Study Tour: Continued in Copenhagen!

Core course week continues! After the short study tour, we spent Thursday and Friday taking a few more courses on healthcare and getting hands-on medical experience (sort of). Yesterday, we got a short lecture on the Scandinavian healthcare system...which was completely overshadowed by our class in the afternoon when we learned how to make sutures and insert an IV!! Every pre-med student's wet dream right there. The last time I learned how to do sutures, we were given bananas and told to inflict mortal wounds upon them before stitching them up. I may have gotten a bit overenthusiastic and ended up shanking my finger instead. Needless to say, this experience was by far more pleasant.

Foam wrapped in gauze makes for an excellent practice tool. I wonder
 who had the job of going to town on these pillows with a scalpel.

Obviously, my sutures still need a lot of work. When I tugged on one to
cut it off, it came undone. Oops. Don't think that's supposed to happen...

 After learning the ins and outs of the dermal suture, we moved on to the next station to learn how to insert an IV. There is something to be said about walking into a room with severed (plastic) arms set-up on the table.

As we listened to the lecture, you could see everyone
 surreptitiously reach out to poke the hands or give
them a squeeze just to see if they were real.

We learned how to find a good vein for catheter insertion, how to elevate the arm and release the tourniquet before removing the needle to avoid a faceful of blood, you know, the essentials. This is the only class I've ever been in where you hear constant exclamations of "Oh my God, he's bleeding!!" , "I'm so sorry, I killed you.", and "Shit, shit, shit!" (OK, actually maybe not the last one. That I get a lot.)

Today we got a presentation on sex education in Denmark. Did you know that 10% of Danish youth aged 15-25 have chlamydia? And at least 50% of Danes have sex before the age of 17? But, the legal abortion rate in Denmark is only 0.5%, as opposed to the US rate of 2% and the worldwide average of 2.8%. Also, Denmark sees significantly less teenage births than the United States. Sex Ed has been mandated in Denmark since 1970 and obviously, something is working! Anyways, we had very interesting discussions about how society perceives sexuality, prostitution, porn, and just sex in general. I don't know about you, but this is definitely how I like to start each day -- with stimulating (oh ho ho) conversations.

The last lecture of core course week is going to start in a few hours, Medical History of Copenhagen. Sounds like it could be either a fascinating lecture or a snoozefest...let's hope it's the former!

So yes, note to those planning personal travel expeditions around the short study tour, the core course does take up the ENTIRE week. One of my classmates planned a trip that left on Friday thinking there wouldn't be class on that day but...oops mandatory immersion sections. That's ~$200 down the drain. So remember, when in doubt, always ask!