“SAFEMED+” Project Coordinators Participated in the Training Program at the University of Catania (Italy)

For 5 days, on September 11 – 15, 2023, the University of Catania (Italy) opened its doors to the coordinators and participants of the “SAFEMED+” project (“Simulation in Undergraduate MEDical Education for Improvement of SAFEty and Quality of Patient Care”) of the “Erasmus+” program KA2″ to give an opportunity to participate in the training program. The coordinators of the “SAFEMED+” project at TNMU Natalia Lisnychuk and Tetiana Kovalchuk took part in these trainings. Universities from Georgia and Armenia also sent their representatives.

In November 2020, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University started implementing the project within the Erasmus+ program “Simulation in Undergraduate MEDical Education for Improvement of SAFEty and Quality of Patient Care”, SAFEMED+).

Within the framework of the “SAFEMED+” project, TNMU cooperates with 7 partners from Georgia, Spain, Lithuania, Italy, Armenia and Ukraine. Consortium members are working on the development of mechanisms to improve the quality of medical education through the modernization and implementation of the basic clinical skills program in accordance with the standards of the World Federation of Medical Education and WHO.

The main tasks of the project are to improve the curriculum, educational and methodological materials and tools for clinical skills acquisition in accordance with world standards; improving the material and technical equipment of the centres for the development of practical skills to improve the educational disciplines of universities in the field of patient safety; to enhance educational opportunities of universities of participating countries.

The organizers of the individual training program were the coordinators of the “SAFEMED+” project at the University of Catania, Prof. Ferdinando Nicoletti and Prof. Katia Mangano.

Participants of the training program from Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia with the Rector and representatives of the University of Catania administration.

The training program has been started.

The Rector of the University of Catania, Prof. Francesco Priolo, wished success and effective work to the participants of the training.

The participants of the training program were also greeted by representatives of the University of Catania administration:

– Professor Pietro Castellino, President of the School of Medicine of the University of Catania;

– Professor Maria Angela Sortino, Director of the Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences of the University of Catania;

– Professor Alessandro Cappellani, Director of the Department of General Surgery and Medical-Surgical Specialties of the University of Catania;

– Dr. Gaetano Sirna, General Director of the Policlinic of Catania;

– Dr. Antonio Lazzara, Sanitary Director of the Policlinic of Catania;

– Professor Daniela Puzzo, President of the Master’s degree course in Medicine and Surgery, external consultant of the “SAFEMED+” project presented a presentation on the introduction of Clinical Line into the student curriculum and their mandatory international qualification internship in the 6th year of study.

The main coordinator of the project, Professor Ia Avaliani briefly described the results of the project implementation and highly appreciated the work of the SAFEMED+ team at the University of Catania.

During the working visit to the University of Catania, representatives of the partner universities got acquainted with the university clinic and the San Marco clinic affiliated to the university.

The peculiarity of the work of the university clinic is the division into specialized blocks and clear logistics for patients, which greatly simplifies and optimizes all processes.

For example, the cardiac unit consists of outpatient reception rooms, from where patients immediately enter the diagnostic department. Accordingly, there is no need to spend time and effort looking for the right specialist or ultrasound room. In addition, if hospitalization is required, there is an inpatient department, interventional cardiology, robotic operating rooms and an intensive care unit. All of them have several floors, connected by corridors and elevators for quick movement of staff and patients.

The working meeting with the representatives of the international department of the University of Catania was extremely fruitful. We had the opportunity to talk about our university, about the directions developed on the way to the internationalization of TNMU, about our new projects. In turn, colleagues from the international department of the University of Catania shared their experiences and plans regarding the expansion of directions of international cooperation.

We hope that this meeting and acquaintance with international colleagues from the University of Catania will be the first step towards establishing active international cooperation between our universities.

We express our deepest appreciation to Katia Mangano, Paolo Fagone and all colleagues from the University of Catania for the incredible organization of the training, hospitality and sincere attitude.