As a medical student of the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava, who attended the medical internship in Rijeka, I was asked by the superiors to write the report. My internship took place in July 2021, was organised by the International Federation of Medical Students Associations, the type of contract was unilateral.
My arrival
I arrived by the train from Bratislava to Rijeka a few days before my internship started. The journey was very long – it took about 14 hours, but in the train there was ability to sleep during the night. My contact person, who was a medical student in the 3rd grade as me, was very kind to me and picked me up when I came to the train station. I could stay at his place for one night, because I could not stay at the student dorm before the agreed date.
Accommodation
All students were accommodated in the Ivan Goran Kovacic student dormitories. The quality of the accommodation was unfortunately very poor. Small rooms, high temperature in the room, shared toilet, shower and kitchen, problems with the washing machine are probably the most significant serious deficiencies and minuses of my internship. Meals there were pretty tasty, but the canteen stopped working from the 15th of July. I shared my room with one roommate, who was a Croatian student.
Internship in the hospital
I was placed at the Cardiology department at the hospital KBC Rijeka, in the city part called Susak. The department was divided into other smaller departmens, where they cured patients with several diagnoses: hearth failure, ischemic heart disease, arrhythmias, there was an intensive care unit and catheterization laboratory as well. All of the doctors could speak a professional level of English, they were translating me everything from Croatian into English. They were very initiative to explain me every diagnosis, symptoms and therapy, they answered all my questions. I could see many patients suffering from many cardiology diseases, with many symptoms, so it was very profitable for my studies. I really enjoyed watching interventions, such as percutaneous coronary intervention and stent insertion, coronarography, ablation of the arrythmogenic tissue in the heart or even insertion of pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.
Activities, trips and people
Other students were from many different countries in Europe, such as Russia, Poland, Spain, Romania or Czech Republic. Local medical students from Rijeka were very kind and helpful to us. They organised many trips, for example Krk Island, Istria (Porec, Rovinj, Motovn, and Pula), Plitvice lakes National Park, and they showed us many local beaches, restaurants, bars. We participated at the guided tours as well – in Rijeka, Opatija and Trsat castle. They organised one hiking tour to Ucka National Park where we were able to see beautiful nature and amazing views to the see. I spent my free time at the gym or swimming in the see, or just hanging out with other students. I made many friends there and I think it is one of the best experiences in my life.
Durovic