TNMU Teachers Took Part in the First Congress of Facilitators of Peer Groups
On October 21-23, 2021, the First Congress of Facilitators of Peer Groups took place in Lviv; the event was supported by the Ukrainian-Swiss Project for the Development of Medical Education in Ukraine and the USAID Ukraine Health Care Reform Project.
Oksana Sydorenko, Natalia Haliiash, Iryna Borovyk and Sofiia Husak, Associate professors of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University are facilitators of Peer Groups, which have been successfully running at the university since the beginning of 2021 (more info).
Peer groups were initiated by the Ukrainian-Swiss project “Development of Medical Education in Ukraine” in the summer of 2020 within the continuous professional development of educators and health workers. 78 participants were trained in the peer group course, including medical educators, doctors of primary and specialized medical care, nurses, managers of health care institutions, who acquired the skills of a peer facilitator.
Today in Ukraine there are 70 peer groups, members of which are 862 medical workers, managers and educators. There are 7 peer groups in Ternopil region, 4 of them are at our university (3 peer groups for educators and 1 for doctors). One of the peer groups works to improve the skills of primary care paediatricians in Ternopil on the initiative of facilitator Iryna Hrim (more info).
At the congress, which lasted 3 days, there was an opportunity to communicate and share with colleagues the experience of conducting peer groups, to practice and improve their facilitation and communication skills.
A number of important organizational issues regarding the work of peer groups were considered.
Workshops were held to discuss in detail the problem of burnout, how to deal with panic attacks, the values of empathy and humanity in the work of a doctor, as well as an opportunity to think about how to improve the feedback.
Very interesting, inspiring reports of the invited speakers were presented: Andriy Semiankiv, MED GOblin in the report “How to step on your own rake with the help of authorities” told where the authorities come from, experts, evidence-based medicine and not that much.
Family doctor Ihor Zastavnyi delivered an interesting training on joint decision-making, which is key to implementation of a patient-centred approach to health care
Natalia Silina perfectly presented the image of a modern woman who works in medicine and at the same time seeks to combine family, motherhood and a career in the report “Women in Health Care”.
The report “Community as co-creation” by Olha Bershadska shared life hacks, how to create a community, how to create an atmosphere of interest, trust and mutual support within the community.
The Congress ended with the definition of directions for further development of peer groups, the establishment of a community of facilitators.
Our facilitators invite colleagues to peer groups, where you can work well in the community of like-minded people on their continuous professional development.
We express gratitude to the coordinators of the Ukrainian-Swiss project “Development of Medical Education” and USAID Ukraine “Support to Health Care Reform”, as well as the administration of TNMU for the opportunity to develop, improve our skills and for comprehensive support.
Information by Sofia Husak and Natalia Haliiash.
Photos by the authors