Indonesian Group Visited Turku to Learn about Finnish Health Care and Early Childhood Education
Finland University, a transnational education company partly owned by the University of Turku, organised a visit for an Indonesian group to Turku to learn more about Finnish early childhood education and health care.
In September 2017, a group of seven people from Indonesia came to Turku to learn about Finnish maternity and child health clinics, and early childhood care and pre-primary education. The group consisted of professionals in medicine and early childhood education, who were interested in getting to know the Finnish system and apply the methods in developing the Indonesian systems. The visit was part of transnational education initiative between Finland and Indonesia.
The visit was organised together by the Finland University, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital. In addition to visiting the University, the group also visited delivery rooms, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a maternity clinic, and a day care.
Indonesia One of the Main Countries for Transnational Education
The visit was a part of initiatives in transnational education by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Turku.
Indonesia is one of the main target countries for transnational education.
– For instance, 60 percent of pregnant women are anaemic in Indonesia, and the mortality rate of mothers and newborns is high. With this opening, we want to show that with training and, for example, consultations on the development of maternity clinic system we can achieve significant improvements, possibly in the whole country. The aim is to build notable projects around this subject, says Executive Vice President at Finland University Pasi Kaskinen.
On Wednesday, 27 September, the group was demonstrated how newborns are treated at Turku University Hospital. The doctors were most interested in the low neonatal mortality rate in Finland and in the methods used to achieve one of the world’s lowest mortality rate.
The first-rate health care of the University Hospital was presented to the group by MD, Docent, Paediatrician and Neonatologist Hanna Soukka, and MD, Paediatrician and Neonatologist Kalle Korhonen (in the picture).
The group was especially impressed by the scale of University Hospital’s routine screenings for newborns – all babies are screened for 23 different metabolic diseases as a part of normal examinations. The guests were also introduced to on-going research projects and the Finnish vaccination programme.
Aiming to Improve the Health of Indonesian Mothers and Children
During the last day of the visit, the participants discussed the contents of the training and future plans. The guests were pleased with the training they received.
– When we came here, we knew that a good guide book in neonatal care exists. Now we know its main idea and list of contents. Next, we need to read it and study the contents, summarised team leader, Dr. Achmad Mediana from Jakarta.
– The project’s aim is to improve the health of Indonesian mothers and children. In the future, training will be offered to individual doctors, as well as nurses and midwives. We also aim for a wider impact by providing instructions on follow-ups for mothers and children, based on the Finnish expertise, in entire hospitals, says Coordinator of Transnational Education from the Faculty of Medicine, Terhi Heino, and continues:
– The large size and population of the country are challenging, but we believe that this matter will go forward in small, but meaningful, steps.
>> News about the visit and a video interview in English at Finland University’s website
>> Ambassador of Indonesia and Rector Väänänen Opened a Bahasa Indonesia Language Course
Text and photos: Tilda Junko
Translation: Jenni Maja