Integration College Pilot Project at the Forefront

HLMDI's Gabriella Gombár called together a tripatriate meeting between HLMDI, Department of Operational Medicine,Dept of Language and Communication Institute of the  School of Medicine around the best methods for knowledge haring and collaborations around the integration platforms and programs designed , operated and hosted by the parties yesterday June 13th.

Key areas:

1)- Tailor Made Inter-Cultural Educational Simulation of Doctor-Patient programs under the management of the Language and Communication Institute (Skills Lab project)

2)-The "Culturally Competent in Medical Education" program of the OPM department held Sept 21-23

3)-Integration Community Building Activities by HLMDI-Dept of OPM under the Integration Platforms and Programs with a major focus on Diaspora engagement

The enthusiastic participants agreed on expanding relationships at the levels  of training of the trainers (OFTEX CDP), Doctor-Patient Simulation, Research, Migrant Community Development Coaching and Facilitation , New program and Integration platform development

The  German and Iranian communities represent the largest amongst the foreign students at the medical school requiring a special attention

During the meeting examples of the pilot Integration College and Platform  initiated by HLMDI and jointly researched by the Department of Operational Medicine were shared providing important impulses regarding the spectrum and content of the future areas of collaboration

Future Collaboration Horizons

-Programs and platforms for the students

-Programs and platforms for the trainers/educators

Hosted by the University of Amsterdam, the colleagues of the Department of Operational Medicine together with 11 American and European Universities had participated in a joint international research program titled "Culturally Competent in Medical Education” leading the Quality Assurance WP.

The above research project made clear the fact that the current Cultural Competence and Capacity Building programs are way below standard and tragically insufficient, especially at the level of trainers and educators

As a result the Dept has developed an OFTEX CDP course that can be promoted by the parties under the "Cultural Competence in Medical Education and Service".  The training will be taking place between Sept 21-23, 2017

The Circular Migration and Integration Platform as well as the Integration College project  provide a  beneficial base for facilitating the operational goals of the collaboration

-Participants from the Language and Communication Institute:

Dr. Koppán Ágnes, Eklicsné Dr. Lepenye Katalin, Dr. Németh Tímea, Szántóné Dr. Csongor Alexandra, John Marquette

-Participants from the OPM dept:

Dr.Erika Marek, Prof.Istvan Szilard,Dr.Kia Goolesorkhi

-Participants on behalf of HLMDI:

Gabriella Gombár (Community Development Manager,Mediator, Responsible for Informal Learning and Networking)

The conclusions of the meeting were reported to the Head of the Department of Operational Medicine Professor Lajos Bogár

Conclusions of the Integration Pilot project shared with all covered the following areas of attention:

1)- The High Context-Low Context Communication

Difference appears to be a serious area of conflict

(Hungarians represent High Context Communication vs. Germans and Iranians represent High Context in comparison to Hungarians)

2)-The Rural vs. Cosmopolitan Culture of Origin

According to the findings of the pilot integration college project :

Arriving migrants from the same country are not uniform in terms of their culture of origin

Rural vs. Cosmopolitan cultures are distinguishable categories and require redesigned methods of communication when targeting integration through educational programs and platforms

-Iranians coming from the cosmopolitan regions were offended when they were categorized under "religious","no pork-no alcohol" members. The students coming from rural Iran were stressed when they were told that global doctors should be open to respecting and participating in host culture rituals i.e. rural Hungary attending the Sunday prayers, drinking the palinka and eating kolbassi

Rural Iranians are more traditional, religious just like rural Hungarians. Drinking alcohol and eating pork for example is not forbidden under the old Iranian religion Zaraostrianism which is a moral benchmark for Cosmopolitan Iranians . However, rural Iranian families, tend to keep the frames and levels defined by Islam and within Islam the Shia version

3)-The Role Consciousness and Role Playing Capacity of the Trainer

Integration is an applied discipline. The Integration College pilot project provided evidence that Trainers should be screened and prepared in order to be able to fulfill their expected roles, which are different from that of a traditional educator. The integration college example proved that even the migrant , leading scholars and educators in the fields related to integration will not be able to assist integration at the absence of FACILITATOR ThROLE CONSCIOUSNESS

-The above stresses the need for the Training of Trainers program offered by the Migration and Integration group at the OPM dept

4)-The Importance of Peer to Peer Learning Platforms

This oopportunity was highlighted by the colleagues from the Language and Communication Institute

5)-Community Development

The experience of the Community Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR)model used under the Integration College Pilot project proved the importance of learning with-from migrants under informal circumstances

The above represents a fundamental pillar of the future programs

Written by Gabriella Gombár