STUDENTS. In June hundreds of happy students are graduating, with ceremonies filled with speeches, music, and humor. Students from all Sahlgrenska Academy programs celebrate having managed a demanding education largely marked by the pandemic.
Graduation time is a day of joy for many: for our students, who have coped with the demands of learning during a pandemic; for our teachers, who have gone to great lengths to continue offering high quality education; and for the medical care system, where the newly graduated students will now contribute a much-needed infusion of skills. May Bazzi and Anna Dencker, program managers for the radiology nursing program and the nursing program, made this point when they opened the graduation ceremony for the programs at Annedal Church on Friday, June 3.
“What a journey you have made, and now you are at the finish line! We are happy and grateful that we can be with you on this graduation day,” Anna Dencker told the newly graduated nurses and radiology nurses.
Record number of graduates
Students, teachers, and those close to them filled all the pews in the church. The number of students graduating–a total of about 180 new nurses and radiology nurses–broke records. The students’ procession into the church seemed endless, accompanied by the inspiring tones of the jazz trio that provided the ceremony’s entertainment.
Vice Dean of Education Gunnar Tobin spoke as a representative of Sahlgrenska Academy. He noted that he had the pleasure of teaching pharmacology to these students, and that he noticed that there was never silence in the chat panel during the Zoom lectures.
“You are inquisitive and can ask clinically relevant questions. Successfully completing your education has been demanding on you, both in the theory you have studied and in applying your new skills in practice. The demanding education contributed to making you the crucial colleagues that you will become,” said Tobin. In addition to congratulating the students on what they have achieved, he also took the opportunity to welcome them back to the University of Gothenburg later in life:
“There are excellent opportunities to continue to learn and develop, and your alma mater, the University of Gothenburg, will be here for you.
Rigorous education
The nursing program at the University of Gothenburg is known to be arduous, noted Malin Andersson, one of the many students who graduated on this day:
“On one hand, we have had a pandemic. On the other, the nursing program at the University of Gothenburg has a reputation for being rigorous. But it also provides a really good foundation for the profession,” she said, an assertion supported by fellow student Johanna Karenryd:
“So nice to finally be done. It feels wonderful!”
After graduation, Andersson will work in a surgical ward at Östra Sjukhuset (Eastern Hospital). Karenryd’s first job as a nurse will be in home health services, but she aims to continue her education and become a midwife.
Several of the graduation celebrations were held in the beautiful auditorium in the University’s main building at Vasa Park, including those for the graduating doctors, dental technicians, and speech therapists.
Fantastic but bitter sweet
On Tuesday, May 31, a solemn graduation ceremony was held for the speech therapy students in the auditorium in Vasaparken.
Photo: Josefin Bergenholtz
Linn Andersson is one of the 22 speech therapy students who have now completed four years of full-time studies.
“It feels fantastic to have graduated but also bitter sweet, and a little strange, as if it has not really sunk in yet.”
As for many others, Linn has experienced distance education during the pandemic as difficult. She felt that the motivation and opportunity for her classmates to help each other in their studies diminished, which sometimes made it tough. Despite this, Linn says that she had four fun years of study, made friends for life and is very happy to have spent her study time in Gothenburg.
“The best thing about the education has been the great breadth of the content – it has made it exciting and I have gained insight and knowledge about the role of speech therapy in many more areas than I could have imagined”, says Linn and continues:
“If I can dream, I would like to work with stuttering at all ages, I think the psychological aspects are very interesting and challenging. But even dysarthria has caught my interest a little extra.”
Dysarthria is speech difficulties caused by an injury to the brain or nervous system, such as stroke, MS or Parkinson’s disease.
Well-needed internship
For the biomedical analyst program, the closing ceremony was held at Medicinareberget, in the conference center Wallenberg. Clara Henningsson and Sofi Sjöberg are two of the new biomedical analysts, who both appreciated their time as students at Sahlgrenska Academy:
“I don’t regret applying for a second. I found the internship most enjoyable. That is where you really got to try out different parts of your future profession, and we badly needed to come out a little after all the remote lectures,” says Henningsson. She accepted a summer job at an animal hospital and will begin working as a biomedical analyst at Mikrobilogen in Gothenburg in the autumn.
“It has been fun to learn so much more about how the body works on a microscopic level and to test lots of different components, methods, and analyses practically. Unfortunately, my years have been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, so we have not had much time on campus. Mostly we have studied at home, which has definitely posed challenges of its own,” says Sjöberg. She hopes that the classes after her have a chance to enjoy more of the excellent lab premises. Sjöberg also will being working at Mikrobilogen after the summer, in bacteriology.
BY : ELIN LINDSTRÖM & JOSEFIN BERGENHOLTZ
