Professionals from several medical and non-medical specialties have been trained in teenage health and medical care, as part of a basic course in the Continuous Vocational Training Program for doctors and pharmacists from the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Nicolae Testemitanu", held this week, at "NEOVITA" Resource Center for national level youth friendly health services in Chisinau.
The innovative training format brought together doctors and psychologists, as well as teenagers, volunteers from "NEOVITA" Center, who participated in the practical applications as "simulating patients". Within the modules, the national trainers, specialists from "Neovita" Center, addressed topics such as "Bio-psycho-social development of adolescents", " Early or delayed puberty", "Psycho-sexual development of adolescents", "Principles of counseling and communication with adolescents, orientation in motivational counseling”, “Integrated counseling and group counseling, difficult moments in counseling”, “Chronic pathologies in adolescents” and so on.
The course was developed within the framework of a collaboration between the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of "Nicolae Testemitanu" University and "NEOVITA" Resource Center for national level youth friendly health services 5 years ago, being constantly updated, reports IPN. " In recent years, we are talking more and more about the need for teamwork: this course is an example of teamwork between specialists in the medical and non-medical fields, with the involvement of teenagers too,” said Corina Iliadi-Tulbure, university lecturer at the Department.
According to Mrs. Corina Iliadi-Tulbure, "psychologists have learned how to perceive various behavioral particularities through the prism of physiological or pathological puberty, and doctors have learned, in their turn, the skills of interpreting the influence of various factors on the developing body of teenagers".
The manager of "NEOVITA" Center, Mrs. Galina Leșco, believes that "this basic course must be taken by all those who work in the field of teenage health care, especially those who work in youth friendly health centers ".
The doctors attending the courses believe that they are extremely useful. "I am a doctor at the Institute for Mother and Child, the pediatric gynecology department, we treat girls from the first day of life and up to 18 years of age, we communicate with teenagers. I also benefitted personally from the course: I have 2 teenagers in the family and I regret that I did not register earlier for this course”, stated Dr. Rodica Manole for IPN.
"Useful, interesting, I can say that it's relaxing because of the interactive methods used by the trainers," said Svetlana Ivanova, a gynecologist, specialist at the Institute for Mother and Child.
Nadejda Colac, psychologist, Sangerei CSPT (Youth Friendly Health Center): “My expectations have been exceeded. The interaction with specialists from other fields was very important. Medical information in the field of juvenile andrology or endocrinology has helped me to understand aspects related to boys, in particular.”
Josu Lilia, Strășeni CSPT, consultant-psychologist: “We have been waiting for this course for a long time. It has determined me to want to work with educators, to help them understand this age group and to succeed in improving teenage school achievement. I would also like to work with doctors. While for teenagers, I have acquired new communication techniques, which will help them realize the difficulties they are facing”.
The training was carried out with the support of "Healthy Generation" project, implemented by "Health for young people" Association, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
