Yuki Kosaka (5th grade)

I am truly grateful for the opportunity to study abroad at the University of Rijeka in Croatia and for the valuable experience I had.
After about a 16-hour flight from Japan and a 3-hour bus ride, we arrived in Rijeka, Croatia.
It was a little chilly compared to Japan at the end of September, when temperatures exceeded 30 degrees, and I felt the arrival of autumn a little earlier. I arrived at 6:30pm on a Saturday. What caught my eye was a building with red and yellow walls and a pale blue roof, like something out of a fairy tale, and the beautiful sea at dusk. I headed to the university dormitory with high expectations.
The next day, a person in charge of international students at the University of Rijeka showed me around the university, the hospital, the city center, etc. I was still suffering from jet lag, but I was able to enjoy the atmosphere of this wonderful city.
My training started on Monday and I headed to the obstetrics and gynecology ward. In the first half of the ward, I was assigned to train in obstetrics and gynecology for one week each.
To tell the truth, I was a little worried when I made the rounds in the obstetrics department. When I observed a Caesarean section at Hyogo University of Medicine, I had a vagal reflex and collapsed, so I was unable to complete the observation, and so I was worried that I might collapse at the University of Rijeka as well.
As soon as I arrived at the obstetrics department, the doctor said, "We're going to perform a cesarean section now! Come and watch!" and suddenly I was watching a cesarean section. The operation started. I was watching in silence, wondering if it was okay to ask questions, when the doctor asked me, "About 20% of people in Croatia have a cesarean section, but how many in Japan?" I answered without thinking about the statistics and immediately said, "I'm not sure and I'll google on it!", but the doctor said, "Oh Please do it! And feel free to ask us anything." From that point on, I was able to ask questions about various things that were going on during the operation without having to worry about the vagal reflex.
From then on, I had the opportunity to observe Caesarean sections and vaginal deliveries every day. Since I don't often see births in Japan, I was able to spend my days there feeling fulfilled and with a lot of valuable experience.
What surprised me was the atmosphere in the operating room. In Japan, surgeries are tense, especially during Caesarean sections. The doctors at Rijeka University were singing along to songs playing on the radio and joking around while they performed the surgery.
During evening rounds, the doctor and I check the blood data and condition of postpartum patients in their charts, then enter their rooms. I was a little surprised to see that the beds in the rooms were not separated by curtains, so the patient's information could be heard by other patients in the same room. Also, dinner was served on the same table for each patient, and seeing the patients eating while chatting happily with each other made me feel a certain warmth, even though it was an obstetrics department.
In the second week, I rotated around the gynecology department. On average, there were about 4 or 5 surgeries every day, and I not only observed the surgeries, but also had the experience of being an assistant holding the muscle hook. From this time on, I was able to ask the doctors questions without hesitation, and most of them were friendly and enthusiastic, and they kindly explained even the smallest of questions to me. Some doctors even drew pictures for me, saying they would sketch them later. While waiting for the surgery, I had lively conversations about the surrounding tourist spots and restaurants in Rijeka.
In the last two weeks, I rotated around the plastic and reconstructive surgery department. Every day, I started my day with rounds at 8:00 a.m., and observed outpatient treatment, surgery in the treatment room and operating room, and even sutured and assisted. In fact, in Japan, I had only practiced suturing on a model in a class before the OSCE, and had never actually sutured a human, so I was hesitant, but I was able to suture under the guidance of the doctor, even though I was unfamiliar with it. When a patient spoke to me in Croatian and said "Thank you" in English with a smile, I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and relief. In addition, at the University of Rijeka, plastic surgery is included in general surgery, so when there were no plastic surgery operations, I was free to observe operations in other departments, such as breast surgery, and I was able to spend my days learning.
As I progressed through my training, I realized the importance of learning medical terminology in English. In the curriculum at Hyogo Medical University of Medicine, there were opportunities to learn medicine in English, such as "Medical English" and "Learning Clinical Reasoning in English," but when I studied, I only studied in Japanese. When I asked questions about the contents of the examination or surgery, the words I wanted to say came to my mind in Japanese, but I was frustrated that I couldn't find them in English, so after the day's training was over, I would spend my days looking up medical terms I didn't understand in the dormitory. As the training progressed, the words I wanted to communicate came to my mind quickly. I also felt very grateful that I had the opportunity to learn medicine in English at university.
Finally, through this study abroad experience, I was reminded of the importance of challenging myself in everything I do.
In fact, the day of the selection meeting for studying abroad was the day of the conference presentation, and although I had submitted my application documents, I was still unsure until the very end whether to participate in the selection meeting. If I had not taken the challenge and participated, I would not have lived in Rijeka, learned some Croatian words, commuted to the hospital every day while looking at the sparkling Adriatic Sea, and even more so, I would not be writing this experience account now.
I would like to end this account with a deep gratitude to Hyogo Medical University for giving me such a wonderful opportunity, to the International Exchange Center and General Affairs Department who helped me with my preparations before I left, to the administrative staff at the University of Rijeka, the obstetrician-gynecologists, and plastic surgeons who supported me during my time abroad, and to everyone who was involved in my study abroad.