Core Course Week!

Hello everyone! What an amazing (and exhausting) week it's been!  This was our "Core Course Week," which consisted of a 3 day short study tour to Jutland (the name for Western Denmark) as well as more core class-related activities in Copenhagen.  Because my core program is Medical Practice and Policy (MPP), my week included many trips to different healthcare facilites.  I have so much that I want to write about so I think I will break it up by activity rather than by day.

Before I start talking about the actual trip, I have to give a shout out to the bus we rode to get to Kolding, Ribe, and Odense.  That's right... the bus, more fondly known as "The Spaceship." Pictures of it are included in my Jutland Shutterfly album of the trip.  It was big and silver with party lights inside, the most comfortable seats ever, and beer on tap (the beer wasn't for us, but it was still cool that it existed).  I have never been able to sleep so well in any form of transportation.  Anyway, here are some trip highlights...

Academic Visits:

The first academic visit we went on was to a pediatrician in Kolding Sygehus, Kolding.  Unlike in the US, being a pediatrician is a highly specialized profession and can only be found in hospitals.  Patients see a General Practitioner from when they are born until they die and can only go to specialties with a referral, so seeing a pediatrician usually means there is something seriously wrong.  We saw the incubators in the ICU; parents either live in the rooms with the infants or are put up in a hotel attached to the end of the hallway depending on how critical the condition of the infant is.  Little children could be seen biking around the hallways and "parking" their bikes in designated spots.  We got to talk to a few doctors in small groups and basically ask them anything about which we were curious.  I won't bore you all with the details, but here are some fun facts- about 75% of all doctors are female, and the ratio is even higher in pediatrics  Peds is a top 5 profession in the Danish medical world, so the doctors are pulled from the best of the best applicants.  It is typical for women to start having children in medical school, as it is considered an easier time to have them as well as the fact that the Danish government gives them extra money.  Most doctors only marry other doctors (this may be due the the fact that medical school takes place directly after high school, which doesn't allow for many opportunities to meet other people).  When asked his opinion on the Danish health care system, one doctor responded, "Free public health for everyone is great.  Everyone should have equal access, though this may not be completely true because some know how to utilize it better than others.  It may not be the most efficient system, and we as doctors may not make that much money, but if we had more money it wouldn't change the fundamental things in our lives anyway."

Awesome playroom donated by Lego

Our next academic visit was to a General Practitioner in Rødding Lægehus, Rødding.  The office seemed more like a house than a practice to me, which was interesting because GP offices are actually called houses.  GPs are the gatekeepers of the Danish healthcare system.  Like I said previously, you cannot see a specialist without a referral from your GP.  Because you go to the same GP from birth to death, you get to know your doctor on a very intimate level that is typically not achieved in the US.  GPs typically see about 25-35 patients per day per doctor.  When asked if she would change anything about the system, the doctor with whom we spoke said she wished she had a smaller number of patients and more time to spend with them.  I think this is a major problem everywhere, especially in the US where healthcare is more of a business than anything else.  She also said she loved that there was no money exchanged between the patient and the office, because that would just "feel wrong" to her.  What I found most interesting was that GPs in Denmark also act as psychiatrists for mild psychopathologies.  Because there aren't many psychiatrists in Denmark, especially Jutland, GPs act as therapists and can proscribe medicine for psychiatric disorders, though only after the age of 21.  They also can perform minor surgeries like wart removals.  I have so much respect for the wide variety of things they are expected to know that would typically be considered a specialty in the US.

Life.

My favorite academic vist was to the IVF clinic in Odense. We were shown both the facility and the lab and got to watch as the doctors/lab technicians created life for those who couldn't do it on their own.  They would show us the sperm swimming around (super fast, in most cases) and how to stun them with a micropipet without harming them (much more difficult than one would imagine), suck it up, and then inject it into the egg.  They showed us time lapses of the embryo dividing.  It was quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my entire life, and I had such a profound experience that I am now really considering the career of an infertility specialist.  Between the science and the life-making and the patient counseling, I think it is something I would really enjoy.  Something amazing about Denmark is that IVF is public.  Couples with fertility problems, single women, and lesbian couples are allowed to undergo treatment on the tab of the government up to three times.  I love the fact that Denmark so values to right to creating life for anyone who wants it, whereas it costs tens of thousands of dollars and upwards in the states and is only accessible to those who can afford it.

IV success!

Once back in Copenhagen we went to Rigshospitalet for a skills lab.  We learned how to insert an IV, which is much more difficult than it looks.  My favorite part of skills lab was the sutures... I was so good at it right away! I guess all that time spent knitting and sewing really helped.  It felt so awesome to finally be doing something practical.

The last academic visit was to a maternity ward in Roskilde Hospital.  In the 4 hours I spent there, I did not once see a obstetrician.  99.9% of births in Denmark occur with a midwife present (as compared to 7.4% in the US); obstetricians only intervene on extreme high-risk pregnancies.  Each maternity suite had a bathtub inside of it in the event that the mother chose to have a natural birth.  I learned that giving birth on your back in the typical American fashion is anatomically and logistically just plain stupid- there are so many other birthing positions better suited for the mother's and baby's health.  In post-partum maternal health, the US ranks 25th and Denmark ranks 4th- they must be doing something a lot better than us.  Infant mortality rates in the US are also 4x higher than in Scandinavia, and when asked the midwife attributed much of the cause to the process of birthing.  The last shocking thing was that paid maternity leave in Denmark is 42 weeks and can be split up between both the mother and the father.  Wow!

Fun/Cultural Visits:

Koldinghus Castle, originally founded in 1268 by Christoffer I, though burned down multiple times since (like everything else in Denmark).

Trapholt Museum of Modern Art- the majority of this museum involved chairs that could be viewed but not sat upon, which was slightly disappointing.  I don't really understand the Danish obsession with chairs.  We also got to see The Summer House, a piece of architecture designed in the 1970s by Arne Jacobsen (the guy who invented the egg chair).  I thought it was boxy and ugly with rooms that were much too small, though I did like the giant windows that took the place of walls.

I look so professional.

GO KARTING! If any of you know me well, you know that I really dislike driving.  Like, I have a pretty major fear of it.  However, this Go Karting experience (though I have been go karting before) was SO MUCH FUN!  We got to drive around a track with a straightaway and a bunch of sharp turns 8 times per race, in 3 separate races.  I really enjoyed passing people and going super fast even though it was terrifying.  Unfortunately I did not medal, but I ended up doing pretty well.

A tour of Ribe, the oldest existent town in Denmark (dating back the the first decade of the 8th century).  Our cute little old man tour guide told us that they "burned their witches in a nice way" by pouring some sort of thing on them that would make them explode as soon as they were lit on fire instead of burning for hours.  Really nice.

Overall it was a really fun week, and I learned so much about things that actually interest me a great deal.  Our class of 20 students bonded very quickly and I am so excited to travel to Budapest and Vienna with them for our long study tour in less than a month!

Today (Saturday) I went to the Carlsberg Factory with some friends.  The brewery has been around since the 1800s, so I was able to take some pretty cool pictures of old stuff.  They'll be up later as I haven't had time to upload them yet.

We had no classes in our other subjects this past week, so I have to catch up on all of the work now!  Actually, I'll probably just watch tv and go to sleep... it's been a very tiring week.