Is a health profession practiced in the same way in the United States as in Spain? Does a Canadian health student learn the same thing as a Spanish student? Or what is the main difference between the health systems of the world? These are some of the doubts that 40 future health workers from the United States and Canada will no longer be consideredafter immersing himself for several weeks in the daily life of a Spanish hospital, in this case the Río Hortega University Hospital, in Valladolid.
We have to go back to 2007, when the European Union proposed the “Atlantis Program”. An international project focused on educational cooperation and developed in more than 100 hospitals around the world, which allowed the students involved to access “a cultural exchange” with the possibility of observing, for more than 20 hours a week, the way of working and learning in the health systems of other countries.
Spain, for its part, has joined the list of countries affiliated to the programme for another year, such as Portugal, Croatia, Italy and Cape Verde, and has welcomed hospitals in Castile and Leon, Madrid and the Balearic Islands. students from the United States and Canada, aged 18 and over, pursuing university studies related to health sciences or recently graduated from one of them.
Río Hortega received 40 of these students a few weeks ago and divided them into four groups of 12, 12, 8 and 8 students to “improve their experience.” From that moment on, those on the other side of the pond began to realize rotations at the hospital, during which time they can observe the work of different departments or services. Be, at all times, accompanied and supervised by hospital professionals designated for this purpose.
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