and hanged with one of our Finnish hosts and two other exchange students.
We managed to see this beautiful sundown.
Day 3
Doing surgeries for the whole day.
My kummi Miisa helped me with getting a bike. She was so nice, she contacted her cousin who agreed to lend me her bike for the time of my visit to Finland.
Weather was nice and we decided to go to the park.
I managed to took picture of some really nice fountains they have connected to the water dam.
Day 4
More surgery. Everybody is extra nice. From doctors to nurses. So accommodating and fluent in English (thank god, I don’t speak a word Finnish).
In the evening we went to our Kummis’ house. Listened to some music, made pancakes and ate traditional Karelian pasty.
We listened to music from each of ours contries. And found some really good and fun ones.
One of the songs was this one. We were dying of laughter. It is how our group chat got a flute as the group photo.
Day 5
Surgery²
In the evening we met to hang at one of our Kummis. We were trying Finnish liquorice and enjoying each others’ company. We also played a game of telephone. Where you draw a word, which you then have to illustrate and pass forward for another person to figure out. You repeat that about 5 times and laugh at how the results get distorted.
Day 6
On Saturday we decided to go to a science museum. It was raining quite hard and we just wanted to do something together and under a roof.
We began by meeting for breakfast. We ate milk rice, same as we do in Slovenia. Additionally, with every meal you get a piece of bread and butter.
We then walked to the musem. We tried fun kids experiements, including riding a bike on a rope.
We then went along and got ourselves some Sushi at an amazing sushi place (Itsudemo sushi). It was an all you can eat buffet for 18 EUR during weekends, and 13 EUR during weekdays (you can get 10 % off if you show your students’ card).
We met at Kummis’ house for some pre-karaoke games. We were playing charades.
Later we went out to a Karaoke bar. We went to the bar at 21:40 and it was still daylight (see picture bellow).
We spent the night listening to hard metal covers, they really like it here. We also tried our talents as a group.
They even have their own national service for getting in line for singing (it is that popular!). Before heading home we went all out and tried ourselves in signing a Finnish song. It was quite funny, we were doing such a great job people from the crowd joined us and sang with us.
Day 7
On Sunday we were in luck and got some Sun. We went to Hailuoto. It was beautiful. The trip was quite long and we got home really tired. We took a bus there that costed us 15 EUR (it included whole-day return trip with a bus and ferry fare).
We ate a fish soup for 10 EUR.
Here are some of the beautiful pictures.
We were a quite happy bunch.
We also walked deep inside the woods.
We rounded things off with stopping in a micro brewery. Where, of course, some beers were in order.
Here we found a really nice church. They just ended the service and were happy to show us arround. It really strongly differs from the ones we have in Slovenia.
Until next time!
Read more about my experience here:
