Bilateral relations with Nursing Faculty

Ms Eila Niitamo tells that after Vietvoc projects she and Mr Kyösti Voima were working with Dr Thai, Dean of Nursing Campus, in order to enhance the students’ clinical practice and the evaluation process and forms. The plan was that two students from Diak both during spring and fall semesters should be sent to Hue University. As the Vietvoc project ended 2002, Diak’s cooperation with College of Medicine and Pharmacy continued on a bilateral basis. The personnel in the nursing faculty started to understand the goals of Diak’s students’ studies and clinical practice. Students as well as visiting teachers participated in some theory classes kept by American visitors in the health care issues as well in environmental issues. (Eila Niitamo 2012.)

Since 2005 Diak students were able to take part in a mountain health care centre projects with other American students and also every semester they visited another hospital in the northern part of Vietnam (Eila Niitamo 2012).

The possibility to participate in this program of Medrix from USA was closed after 2008, at least temporarily, so a few Diak’s students could enjoy this very good cooperation.

PICTURE 10: Kyösti Voima in the beginning of Vietvoc project with colleagues. 1999. Photo owned by Kyösti Voima.

PICTURE 11: Dr. Luc Ha and Diak student at the village child birth place.

2008. Photo: Anne Meretmaa

Personally I visited Vietnam for the first time in spring 2008 and stayed for two days at the camp and clinic with our two students. An American com-pany “Medrix” had brought about 15 nursing students from one American University to a five week’s camp together with three American teachers and quite a few Vietnamese students and teachers. The camp and clinic formed a good combination of theory and practise and I must say that I was quite impressed. (Meretmaa 2008.)

Because of the contract made during Vietvoc the number of students to be sent to Hue was limited in the early years of bilateral cooperation. Many ti-mes only two students went to Vietnam annually. Sampo was a male student who had been there all alone but his experiences were good:

I learnt a lot from myself. I survived alone in totally different culture and new environment. And I made many friendships which are continuing also nowa-days. I graduated in December 2007 and since then I have been working in acute ward in HUS/HYKS Psychiatry center. One of the patient groups in our ward are multicultural patients as tourists and asylum seekers. I need good knowledge of different cultures in my everyday work. It is very important that we do not confuse cultural behavior for example to psychosis. (Sampo of 2006.)

In 2007 I met for the first time with Dr Thai in Nepal. He met seven Diak students there and was wondering why we send only two to Vietnam at the time. Only that way I found out that there are not any more limitations to the number of students. Ever since there have been 4 to 8 nursing students every semester in Vietnam, so in the past few years we have been catching up.

In 2010 Hope intensive course was held in Vietnam and that time there were eight of our students participating in the course besides doing their normal three month placement over there. That week gave us a good perspecti-ve on cooperation between Finnish and Vietnamese nursing students. Diak students could also help two Vietnamese students coming to Finland for exchange after that course.

Some students of later years share about their experiences in following:

I did my placement in Vietnam in spring 2011. I chose Vietnam because I have been interested about Asian cultures for a long time and that kind of stu-dent exchange was one of my dreams that I have had. Before I chose Vietnam I heard lot of positive things from students who has been there earlier. Vietnam was also a place where we could have a practice in hospital and that was im-portant for me. (Minna of 2011.)

When I look back at the time I think the best experiences was to explore totally different culture and get to know new people. I found new way to think and live .I guess that every placement has pretty strong impact to the people who has done it. I think my placement made me mentally a little stronger and more aware of myself. (Minna of 2011.)

Over the weeks we have learned some positively surprising facts about health care in Vietnam. It’s been good to see how well children’s national vaccination campaign is realized here and especially that it’s free for all. Otherwise people have to pay for just aboyt everything. It’s been sad to notice how bad the social security is and how the poorest people cannot always get any treatment. (Enni of 2011.)

Cooperation with Nursing Faculty has been rather easy since there has been an international coordinator for years. Since 2010 Dr Phuong, a pa-ediatrician and nursing teacher, has been acting as an international coordina-tor for Diak students in Hue and it seems that she has worked hard to make some changes in the challenging situations.

Phuong recalls that her first contact with Diak was with Mrs Anne Meretmaa.

I met her at her first visit in Hue 2008. DR. Phuong tells about her experiences in receiving and supervising Diak’s students:

To do the supervision for Diak students, we met some challenges: the lan-guage barrier, the differences of culture and nursing training in Vietnam and Finland. During these years, we have developed cooperation with Diak. We had the HOPE project and expand the exchange program: Vietnamese teachers and

students had opportunities to visit and study in Nepal and Finland and learn a lot from these places. (Dr Phuong, personal communication 19.2. 2012.)

For student exchange program in Hue, we made some changes such as: had orientation at the beginning of practice period, add lectures which were telling about the common diseases in Vietnam, add case presentations and health education in clinical practice, ask for weekly report of students to see their progress and difficulty, had closing ceremony including the report from super-visors and students, had ending assessment and feedback for each of clinical department. (Dr.Phuong 2012.)

Also Dr. Binh has been involved both in Diak students exchange and in Hope project over the years and he comments following: The exchange pro-gram: Vietnamese teachers and students had opportunities to visit and study in Nepal and Finland and learned a lot of: Nursing profession, Health and education organization, Culture, language (Dr Binh, personal communication 2.3 2012.)

The Finnish students knew more about health care system in developing countries, the everyday challenge that developing countries have to solve. They know more the tropical disease, parasitic disease.., also the Nursing profession, Culture, language which is very important in current multicultural environ-ment. (Dr Binh 2012.)