Upon Arrival Training Model

SUBMISSION FOR MSI 42

Category: Short Article related to the Standing Committee on Professional Exchange (SCOPE)

Authors: Monique Frank de Vasconcelos (1), Gustavo Freitas Alves de Arruda (2)

1. Escola Superior de Ciências da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Vitória (EMESCAM), DENEM Brazil, [email protected] 

2. Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), DENEM Brazil

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Upon Arrival Training Model

Ways to improve academic quality in our exchanges

For most medical students, an exchange may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, making it a very anticipated experience, filled with hopes and expectations. We, as a hosting organization, must be sure that we give our best to meet these expectations and, if possible,  exceed them. In a country as wide as Brazil, the implementation of any activity takes even more planning, as we face some particular difficulties. 

The Upon Arrival Training (UAT), for example, has an important role in introducing the students to a new country and culture and is also a greater chance to exercise team building. We usually don’t sustain the required structure to organize national or even regional events on a monthly basis, as it would be too expensive and wouldn’t ensure that all our committees’ particularities have been fully addressed.

With that said, DENEM’s Standing Committees on Professional Exchange (SCOPE), Research Exchange (SCORE), and Public Health (SCOPH) started a joint working group to articulate solutions to guarantee a high-level UAT without compromising our incomings’ first experience and increasing the academic quality within our exchanges. Our idea was to organize a national model for our UAT, applicable for every exchange modality in all our local committees (LCs). From that work, we created a slides template and made it available and editable for the LCs, so they could adjust it to their own particularities.

To properly introduce our local officers to this new method of UAT, we hosted online meetings with all of them to explain the importance of the UAT and how to implement it locally, clarifying all doubts. We implemented it as an obligatory activity on a monthly basis for every member in   each LC. That way, we can be sure that all of our LCs are adequately transmitting the necessary and basic information, including an introduction to our country and their cities’ history and culture, a dive into the Brazilian Health Care System SUS (Universal Health System), and an overview of what they can expect from their clerkships, tutors, hosting families and local officers, and also of what we expect from them. We also give a few orientations on how to dress up at the hospitals, what to wear, what to bring every day and the importance of filling the handbook properly. In the end, we reminded  them of a few rules they must follow in order to earn the certificate at the end of the clerkship. 

In conclusion, because the size of Brazil is kind of impossible to do something with all incomings, we believe the best way to implement the academic quality in our exchange programs is by acting locally. Our UAT model was the first of many plans we have to improve the quality of the exchange with DENEM, but this is only possible with the help of all our LEOs and we are very grateful for their help and support with our new ideas. DENEM believes that it is important to always search for new methods to improve quality.