Finnishing school

Tiago Villanueva got his pick of the draw and spent a summer in Finland enjoying the cycling, saunas, and snow

Going on elective is not compulsory for Portuguese medical students, but I took advantage of the professional exchange programme of the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations. You have to list three cities in order of preference, and I won my first choice--Oulu in Finland. At a latitude of 65ºN, Oulu is home to the most northern medical school in the European Union. As I arrived in Helsinki, one glorious afternoon in July, I did not imagine I would end up staying two and a half months.

WENNSTROMI/REX

A market in Finland

Finland and Oulu

Oulu is the gateway to northern Finland and is famous for the parks of Lapland, which are perfect for hiking in the summer and cross country skiing in winter. The city itself is thriving because of extensive cooperation between the university and high tech industry. Although technology is the engine of the local economy, it is the students who are the soul of this vibrant city.

Key facts

Finland facts

• Population--5 million
• Languages--Finnish and Swedish
• Capital--Helsinki
• Currency--Euro
• International code--+358

Hospital life

Oulu is a city planned for bikes, and I cycled to work every day. The hospital's car park held more bikes than cars, and even inside the hospital people sped through the endless hallways on microscooters.

I chose to work on an internal medicine ward, and, as I expected, I saw many conditions from erysipelas to alcohol intoxication. The wards were like a set from the Enterprise in Star Trek, and Finland is the most advanced country in Europe in terms of medical informatics. On daily rounds, we updated patients' digital records on a laptop computer as we went along. Pen and paper were resigned to the dust heap. One consultant asked me, "Don't you use this in your country?" When I said we still did almost everything the old fashioned way, she was surprised: "Really? We stopped using pen and paper 30 years ago."

My only disappointment was the language barrier. Not every doctor would translate for me, and many of the healthcare professionals did not speak fluent English. Because I was on a different firm each week, my time varied between a week of five star teaching to hours without a clue about what was going on. The best teaching was from a nephrologist who made everyone speak in English. She had to leave for Kosovo, so it was a short lived experience. Although the Finns are stereotypically reserved, doctors spent a lot of time talking to patients and explained everything in detail, in stark contrast to doctors' bedside manner in Portugal.

SAUKKOMAA/REX

A tram goes along a road in Helsinki

Take two

By mid-August, half of my elective was over. I did not have to take any examinations in September, and so I decided to ask if I could stay for another month. This was not a problem and so I took a second clerkship in radiology.

I rotated through the four subdepartments--surgery radiology, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and paediatric radiology--but I spent most of my time trying to improve my interpretation of x ray images. Everyone was friendly, and on my third day, they invited me for dinner at the best restaurant in town. This was part of a marketing promotion for the company that supplied equipment to the department, but most of us were more interested in relishing the salmon.

Saunas and snow

Finland offers fabulous opportunities for those who love sports and the outdoors. Every weekend, other international students and I went hiking in the country, and we slept in cottages along the trails. During the week, we had barbecues on the beach, played sports, learnt dance, and even found time to party. I also joined an excursion to Estonia and visited Stockholm, which I thoroughly recommend.

No trip to Finland would be complete without a visit to a sauna. I went to several sauna parties in posh summer houses, which were sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. We played sports, enjoyed the sauna, and ate luscious dinners in exchange for listening to about 30 minutes of marketing presentation. Medical students in Finland start prescribing in their fourth year and so pharmaceutical companies prey on them from early on.

At the end of September, I saw snow falling for the first time, and I had to borrow winter clothes from the Finnish students. In October, I left amid snow and cold but with a warm glow from all the wonderful memories. Although I had stayed in a single continent, it had felt like a completely different world. The contrast between northern and southern Europe is why I enjoyed the elective so much.

For more information on the IFMSA's exchange programmes visit www.ifmsa.org/scope

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