The First Offline Training within the Project “Simulation in Undergraduate MEDical Education for Improvement of SAFEty and Quality of Patient Care” (SAFEMED +) at TNMU

Within the Erasmus+ KA2 program “Capacity Building in Higher Education – Joint Projects”, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University in partnership with 7 other members of the consortium received funding from the European Union for the implementation of joint project on “Simulation in Undergraduate MEDical Education for Improvement of SAFEty and Quality of Patient Care, SAFEMED +” (Simulation training for the bachelor’s degree students in medical education to improve the safety and quality of patient care); registration number 618812-EPP-1-2020-1-GE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP.

Higher education capacity development projects are those of international cooperation based on multilateral partnerships, mainly between institutions of higher education among the programme member countries and the programme partner countries. Capacity Building in Higher Education – Joint Projects involves development of educational programs through the preparation of innovative courses and methods.

The main goal of the SAFEMED + project is to develop mechanisms to improve the quality of medical education by modernization and implementation of a programme for basic clinical skills development according to the standards of the World Federation of Medical Education and the World Health Organization.

On October 20, 2021 the project coordinators Iya Avaliani and Akakiya Sepashvili (Tbilisi Medical Academy, Georgia), representatives of Bukovyna State Medical University Ihor Herush, Tetiana Bilous, Halyna Bilyk and Volodymyr Khodorovskyi, as well as representatives of our university Natalia Lisnychuk and Tetiana Kovalchuk, the experts of Kyiv Erasmus Office (NEO) Ivanna Atamanchuk (Project Monitoring Expert, University Academic Mobility Expert) and Veronika Tkachenko (Project Administrative Expert, ITD Project Registration Expert) joined a preventive monitoring of the project “Simulation in Undergraduate MEDical Education for Improvement of SAFEty and Quality of Patient Care (SAFEMED +)”. Natalia Martynova, Head of the Expert Group on Medical Education Development of the Directorate of Education, Science and Personnel of the Ministry of Health, and Olena Yeremenko, Deputy Head of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, welcomed the participants.

Also, on October 21-23, 2021, the first training for project participants took place offline at I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National University. Our partners in 4 SAFEMED + visited TNMU: Professor Iya Avaliani – Tbilisi Medical Academy (Georgia), Dr. Akakiy Sepashvili – Tbilisi Medical Academy (Georgia), Professor Sisyan Lomashvili – Tbilisi Medical Academy (Georgia), Professor Tinatin Chikovaniy – Tbilisi State Medical University (Georgia), Dr. Ani Rapyan – Yerevan State Medical University (Armenia), Dr. Haik Hovhannisyan – Gaibusak University (Yerevan, Armenia), Professor Victor V. Arche – University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Dr. Jose A. Costoya – University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Dr. Paolo F. Fagone – University of Catania (Italy).

Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Iryna Mykychak and Director General of the Directorate of Medical Personnel, Education and Science Tetyana Orabina welcomed the participants of the training.

During a three-day intensive, the project partners delivered a number of informative lectures, i.e.:

• Dr. Lina Zabulienė (Vilniaus Medicinos Draugija, Lithuania) “Teaching of communication skills in 3 countries: differences and similarities”, “Diversity, challenges and opportunities in teaching of communication skills”;

• Víctor M. Arce (Full Professor of Medical Physiology, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain) «Implementation of the national- wide OSCE graduation exam in Spain»;

• Daniela Puzzo (Full Professor of Physiology, University of Catania, Italy) «Clinical training for MD students: from the beginning to graduation. Our experience».

The training also involved very productive workshops:

• Workshop 1: Facilitators; Tsisana Lomashvili and Akaki Sepashvili «Creation of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) model for graduation year of MD program»;
• Workshop 2 : Facilitators: Victor Arce, Tinatin Chikovani «Revising of existing Curriculums, Ways/Steps of creation of Clinical lines, Framework of modernized curriculum»;

• Workshop 3 : Facilitators: Tetiana Kovalchuk, Hayk Hovhannisyan «Discussion and summing-up the training by all participants. Summary of the achieved training’s results by experts».