Physiotherapy Graduation Placement University Hospital Sibiu, Romania
Late November 2004, the Urgenta Foundation was contacted by two physiotherapy students (Mariëlla and Froukje) of the Avans University Breda to inquire about a possible placement abroad, more specifically Romania. Off course, Urgenta was willing to introduce them to some people in Romania and all arrangements were made. The students are doing a 4 months placement at the Physiotherapy II department of the University Hospital in the city of Sibiu.
They've left for Romania the first week of February and will be home somewhere around the end of May. The technicians team of Urgenta will be able to pay them a visit during the upcoming development projects of April.
The students keep us posted from Romania and inform us about their adventures and experiences...
February 21st | March 11th | March 28th | April 22nd |
February 21st
In the three weeks that we stayed here, we've already experienced a lot: some good things and some bad. Our flight was ok, we were delayed for just a couple of minutes. Alexandra, our contact person, was already waiting at the Bucharest Airport, so that went smoothly. After many e-mails, we finally got the chance to meet each other. From the first moment we saw each other, we hit it off. In the car, on the way to Sibiu, we all sang along with the music played on the radio (as far as we knew the songs, off course). Just outside of Bucharest, the road started to deteriorate: big holes in the tarmac were everywhere ("Welcome to the Romanian roads" said our contact person).
We were dropped off in front of a nice flat in the city of Sibiu. This turned out to be the building where we would stay for the upcoming four months. Our apartment is really nice, we have our own shower and toilet and we managed to understand our Romanian speaking concierge.
The next day, Alexandra gave us a city tour so we can find our own way to the center of the city of Sibiu, the University Hospital and the Physiotherapy II building.
On our first day at the Physiotherapy II building, we were stationed at the exercise room by the (I believe) head nurse. Fortunately, an English-speaking physiotherapist was at work. This will make our life much easier for the Romanian language is not one of our strongest points. Now we have somebody to ask all kinds of questions regarding therapies and such.
In the past three weeks we got a global picture of how physiotherapy is organized in this Romanian hospital. A doctor, specialized in physiotherapy, examines the patient and, according to his findings, draws up a treatment plan. Usually, this treatment plan consists of various therapy techniques. The physiotherapists carry out this plan and do the actual treatment. Every patient is treated by multiple physiotherapists because every therapist specializes in one treatment. They all have their own department so there are rooms and therapists for electro therapy, exercises, massages, hydro therapy and paraffin.
Alexandra takes care of a lot of things for us. Without her, we would be lost. Right now, she's trying to arrange our fourth month visa. We are very glad she does all this work for us. It seems that this concerns a lot of paper work. She already applied five forms. We hope it will all work out.
We also had our first Romanian lesson. This is truly a disastrous language for us Dutch girls to learn! The pronunciation of some words make our tongues curl up, but like the saying goes: the first step is the hardest. According to Alexandra, we will catch up eventually. Lets hope so...
Last weekend, we went out for the first time. The politeness of the Romanians is astonishing! Some guys, who wanted to put their beer bottles on the table in front of us, ASKED us if we wouldn't mind! Unbelievable if you're used to the Dutch nightlife, but nice though. What about the pushing, which is a normal custom in clubs in the Netherlands? That's not done over here, they get angry. We were glad we had some companions. Next Saturday we will be hitting another club, again with some company off course.