International Week Seminar Days

Our first day of International Week began with a guided tour. The guide looked at me and said, "I remember you." We walked through the Barbakan and she happened to remark that barbakans are found in many European cities, and in recognizing our Turkey participants, the guide noted barbakan is a Turkish word. I was glad she pointed out an arch that was originally the gate to the castle area. Now it is totally covered by vines and I always thought it just a beautiful feature of the park. The park area here was originally a moat.

We went into the cathedral and I saw it the first time all done. Last year one wall area was covered by scaffolding. We also walked through the Septichora. It was mobbed with school groups. I'm returning to both these places to take photos at leisure.

It was now lunch time and we walked to the Faculty of Health Sciences for a lunch. Who is we? The International Week had two faculty from Finland, two faculty from Turkey, and one each from Sweden, Germany, England, and me from the United States.We were also joined by Erasmus students studying at the University of Pecs that were associated with the European universities represented by some of the participants.   In the afternoon we each gave a presentation about our universities. One theme emerged -- everyone mentioned how things are changing in terms of programs offered or structure of the university. I was surprised too to learn that JAMK University of Finland does an entire BSN in English.

We had a bit of time before the evening dinner and most of us walked back to the hotel. A rain storm blew in and the temperature dropped significantly. We had a lovely dinner, but the walk back to the hotel was not lovely. First, it is uphill and the wind was blowing in our faces rather stiffly, and it was cold. I almost stopped at a bus shelter to regroup, but toughed out the last two blocks.

In my room I walked to the balcony area to close the window. I noticed the interesting light crystals on the balcony railing.

Walking back I had noticed a lot of leaves and small twigs on the ground. The next morning as I walked back I found this:

Glad I wasn't at this spot when it dropped down. This second day started with a tour of the demonstration teaching rooms.

The room below is used for training paramedics.

The professor in charge of this is writing his PhD dissertation on the use of simulation and hopes to construct a simulation room. I had taught with him last year, and so of course invited him to come to Minnesota if he wanted to do any consultation about this.

Next we visited some of the "clinics." This word is used differently in Europe than the US. A clinic has both outpatient and inpatient services. I hear reference to the heart clinic or the renal clinic I wondered how co-morbidity is handled. The heart clinic includes treatment of associated hypertension, diabetes, etc.

Here one of the physicians is explaining the physical set-up of the building. The building itself is a square with a courtyard in the middle, so the building is full of windows and light. He took us down to an outside door -- the place where patients arrive by ambulance or helicopter. He explained they have developed a system for taking care of patients with heart problems. The patient is in the heart cath lab within 15 minutes after arriving at the door. The physician explained this is a result of logistics. There is one hospital, one physician group, and one ambulance/emergency service serving a population area of over 1 million persons. It is easier to get an agreement and procedure developed when there is a small group of actors involved. The mortality rate here is lower than the Mayo Clinic and they are quite proud of their results. Part of the procedure of course includes communication from incoming paramedic vehicles, so they are ready at the door, too when the patient arrives. We walked through a room full of easy chairs -- two patients waiting here,post-stent procedure, waiting for their families to come get and go home.

Our afternoon was spent hearing presentations of research by the faculty participants. I elected instead to present an overview of the IOM Future of Nursing report. It made a nice change of pace in the presentations, and everyone told me they have all the same problems in their countries too.This session was moderated by one of the English teachers I worked with last year, so of course I was delighted to see her.

Of special interest to me was a presentation about gender roles in Turkey. I also was intrigued at how research is now being done in a consortium between countries. For example, the faculty from Finland are working with 7 other countries to learn about how health promotion is or is not supported by municipal policies in the various countries.  We are going to exchange these power point presentations so each of us can use things from others. I want, for example, to work this European project regarding municipal health promotion policies into the module related to community policies in the health policy course.

Later we all went off to dinner at the Elephant House, one of my favorite restaurants in Pecs. This indeed were two very good days of learning.