Department of General and Medical Psychology

STUDENT SCIENTIFIC MEET-UP

Responsible employee: Skorobogatova Olga, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor, e-mail: Springlike18@gmail.com, +380954770880

A necessary condition for the formation of a highly qualified specialist in the health care system is the development of his professional outlook and many important personality traits.

Mastering the system of professional values, mastering applied skills, enriching the emotional sphere of student youth have always been in the center of attention of the staff of the Department of General and Medical Psychology, because work with students is a continuous and multidimensional process of educating future doctors, aimed at forming a comprehensively and harmoniously developed personality.

For a long time, events are held at the department with the aim of popularizing and preserving the heritage of the department and the university.

A vivid example is the one started in 2014 at the initiative of the dean of the medical and psychological faculty, head of the department of general and medical psychology Maksimenko S.D. the newest form of formation and development of specialists in medical psychology: summer-autumn psychological school, because the profession of a doctor-psychologist is quite young and promising, is at the stage of socio-psychological formation and has its own characteristics of acquiring a professional direction. That is why the training seminar “Introduction to the specialty of a psychologist”, as one of the activities of the above-mentioned educational project, is aimed at future specialists who are just entering the path of professional training – at students of the 1st year of the medical and psychological faculty.

Department of General and Medical Psychology and Pedagogy of the Medical and Psychological Faculty of the National Medical University named after O.O. Bogomolets and the All-Ukrainian public organization “Ukrainian Association of Psychologists” with the assistance of the NMU Administration, the trade union committee and the Council of the Association of Young Scientists of NMU acted as a co-organizer of this event.

The purpose of the training-seminar was to form and deepen the professional identity of future psychologists; increasing motivation for educational activities, development of professional traditions of medical psychology with regard to the training of new specialists; formation of a professional community of medical psychologists.

During the event, the students got acquainted with the educational and qualification characteristics, the educational and professional program and the curriculum for the training of specialists of the educational and qualification level “specialist” of the “physician-psychologist” qualification. Also, future specialists had the opportunity to form an idea about the content of the chosen profession; consider the main directions of modern psychotherapeutic and psychocorrective activity; to develop the skills of reflection and self-knowledge, including presentation by students of promotional videos of the future specialty.

Scientific circles have been successfully operating at the department of general and medical psychology since its foundation. Under the guidance of qualified teachers, students are involved in scientific research, the results of which are presentations at conferences and seminars. The best works of young researchers are published in scientific journals.

In particular, the scientific group “Gender problems in psychology and medicine” (head – Ph.D., associate professor N.M. Horodnova) works successfully at the department. The main directions of the work of the student research group: “Gender and gender studies in the 20th century”; “Gender issues in psychological science”; “Gender aspects in the education system”; “Gender features of the modern family”; “Problems of gender socialization of personality”; “Gender problems in medicine”; “Health of men and women”; “Gender features of the “burnout syndrome” in doctors”, etc.

Also, on the basis of the department and preschool educational institution “Child Development Center “I+Family”, meetings of the scientific student circle are systematically held (leader: candidate of psychological sciences N. A.) The main directions of the work of the student scientific circle: “Methodology and techniques neurocorrections”, “Methods of art therapy in working with children with special educational needs”, “Methods of canister therapy”.

Members of the student scientific circle take an active part in the scientific life of the department and the faculty, together with teachers they hold round tables and scientific seminars. This is evidenced by the fact that only in recent years at annual student scientific conferences and conferences, about 37 reports have been made by our young people from Gurtkov.

The students of Hurtkiv also take part in the All-Ukrainian Olympiads and take part in the All-Ukrainian competition of student scientific works in the natural sciences and humanities in the field of “Gender Studies”, at which students won prizes (2007 – 3rd place, 2008 – 1st place, 2011 – 1st place), a student of the III year of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology (winners of the I stage) Yelyzaveta Zelenko and Romana-Olexandra Manzyuk (II stage of the All-Ukrainian Student Olympiad in the specialty “Psychology” (theoretical and applied psychology) – 2019 (Hryhorii State Pedagogical University Frying pans (Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi).

The topics of the meetings of the scientific circle are always relevant and correspond to the requests of students: mental health and psychological well-being: the experience of national scientific schools; postcovid syndromes: psychological aspects; asymmetry of brain structures of mother and child: normal and pathological attachment in a dyad; clinical psychodiagnostics: measurement, operationalization, supervision; cross-cultural studies; the method of psychosynthesis in the psychotherapy of married couples in a crisis period; methodology of scientific research: how are scientific articles created?; psychotechniques for restoring the physical and emotional resources of the individual; formation of practical skills of a doctor-psychologist; the third stage of war experience; the effect of distance learning on the course of students’ emotional states; psychological methods of dealing with stress and others.

On the eve of 2020-World Mental Health Day, which is annually celebrated worldwide on October 10, the Department of General and Medical Psychology of the National Medical University named after O.O. Bogomoletsa, in cooperation with the Association for Medical and Psychological Rehabilitation, held a scientific and practical seminar “Mental health and psychological well-being: experience of national scientific schools.”

In the program of the seminar, 8 national schools of Ukraine were presented, the achievements of which directly affect the problems of mental health and psychological well-being. Speakers and participants noted that this seminar is the first event of such a high representative level in Ukraine.

Young scientists, students of the second year of the medical and psychological faculty of the general and medical psychology department of O.O. Bogomoletsa, Oleg Shevchuk (group 9905) and Kyril Brzhevsky (group 9903) gave speeches at the “81 st Lviv Young Scientist International Conference”, organized by the Student Scientific Society of the Lviv National Medical University Danylo Halytskyi University. The scientific supervisors of the reports were the head of the department, Professor Matyash M.M. and the teacher of the department Zhuk O.V.

A successful practice in the work of the scientific circle is cooperation with leading specialists in the field of psychology in Ukraine and abroad. Long-term experience shows that the work of students in a scientific circle is a significant opportunity both for improving students’ knowledge, developing creative thinking, and for promoting scientific research work in the future. For example, on October 23, 2021, a meeting of the student research group of the department of general and medical psychology on the topic “Cross-cultural research” was held. Students got acquainted with the purpose and types of cross-cultural research. The meeting was attended by students from Spain, South Korea and Japan, who shared their impressions of their stay in Ukraine. The discussion was rich and productive, which made it possible to present the high level of knowledge of our students. Communicating freely in English, they asked questions of foreign colleagues and discussed the answers.

The department of general and medical psychology consistently implements the program of formation of practical skills of professional activities of students of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology. For this purpose, the department, under the leadership of Associate Professor Tertyka Nadiya Anatoliivna, implemented a system of practical, professionally oriented classes at the clinical base of the “I+Family Child Development Center”, which takes care of children with special psychophysical development.

Students of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology are actively involved in volunteer activities at this Center.

This system includes four consecutive stages of students’ practical work: from familiarizing students with the structure, tasks, features and forms of work of the Center to organizing students’ direct participation in its advisory and diagnostic activities. The implementation of this program ensures the formation of the skills of psychocorrective and psychotherapeutic activities in future psychologists, mastering the techniques of psychological rehabilitation using modern methods, techniques and techniques. In addition, this practical activity for many students is the first experience of inclusion in the future profession, a way to overcome insecurity, fear and a good motivational platform for self-development. It is especially important that students join such practice as volunteers. Amazing things happen during such charitable activities: immersion in new professional experience, synthesis with previously unfamiliar forms of communication and interaction, critical restructuring of thinking, which helps to realistically assess one’s capabilities and decide on future plans.

Students take an active part in various master classes, such as the online master class “Psychosynthesis in the psychotherapy of married couples in a period of crisis”, which presented many years of experience in the application of psychosynthesis in working with married couples and women, in particular the tasks and methods of work on the first four meetings; the master class “Psychotechniques for restoring the body-emotional resource of the individual”, which was held online and was attended by 64 participants. It was not only students of various ages, teachers of NMU, but also representatives of other educational institutions and organizations. The interest in the master class showed the relevance of the topic itself, and the desire of the participants to master practical skills of bodily and emotional self-regulation. During the master class, a number of practical techniques for working with the body, thoughts, and emotional states were demonstrated, which ensure the release of tension, the ecological response to stressful experiences, and the restoration of resources. All work was carried out in an interactive mode, where together with the host of the master class, the participants directly performed psychotechniques.

Students of the 3rd year of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology visited the International Public Organization “Center for Healthy Youth”, which is part of the International Anti-Narcotics Association (IAA), where they had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with various forms and directions of psychotherapy (cognitive-behavioral, dynamic, art therapy) for treatment of drug, alcohol, and gaming addictions, participate in group therapy with drug addicts, and had the opportunity to try themselves as a psychologist-consultant based on the already acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Currently, students of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology have a unique opportunity to understand the physiology of the body during stress and use their knowledge of psychology to help themselves and their loved ones in time.

The work of the department of general and medical psychology at the current stage is aimed at: crisis psychological counseling of students on ways to overcome apathy and inaction, as well as how to survive a crisis and maintain calm, psychosomatic disorders against the background of war trauma, conflict situations with close friends due to the stress of war, aggravation of internal personal contradictions against the background of acute stress; socio-psychological survey “Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the psychological state of the individual”; online classes on life safety and psychological health; group and individual psychological meetings with students regarding social and psychological adaptation to the conditions of a foreign language environment; online seminar: “Psychological methods of self-help during the war”, for the psychological support of students who were in the territories captured by the occupying forces, etc.

Therefore, in the professional training of future health care specialists, the Department of General and Medical Psychology of the National Medical University named after O.O. Bogomoletsa pays sufficient attention, and work with students was and remains an important direction of its activity and is aimed at improving the development of highly qualified medical personnel, forming their professional competences and an active life position.