Ukrainian Community Fellowship Committee

824 Ridge Road East
Rochester, NY 14621

Dear ArtUkraine.com:

I am writing to you and those who visit www.ArtUkraine.com on behalf of the Ukrainian Community Fellowship Committee (UCFC) to encourage your support of a wonderfully positive and constructive program that recruits gifted medical students from all over Ukraine to study on a twelve week rotation at one of our premier medical schools, the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.

Through the generous support of the University of Rochester, School of Medicine, Dentistry and International Medicine, the hard work of our volunteers, and our donors we are able to offer the Ukrainian Medical Student Fellowship Program to our talented participants at virtually no cost.  More importantly, everyone benefits.

The students themselves are exposed to our wonderfully developed academic methods and modern technical equipment.  The Ukrainian medical community benefits by learning more about international practices and applications.  The Ukrainian academic community benefits by learning the latest in curriculum and teaching methods.  The American medical community benefits by being exposed to a different perspective.

These students are the future leaders of Ukrainian medical education; in exposing them to alternate medical education models we are preparing them to made informed and creative changes in Ukrainian medical education.  We are training today's Ukrainian medical students to be tomorrow's leaders.

Unfortunately, funding sources grow scarcer each year. The economic problems confronting Ukraine stagger the imagination.  Both the medical and academic communities are severely underfunded.  Therefore, we are stretching out and looking for new partners to assist us in this very worthwhile endeavor.  I do wish to assure you that all of our workers, including yours truly, are volunteers.  Furthermore, all contributions are devoted exclusively to funding this program and are tax deductible.

What can people, organizations, and corporations do to help?  The University of Rochester's contribution will be tuition waivers for these rotations at a value of $ 5,600 per student.  In addition, the University will organize the rotations, and help in student visas.  UCFC contributions will be used to cover the costs of round-trip airfare, visa, medical insurance and room and board.  The estimated cost per student is $ 5,175 and our goal is to bring four students per academic year.  We have to raise $ 21,000 each year to keep the program going. 

We hope many new people and organizations will join our sponsorship family and contribute to Medical Education Reform in Ukraine.  For additional information or to discuss a donation, please contact Adrienne Morgan, Director, Student Enrichment Programs, at 717 275 7203, adrienne_morgan@urmc.rochester.edu

Sincerely. (signed) Nataliya Shulga, Ph.D. Chair Ukrainian Community Fellowship Committee 716 475 9333 (USA) natalka_shulga@yahoo.com

Additional Information from the Ukrainian Community Fellowship Committee (UCFC)

Medical Education In Ukraine

Upon completion of high school, students enter medical scholl at approximately 18 years of age. Medical school consists of a six year program.  Basic sciences are taught during the first three years of medical school.  During the fourth year students are introduced to patient care, albiet in the classroom setting.

There is little interaction between the clinical and basic science departments, so much of the student's knowledge up to this point is theoretical.  The fifth year is entirely clinical where the students work with the resident physicians in local hospitals.  However, the students are primarily relegated to the role of the observer.  The students do not actually take care of the patients at this time.

They do not treat patients, follow how patients progress and usually do not write notes in the patient's chart.  Finally, in the sixth year the student becomes an active participant in administering patient care.


Medical Education Partnership and Training Project With Ukraine

In March of 1995, The University of Rochester received a two-year grant from the USAID to enhance medical education in two Ukrainian medical schools, the National Medical University in Kyiv and the Dnipropetrovsk State Medical Academy, Dnipropetrovsk.

Since the grant was awarded four workshops, two in the USA and towo in Ukraine, have been conducted addressing curriculum development, new teaching methodologies,and standardized asscessment. A Learning Center was established in Kyiv.  Six US faculty and residents have traveled to Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk to introduce new teaching methodologies through two to four-week teaching rotations.  Fourteen medical students have come to the US to exsperience medical education as practiced in the US.  FUnding for the USAID program ended in July of 1997.  Since then the Ukrainian Community Fellowship Committee has continued sponsoring student internships at University of Rochester.

The Current Program

Currently approximately two students per semester are selected to participate in a three month rotation at the University of Rochester Medical School.  These students are provided with the opportunity to study such diverse and exciting medical fields as Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, Oncology, Cardiology and Neurology.

Since students in Ukraine do not have responsibility for patient care, their clinical skills are not thoroughly developed.  This partnership program offers students the opportunity to improve their patient management's skills by learning how to make clinical decisions as well as how to evaluate and treat their patients.

The ultimate goal of this program is to transfer the considerable medical skills and knowledge to Ukraine where they can be shared with the entire medical community. The Ukrainian medical students  who have participated in these rotations have been extraordinarily bright and very eager to learn.  All of the students from past years have returned back to Ukraine and significantly progressed in their careers.

Eight of the students have entered MD-PhD programs and will seek teaching positions in the future.  Three of them are preparing for medical residence experience in the US.  Two of them started their working experience in Internal Medicine; one in Pediatrics and another innovated and leads an Emergency Medicine ward team at a hospital, as a direct result of experience received in the US.

In 1998 the programs was expanded by adding Bukovinian Medical Academy and L'viv State Medical University.  The program, thanks to the managers in Ukraine, has received significant recognition.  With the help of the managers in Ukraine, the procedure of standardized testing has become an official law and reform of medical education has begun.  The partnership schools were the first to experience the difference.

How are the students selected?  The students are in their fifth or sixth year of medical school.  All of them are carefully screened by the independent project managers in Ukraine.  Selection is based on the student's command of English, score on a standardized test of medical knowledge, combined curriculum, TOEFL, and performance in the interviews.

Contributions

All contributions can be sent to:  Ukrainian Community Fellowship Committee, Account Number 106225-001, Ukrainian Federal Credit Union, 824 Ridge Road East, Rochester, New York 14621-1782.  Contributions are tax deductible according to the rules of the IRS and US law.