Participants of the SAFEMED + Working Group Meeting at the University of Santiago de Compostela Identified Further Priorities for Project Development

From 3 to 11 May 2022, University Santiago de Compostela held a meeting of the working group on the SAFEMED + project Erasmus + CA2 CBHE “Simulation in Undergraduate MEDical Education for Improvement of SAFEty and Quality of Patient Care”. The meeting was attended by 23 representatives from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Vilnius University (Lithuania), Tbilisi Petre Shotadze Medical Academy (Georgia), Tbilisi State Medical University (Georgia), Yerevan State Medical University (Armenia), Yerevan University Gaibusak (Armenia), I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University (Ukraine), Bukovynian State Medical University (Ukraine). TNMU was represented by the institutional coordinator of the project Tetiana Kovalchuk.

Participants of the meeting at the University of Santiago de Compostela.

The goal of the SAFEMED + “Simulation in Undergraduate MEDical Education for Improvement of SAFEty and Quality of Patient Care” is to develop mechanisms to improve the quality of medical education by upgrading and implementing a basic clinical skills program in line with World Health Education Federation and World Health Organization standards. The objectives of the project are to improve the curriculum, teaching materials and tools for studying clinical skills in accordance with the standards of the World Federation of Medical Education; to improve the material and technical equipment of centres for the development of practical skills to enhance the disciplines of universities in the field of patient safety; to develop educational opportunities for the universities of the beneficiary countries.

The meeting focused on the methodology of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for medical students at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and the University of Vilnius (Lithuania). In particular, colleagues from European universities shared their experience in organizing, implementing OSCE and receiving feedback after this exam.

Colleagues from the University of Santiago de Compostela share their own experience of conducting OSCE for sixth-year medical students.

For the participants of the meeting, the model of OSCE implementation at the University of Santiago de Compostela, which consists of two parts – computer and practical ones with 10 stations each, turned out to be interesting and quite new. A visit to the simulation centre gave a better understanding of how instructors are trained in four basic skills – venipuncture, tracheal intubation and artificial lung ventilation, diagnosis and emergency treatment of life-threatening arrhythmias, basic and professional life support (Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support).

All participants of the training got acquainted with the procedure of preparation of classrooms, academic staff and equipment the day before OSCE. Moreover, representatives of the partner universities were present throughout the practical part of the OSCE. This made it possible to summarize the experience gained the day before in the organization and methodology of this exam for medical students.

Assoc. Prof. T. A. Kovalchuk at the entrance to the Internal Medicine Station during the OSCE.

The last day of the training was dedicated to the methods of assessing the quality assurance of OSCE, by disseminating the results and understanding the next steps of the project.

José Costoya (University of Santiago de Compostela) and Tetiana Kovalchuk as facilitators on the third day of the training.

During the meeting of the working group on the implementation of the SAFEMED + project, better understanding and experience of colleagues from European universities in the OSCE organization, implementation and quality assurance for 6th-year students of the medical faculty was gained. As a result of the discussions, further priorities for the development of the SAFEMED + project and ways to implement them were identified. The gained experience will be implemented in the academic process and methods of conducting OSCE in TNMU.

Photo for memory with colleagues from Georgia.