On the road with ...Geraldine Beaujean
Read an interview with Geraldine Beaujean who was accompanied lately on one of her travels by a journalist of Maastricht University Medical Centre for an article in HECHT, the MUMC+ Magazine.
Name: Geraldine Beaujean (50)
Function: Managing director of SHE Collaborates (SHE = School of Health Professions Education)
Works at Maastricht UMC + since: 1994
Studied: Medicine in Maastricht from 1985-1991.
Wanted: People who want to join; educationalist, reserachers and clinicians; the synergy between SHE Collaborates and the Maastricht University Medical Centre
Are you often traveling?
"Yes very often."
How often is 'very often'?
"I think about twenty trips a year. In recent months I have been in Bahrain, Ethiopia, Portugal, Kenya and Mexico. "
What are you doing on all those trips?
"Our education system in medicine, student centered education, is world famous. Foreign universities, colleges and hospitals also want to introduce that and then ask us for help. "
So you are a traveling ambassador of the education system?
"Yes, a traveling knowledge broker. SHE Collaborates, our club of eleven people, often works on projects with a long duration. It takes years to introduce a new curriculum somewhere. Somebody has to coordinate that, and we do that. "
How do you work?
"If a foreign institution comes up with a question, we will first investigate that question. A bit like examining a patient. What exactly is your question? What do you need? This then leads to very specific, tailor-made solutions for the institution concerned. Then we go in the MUMC + to find people who can help with the implementation either educational researchers or clinicians. We also look for people locally. That is the ideal combination. "
Interesting, but what is the value for the Maastricht University Medical Centre (MUMC+) of all of this?
"A good question. The people of the MUMC + who participate in it learn a lot. They are stimulated to think about how you can do things in different circumstances, they are stimulated to be creative. It is often also a great experience, a life changing experience. Someone who had been to Yemen said to me recently: "I never told you this, but it was so far-reaching for me, it has changed my view of the world." The MUMC + also learns if we implement our education system elsewhere. It is often a kind of testing ground. For example, we recently introduced computerized testing in Mexico. We did not have that ourselves in Maastricht yet. They had the infrastructure for it, not yet. Now we are also introducing it in Maastricht. "
It takes a lot of time and energy, what you do. I assume that you also send an invoice when you are ready?
"Yes, of course. It is not volunteer work. "
You want to make a call?
"Yes, we are jumping for people who want to join us. Clinicians who are involved in education and want to do that in an international context: register with us! "
More information:
g.beaujean@maastrichtuniversity.nl
About Geraldiene Beaujean:
Geraldine studied Medicine at the Medical Faculty of Maastricht University and thus trained as a medical professional in an innovative educational manner(e.g.by Problem Based Learning and Early Clinical Exposure).
After graduation she worked a few years in regional health centres and hospitals,getting experience in medical practice. Subsequently, she turned to medical education in the context of developing countries. She assists universities as a consultant forlonger and shorter durations to change into innovative ways of health professional education. In her capacity as project manager she coordinates projects resulting from the match between the demand of a university in low income countries and the (financial) support of (inter)national organisations (like Nuffic,EU) together with the expertise available within universities and schools for higher education.
At the skills lab she taught medical students applied professional skills that are necessary in encounters with patients: physical examination skills,procedural skills and communication skills.