Summer club 2022: part 1

With this post, we start giving you the details about the Summer club’s program and sharing some valuable insights with you.

Our event was opened on Monday evening by the presentation of the book “Reform of a healthy person” by Vira Kuryko. The “Laboratory” publishing house published the book with the support of our project and “The Ukrainians.” During the presentation, the participants could listen to the stories about the reform told by its implementors – the team headed by the ex. Minister of Health Uliana Suprun. You can join reading about the “treatment” of Ukrainian medicine here —> https://bit.ly/3B4q6em.

Yesterday started with the discussion with historian Yaroslav Hrytsak. Professor of Ukrainian Catholic University talked about what exactly history helps us understand the russian-Ukrainian war, based on the analysis of the database of wars that had been held during the previous two hundred years. This analysis helps us better understand why the wars start at all, what is the character of the war into which Ukraine was dragged by russia, and what speaks in favor of our victory.  

“When we observe the war, we learn to build our safety. The thing is that wars represent “the norm,” as people tend to be at war with each other. Thus, peace must be fought for. Let’s remember that countries with a high level of well-being do not have a tendency toward war. Interestingly, one can only jump into wealth and well-being. The strategy “slowly and steadily” does not work now. To jump motivated minority is required. It needs to be ready for changes and take responsibility. The political reforms guaranteed such a jump,” Yaroslav Hrytsak comments.

During the next panel, “Medical education: a bunch of diseases or a tree of problems,” Tetiana Stepurko talked about the project’s activities. It focused on the methodology of the “tree of problems” used by the project team under the mentorship of Oleksandr Zhyhinas to study how quantitative and significant the medical education problems are.

“Today, we are facing the problem of the unattractiveness of medical education in Ukraine. This system is closed and incapable of attracting bright and talented human resources who would develop it from the inside. We pay this much attention to medical education because in HEI medical professionals gain competencies and build their worldview, which will define their further development trajectory. We need to improve the competencies of the medical university graduates,” Tetiana comments.

After the presentation, there was the most interesting discussion on how the participants see education in Ukraine in the future:

“With russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I became more interested in the topic of evil. In western philosophy, there is no ontology of evil; there is the absence of good. My philosophy education helped me to understand evil. To be human and to develop, we need to do unpractical things. Ukrainian medical HEIs often focus on specialization and create doctors-craftsmen. What about humanity? Personality development? Our society requires more doctors-personalities. Thus, I invite you to develop yourself”, shares Mychailo Wynnyckyj.

“IKEA is an example of a good management principle: all the pieces can be combined, even if you bought part of the parts in Poland and another part in Kyiv. This model can also be transferred into the educational cooperation system between the different HEI. I would like us to come to hybrid methods and technologies and optimize the resources of the educational system,” comments Daria Ozerna.

“For some reason, in Ukrainian medicine, we differentiate professionalism and humanity – these characteristics exist apart from each other. I think we must change the angle of view. When the educational system exists separately from other systems, we lose the opportunity to develop. I see our future task in cooperation between all the existing systems and mutual development”, says Oksana Lutska.

“Medical education is not only about the education of students or interns. It is also about the education of society. Due to the communities, we have the space for reflecting and can share the gained experience. In any situation, there is a window of opportunities. Thus, we must react to the changes quickly and not lose speed. Here we need the complex approach”, Vitaliy Smandych comments.

Afterward, the participants discussed texts by Mykhailo Kotsubynsky and Mykola Khvylyovy with Bogdana Neborak. This was a really nice talk about literature and the value of the literature texts. We also invite you to read the impressionistic essay “Apple Trees blossom” and the short novel “I (Romance).” These pieces demonstrate the personalities who experience complex emotions in different life situations and make difficult choices.

Matviy Khrenov, the co-founder of the Ukrainian health care center (UHC), talked with the participants about the notion of crisis, philosophy, and how to be strong. Here are some interesting thoughts:

• crises are normal,
• there is no stability; there is vital capacity,
• to be ready for the business risks means to be prepared for the worst scenario.

We closed the day with the much-needed reflections of the participants about the war together with Mychailo Wynnyckyj, assistant professor of the sociology department of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla academy.

Photo: Taras Bezpaly