International cooperation is the key to successful university development!

A delegation of  Odessa National Medical University, with the Dean of the International Faculty Associate Professor E.S. Buryachkivsky and the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy Associate Professor V.Yu. Anisimov as its part, visited the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) in Kaunas, Lithuania from December 16 to 19, 2019.

The delegation was met by Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Professor Kestutis Petrikonis, who spoke about the recent achievements of the LSMU and emphasized the need for further cooperation between our universities.

On the first day of their working visit, they visited the Faculty of Pharmacy and met with the Dean Professor Ramuna Morkuniene and the Vice-Dean Professor Valdas Yakštas. It should be noted that the Faculty is located in a modern building, which was built in 2014 and equipped with modern equipment. The delegation visited the laboratories of the departments and the training and production pharmacy, discussed the possibility of scientific and scientific-pedagogical cooperation, exchange of professors and students.

They also visited the University Clinic, in which special attention was paid to the hospital pharmacy, which serves not only its own clinic, but also the city hospitals. The pharmacy fully supplies medicines to the hospitals, produces infusion solutions using modern equipment and air filtration systems, eye drops, powders, and more. The pharmacy employs more than 30 people, and the duration of dispensing of medicines to the departments by order is no more than 1 hour.

The Department of Emergency Medicine  was also visited, in the center of which the center of coordination of independent work of students in simulation classes was located – Hybrid Laboratory (HL). Students develop practical skills on dummies in extra-curricular time as a part of a team of three students, the first of which is the leader, the second is a supervisor, and the third is an assistant. The leader performs the manipulation, the supervisor oversees the algorithm of correct execution, and the assistant assists. Each skill is honed three times, with students changing roles. The work is video surveyed, which is then overlooked by the professor who makes his assessment of the manipulation. This lab allows every student to work out  all the practical skills which a future doctor should have.

Very pleasant impressions remained of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Higher Medical Courses in Kaunas, which became the basis for the establishment of a Medical University in Lithuania. It is interesting that the celebrations took place in the premises of the former city hospital, where exactly these courses were started. The celebration was accompanied by a dramatized action on historical topics with the participation of LSMU students and local theater actors.

All this shows that LSMU’s leading experience needs to be applied to optimize the work of simulation classes, as well as to create educational-production and hospital university pharmacies in ONMedU. The availability of university pharmacies helps to improve the quality of training of pharmacists, to provide the university clinic with medicines that not only meets the GCP quality standards, but also gives the opportunity to receive orders for clinical trials. Optimizing the work of simulation training at our university will coordinate the work of existing simulation classes and will significantly increase the level of practical skills required for the future doctor, as well as enable ONMedU to become a leader in the modern world of medical and pharmaceutical education.