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See my student job - Mia helps mentally ill refugees

Students at the University of Copenhagen work jobs an average of five hours a week, but what do they do when they clock in at a student job? The University Post asked several students how they spend their days

Name Mia Beicher Ansbjerg

Subject Medicine, 7th semester

Student job Student assistant at the Skills Centre for Transcultural Psychiatry in Ballerup.

How long have you worked there? Since November 2014. I work about 1-2 times a month, and it fits well with my studies, so I do not miss too many classes.

How did you get the job? I heard about the job at a Psychiatric Summer School, but then the I saw the job ad somewhere else. I was actually just about to send an unsolicited application, but then they suddenly started looking for new employees, so I grabbed the opportunity.

SeE MY STUDENT JOB

Would you like to tell us about your student job? Write an e-mail where you respond to the same questions asked in this article – and tell us about your day on your student job. Send the e-mail to uni-avis@adm.ku.dk.

A day at the student job

The skills centre, which is colloquially called the CTP, is a psychiatric specialist clinic. The largest group of patients are refugees with trauma-related disorders such as PTSD and depression. Our focus is generally on patients with non-Danish ethnic backgrounds, where cultural factors play a significant role in the syndrome.

8.30 The working day starts

The day before I go on duty, I call the secretariat and am told how many patients are coming, and when the first of them will turn up.

Before I meet the patient, I pick the right interpreter who can speak anything from Arabic, Farsi, Bosnian or languages like Pashto.

The first is normally at 9:00 and I therefore turn up 30 minutes beforehand. I go into the archive and retrieve the records and rating forms that are to be used to assess how patients feel six months after they have finished the process. So I have access to the patients’ medical records and therefore a lot of the personal histories of war, torture and violence. I read the initial evaluations, medication lists and discharge summaries, and then I am ready to meet the patients.

9:00 The first patient

An exciting part of the work is the wide range of ethnic backgrounds that you encounter during the course of a day. I don’t speak that many exotic languages unfortunately, so a lot of the work takes place with an interpreter. So before I meet the patient, I pick the right interpreter who can speak anything from Arabic, Farsi, Bosnian or languages ​​like Pashto.

Together with the interpreter, the patient and I now have a conversation of about 30 minutes where we talk about their everyday problems, review their medication, and follow up on how the patient has been in general for the last six months. Finally, the patient fills out a questionnaire and the conversation over.

When the patient is gone I fill out rating forms, update medication lists, and then the patient’s process at CTP is completed.

Out to find the next patient.

13:00 Cancelled

This patient has cancelled. It’s never easy with mental disorders to predict whether a patient is well enough to attend. Some patients are very ill, may have suicidal thoughts and may only sleep a few hours a night. Others have got better and are back at work so they can’t take time off. These patients will get the questionnaire by letter, and until the next scheduled patient, I help the ward with blood test results, unpacking medicine and other chores.

15.00 End of working day

It varies when I am off. But about 15:00 I am normally on my way home. The train goes from Ballerup station towards Copenhagen and in no time I am back in Nørrebro.

Would you like to tell us about your student job? Write an e-mail where you respond to the same questions asked in this article – and tell us about your day on your student job. Send the e-mail to uni-avis@adm.ku.dk.

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