European Training Research Articles

DEVELOPMENT AND OUTLOOK OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE IN SLOVENIA

The European Society for Occupational Medicine notes that numerous differences exist between EU members regarding their policies associated with occupational health and safety; one of the reasons for this is the historical variety of approaches. If we wish to unify our occupational health and safety systems, we thus need a common, unified policy and a common European training programme. The key challenges that European occupational medicine will be facing in the future are as follows: globalization, presentism, aging of the workforce, inter-generational cooperation, stress and workplace- related burnout (mental disorders), musculoskeletal diseases (especially various types of dorsalgia), occupational injuries, work following a prolonged absence from the workplace, occupational disability, occupational rehabilitation, the impact of work on the private life and vice-versa, outsourcing, self-employment, precarious employment, prolongation of working life, encouragement of healthy living after retirement, etc. The European Society for Occupational Medicine thus proposes that the new common strategy include a list of priorities and objectives with timelines and that it anticipate collaboration between all stakeholders (workers, employers, experts and the government), while occupational medicine practitioners must become the workers’ (impartial) advisers regarding workplace risks (total professional impartiality). Key words: occupational medicine, development, outlook, key challenges

Governance Dynamics and the Application of the Multilevel Governance Approach in Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the European Neighbourhood Countries: the case of the ENPI South region

AbstractThis article analyses moves towards good multilevel governance approaches in Vocational Education and Training (VET) as an effective way to improve VET policy making in transition and developing countries, focusing on the Southern Neighbourhood of the EU (ENPI South). The centralised approaches in public administration and to VET governance still prevail in this region.The new modes of governance applied by the EU in the policy area of education and training are based on the Open Method of Coordination (OMC). They are a source of inspiration to improve VET governance, taking into account the complexity of VET policies and systems. According to current European and international experiences, the most effective, relevant and attractive VET models and systems are demand‐driven. They rely on the effective and accountable participation of both state (national/local public actors) and non‐state VET stakeholders (e.g. employers, sectoral actors, unions) in decision‐making and policy implementation processes. This could also pave the way towards self‐governed and performance‐based VET provider institutions which would give quicker responses to rapidly changing labour market skills, competences and qualification needs. Thus, this means putting in practice more and better inclusion and effective cooperation and coordination of regional and local voices of VET actors and developing stronger social partnerships to engage employers, unions and civil society in shaping and investing in skills development.Furthermore, the role of methodological tools for VET governance is not only to provide an analytical ground to capture data and structure further policy advice. These tools can also be used as ice‐breakers to improve collaboration, inclusiveness, multi‐participation and trust‐building among policy makers as they work together on very sensitive issues such as reviewing country VET governance models, modes and institutional arrangements, and/or planning policy thinking and/or learning for implementing coordination mechanisms for VET policy making. The European Training Foundation (ETF) has implemented a methodology to map, analyse and self‐assess good multilevel governance in VET, inspired by how EU governance soft tools in education and training are being used. This methodology has been applied to the Governance for Employability in the Mediterranean (GEMM) project in the ENPI South region, which is a regional project implemented by the ETF and financed by the European Commission's Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Enlargements Negotiations (NEAR).

The Second Round of the PHAR-QA Survey of Competences for Pharmacy Practice.

This paper presents the results of the second European Delphi round on the ranking of competences for pharmacy practice and compares these data to those of the first round already published. A comparison of the numbers of respondents, distribution by age group, country of residence, etc., shows that whilst the student population of respondents changed from Round 1 to 2, the populations of the professional groups (community, hospital and industrial pharmacists, pharmacists in other occupations and academics) were more stable. Results are given for the consensus of ranking and the scores of ranking of 50 competences for pharmacy practice. This two-stage, large-scale Delphi process harmonized and validated the Quality Assurance in European Pharmacy Education and Training (PHAR-QA) framework and ensured the adoption by the pharmacy profession of a framework proposed by the academic pharmacy community. The process of evaluation and validation of ranking of competences by the pharmacy profession is now complete, and the PHAR-QA consortium will now put forward a definitive PHAR-QA framework of competences for pharmacy practice.

Implementation and Sustainability of European Training Program on Organ Donation in Poland: Results and the Impact on Donation Indicators.

Hospital training called ETPOD-Essentials in Organ Donation-was introduced in Poland in 31 hospitals with under-utilized potential of donation. The aim of this study was to assess the effect in hospitals included and not included in program, before and after trainings. The number of potential and effective donors, organs used, and number (%) of family refusals were compared at 10 and in 20 months after the training and in equal periods before. In trained hospitals, the number of potential donors increased (17% in 10 months, 10% in 20 months); in remaining hospitals, donors increased in 5% in both periods. In hospitals included in ETPOD, the number of effective donors increased (2% and 4.5%); in the whole country, donors also increased (5.6% and 2.7%). In ETPOD hospitals, the number of utilized organs increased (14.5% and 8.5%); in the rest, the increase was 3% and 7%. In trained hospitals, family refusals increased from 6.9% to 16.2% and from 8.9% to 10.7%; in the whole country, family refusals decreased from 11.7% to 11% in the short term and increased from 9.6% to 12.1% in the long term. In hospitals involved in the ETPOD program, the increase in organ donation is greater than in the rest of hospitals. Distinct benefit was observed in consent to organ donation.

Sustainability of the European training and education of the medical physics expert in diagnostic radiology (EUTEMPE-RX)

Introduction EUTEMPE-RX ( http://www.eutempe-rx.eu/ ) is an EU funded project that provides state-of-the-art education for Medical Physicists in diagnostic and interventional radiology at expert level. Its sustainability is crucial for the high level of education and training of Medical Physicists in this specialty hence ensuring radiation safety in Europe and beyond. Purpose To present the plans for a sustained continuation of EUTEMPE-RX under the umbrella of the EUTEMPE Network. Materials and methods The work-out of a business plan for sustainability of the EUTEMPE-RX course modules is a project task. Given the overwhelming level of satisfaction expressed by the present EUTEMPE-RX participants, the quality EUTEMPE-RX manual was considered the best basis for future actions. The present modules will be repeated and parallel programmes will be developed for Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Oncology. Results The major sustainability achievements so far have been the creation of a Memorandum of Understanding for continued efforts among current project partners and the foundation of the EUTEMPE network. The structure, quality manual and terms of reference for the Boards and Committees of the EUTEMPE Network have been established and the population of these is being solicited. The programme for the second round of EUTEMPE-RX modules will be available soon. Conclusion A sustainability business plan for EUTEMPE-RX is being developed. The EUTEMPE-RX modules will be repeated in the near future and possibly expanded to other specialties of medical physics. Demand will decide the sustainability of EUTEMPE Network. Disclosure The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Graduate Medical Education in intensive care medicine - How can the European concept be integrated in Germany?

Within the European Union, medical disciplines also have been organized. At the European level, the Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS) currently represents the interests of 42 medical disciplines and offers support to doctors to work in any European country. For this purpose, guidelines were adopted already in 2005, which, among others, regulate automatic recognition of professional qualifications. This does not apply to intensive care medicine, since in most European countri in the guidelines as a "special competence". For this purpose, a multidisciplinary joint committee of the UEMS formulated the so-called "European Training Requirements" (ETR), the aim of which was to raise the professional skills of European doctors working in the field of intensive care to a uniformly high level. The ETR are currently in the process of being voted upon. As things stand, additional training in intensive care medicine in Germany as currently practised would meet the conditions and requirements of the ETR.

"Bird of another feather": re-envisioning professional development for museum learning experts

The article draws on the case study of the European In-service training course ‘School and Science Museum: Cooperation for Improving Teaching, Learning and Discovering’ aiming to offer insights into the training of educators in museums. It discusses training and contributes suggestions in the context of the contemporary museum context as well as approaches to visitors' learning.

Paving the road for a European postgraduate training curriculum

The ‘Project for Achieving Consensus in Training’ has been initiated by the European Board & College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology to harmonise training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology throughout Europe. In this project called the EBCOG-PACT, a state of the art pan-European training curriculum will be developed.Implementation of a pan-European curriculum will enhance harmonisation of both quality standards of women's healthcare practice and standards of postgraduate training. Secondly, it will assure equal quality of training of gynaecologists, promoting mobility throughout Europe. Thirdly, it will enhance cooperation and exchange of best practices between medical specialists and hospitals within Europe.The project is expecting to deliver (1) a description of the core and electives of the curriculum based on previously defined standards of care, (2) a societally responsive competency framework based on input from societal stakeholders and (3) strategies for education and assessment based on the current literature. Also, the project focuses on implementation and sustainability of the curriculum by delivering (4) a SWOT-analysis for the implementation based on insights into transcultural differences, (5) recommendations for implementation, change management and sustainability based on the SWOT analysis (6) and finally a handbook for other specialties initiating European curriculum development.The development and the implementation of this modern pan-European curriculum in Obstetrics and Gynaecology aims to serve as an example for the harmonisation of postgraduate training in Europe.

Hospital and Community Pharmacists' Perceptions of Which Competences Are Important for Their Practice.

The objective of the PHAR-QA (Quality assurance in European pharmacy education and training) project was to investigate how competence-based learning could be applied to a healthcare, sectoral profession such as pharmacy. This is the first study on evaluation of competences from the pharmacists’ perspective using an improved Delphi method with a large number of respondents from all over Europe. This paper looks at the way in which hospital pharmacists rank the fundamental competences for pharmacy practice. European hospital pharmacists (n = 152) ranked 68 competences for pharmacy practice of two types (personal and patient care), arranged into 13 clusters. Results were compared to those obtained from community pharmacists (n = 258). Generally, hospital and community pharmacists rank competences in a similar way. Nevertheless, differences can be detected. The higher focus of hospital pharmacists on knowledge of the different areas of science as well as on laboratory tests reflects the idea of a hospital pharmacy specialisation. The difference is also visible in the field of drug production. This is a necessary competence in hospitals with requests for drugs for rare diseases, as well as paediatric and oncologic drugs. Hospital pharmacists give entrepreneurship a lower score, but cost-effectiveness a higher one than community pharmacists. This reflects the reality of pharmacy practice where community pharmacists have to act as entrepreneurs, and hospital pharmacists are managers staying within drug budgets. The results are discussed in the light of a “hospital pharmacy” specialisation.

Individual therapy for students: a question of professional identity?

The European training curricula for student music therapists can be distinguished chiefly between those that offer individual therapy for students and those that do not. In some curricula, previously existing individual therapy has disappeared, been replaced by self-experience or outsourced in the hope that students will undergo it voluntarily. Are these new trends a result of a shifting thematic focus or of financial constraints?In this roundtable the aims and the importance as well as the challenges of individual training music therapy as part of music therapy curricula will be put to discussion by representatives of various European training programs.

Learning in a new key: an Erasmus+ project developing therapeutic music resources for children affected by trauma

Background: Children with traumatic life histories face profound difficulties accessing educational curricula and forming healthy relationships alongside the risks of mental health issues. Music therapists are too thinly spread to work directly with all. Creative ways of collaborating with educators will enable more sharing of resources.Methods: Presenters will report on the early findings of a European-funded project featuring collaboration between music therapists, educators, and researchers from nine different European educational, training, and research institutions. The project empowers teachers by developing practical, therapeutic musical resources through training events, resource tool-kits, evaluation, and impact studies and dissemination.Discussion: Three music therapist researchers present initial findings from participating mainstream schools in Poland and Italy and a residential special school in the UK.Conclusions: There will be an opportunity to explore ethical and cultural complexities of t...

Music therapy in Europe: the history of European training courses and their pioneers

Background: Karin Schumacher has been engaged in the history of music therapy since the 1970s. Together with Lada Petrickova, she has been involved with the presentation of music therapeutic content in the form of exhibitions for many years. Selected themes from music therapy are now presented to a wider public in the form of an interactive exposition.Objective: This exposition focuses on the presentation of developments in study programmes in the European region from a historical perspective.Methods: The exposition uses video stations, posters, and further elements to provide information on specific themes. The structural content of the exposition will be presented in an introductory presentation.Discussion: As well as questions relating to content, changes in the music therapeutic training scenario, there will also be discussion about this kind of PR work. Is this kind of exhibition a good means of conveying ideas? In which places could music therapy be presented in this way, and made more accessible fo...

The training of national judges on EU competition law

This article presents the main findings of a study recently published by the European Commission on the training needs of national judges in the field of EU competition law. The study, prepared by ERA, the European Judicial Training Network and Ecorys, proposes distinct training profiles, depending on whether judges deal with the public or private enforcement of competition law (or with State aid), the extent to which they are specialised in the field, and other factors that mean that the needs and numbers of judges dealing with EU competition law vary considerably from one Member State to another.

Thoracic surgical training in Europe: what has changed recently?

Training in thoracic surgery (TS) traditionally varies amongst countries in Europe. The theoretical content of the training, the length of training, the amount of self-performed procedures to be done and the definition of training units all differ in European countries. However, in the past two decades, several initiatives were taken to harmonize TS training in Europe. The purpose of this paper is to highlight these initiatives and their impact on today's TS training in Europe.

Psychiatric trainees’ view on a European curriculum of psychiatry

The European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) represents the consensus of psychiatry trainees associations across more than 30 European countries, advocating for the improvement and harmonization of psychiatry training across Europe. This federation has as priority to get direct feedback from psychiatry trainees, analyzing the concerns related to psychiatry and training in Europe, collaborating with other national and international partners to translate trainees’ views into action, while offering trainees several opportunities.Surveys of psychiatry trainees show that the main concerns around Europe revolve around differences of duration of training in the different countries, the discrepancies between the European training standards, the national programmes and the real experience of trainees. Likewise, levels of recruitment into psychiatry and inadequate working conditions also concern trainees, especially at the current times of economic challenge, where the choice to migrate abroad is quite frequent. Nevertheless, the involvement of psychiatry trainees in the development of national programmes and in the quality assurance of training varies significantly around Europe.This presentation will highlight the current differences observed in the structure, content and duration of psychiatry training programs in Europe, reporting trainees’ views on a European curriculum of psychiatry, and exploring mechanisms to evaluate and harmonize the postgraduate training in Europe.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Harmonization of European training

Mental health disorders, especially dementia, mood- and anxiety disorders, are among the most prevalent diseases in later life. Due to a greying European society, numbers are expected to increase over the next decades. Consequently, there is a pressing need for well-trained specialists in geriatric psychiatry across Europe in order to meet the mental health needs and to deliver a high standard of care to the aging population. In the past decades, some countries have set up specific training programs for specializing in geriatric psychiatry, whereas others did not. In order to stimulate the development of high-quality services, harmonizing specialty training across Europe will be a first step forward.The EU stresses the need for standardizing qualifications of medical professionals to enable them to work across the EU. This workshop aims to work towards a consensus on the minimum training level required for geriatric psychiatry. We state that being able to work as an old age psychiatrist requires specific training in geriatric psychiatry and old age over and above general training in psychiatry. Therefore, discussion of opportunities to develop minimal criteria for training and practice across Europe is crucial. Taken the differences between countries into account (many countries do not provide specific training in old age psychiatry), we should finally agree on the minimal level of education and supervision, the minimum level of work experience and finally the minimal level of supervision in peer groups as a starting point.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Franciscus Sylvius on Clinical Teaching, Iatrochemistry and Brain Anatomy.

Born in Hanau, Germany, in 1614, Franciscus (Dele Boë) Sylvius received his medical doctor diploma from Basel University in 1637 and became Professor of Practical Medicine at Leiden University in 1658. One of the founders of medical biochemistry, Sylvius was also an outstanding anatomopathologist, with contributions ranging from the first description of the pulmonary tubercles to that of the lateral fissure of the brain. Thanks to Sylvius, a gifted teacher and one of the greatest physicians of his time, Leiden became a major European medical training center. He died in 1772 after having served as Rector Magnificus at Leiden University.

Strong Selection at MHC in Mexicans since Admixture.

Mexicans are a recent admixture of Amerindians, Europeans, and Africans. We performed local ancestry analysis of Mexican samples from two genome-wide association studies obtained from dbGaP, and discovered that at the MHC region Mexicans have excessive African ancestral alleles compared to the rest of the genome, which is the hallmark of recent selection for admixed samples. The estimated selection coefficients are 0.05 and 0.07 for two datasets, which put our finding among the strongest known selections observed in humans, namely, lactase selection in northern Europeans and sickle-cell trait in Africans. Using inaccurate Amerindian training samples was a major concern for the credibility of previously reported selection signals in Latinos. Taking advantage of the flexibility of our statistical model, we devised a model fitting technique that can learn Amerindian ancestral haplotype from the admixed samples, which allows us to infer local ancestries for Mexicans using only European and African training samples. The strong selection signal at the MHC remains without Amerindian training samples. Finally, we note that medical history studies suggest such a strong selection at MHC is plausible in Mexicans.

Pioneers in Metals Research, Part V

Abstract Samuel Leslie Hoyt was one of the earliest metallurgists to receive his advanced training in Europe. He was involved in many of the key metallurgical developments in the middle part of the 20th century and also wrote about the achievements of his peers in the book Men of Metals.

Reframing European doctoral training for the new ERA

ABSTRACTIn 2014 the institutionalization of European higher education and training, as well as research and innovation, policy entered a new phase: a number of financial instruments were simplified and merged. The Erasmus Mundus programme, wherein consortia of European and overseas universities built joint master's or doctoral degrees, was split into two parts: joint master's degrees now belong to education policy, and joint doctorates became a minor part of the Horizon 2020 programme for research and innovation. The programme illustrates how supranational institutions use ‘soft power' to harmonize policies. Using data from interim evaluations of two funding instruments, this article argues that the policy change marks the institutionalization of emerging concepts of European master and European doctorate as two distinct areas, not only different cycles of education. The master is constituted as individual investment, and the doctorate becomes a means to Lisbon (innovation and economy) more than Bologna (streamlining education systems) objectives.