Medical school and university lecturers are undergoing a four-day training course on adolescent health and medicine. The course is based on a methodology developed by the European EuTEACH network and aims to modernize teaching methods in our country’s medical education system.
In Chisinau, the course is taught by the very professionals that designed the EuTEACH program, Pierre-Andre Michoud (University of Lausanne) and Helena Fonseca (University of Lisbon).
The event is the result of the collaboration of the National Resource Center for Youth-Friendly Health Services “NEOVITA” and the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Nicolae Testimițanu”. The course was possible with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) within the “Healthy Generation” Project.
According to Galina Leșco, head of the NEOVITA Center, the course comes with new scientific approaches in the field and has an applicative character, promoting new teaching methods that will increase the quality of education in fields that include general medicine, mental, sexual and reproductive health, with a focus on adolescence. Galina Leșco argues that in recent years, teenagers’ positive appreciation of health has increased and there is a downward trend in mortality rates, sexually transmitted infections, suicide rates, alcohol consumption among adolescents. However, it is still necessary to strengthen youth-friendly services and promote comprehensive health education programs.
Helena Fonseca, a professor at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Medicine, says that adolescence is a specific period, and one of the most important peculiarities to be considered is the development of the adolescent brain, in particular the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for controlling adolescent behavior. “The brain in teens is developing, but we always focus on the risks. The main point is to focus more on protective factors. Practically, this can happen if the health sector works with families and schools,” said Helena Fonseca.
Olga Cernețchi, deputy rector of the Nicolae Testemiţanu University, argues that specialists working with adolescents need to know not only the anatomical and physiological features, but also their psychological and somatic characteristics, and they must be brought into the first-plan during communication and assessment of adolescent health. During the course, the curricula will also be analyzed and the experience of the specialists from abroad will be taken over, so that the local specialists can best approach the particularities of the adolescence period.
