Student Information from 2011 Placements

Oslo- Norway

Student information from 2011 placements

Flights- Cost around £200 flying Manchester or Newcastle to Heathrow then Heathrow Oslo. Would recommend arriving in the afternoon on a weekday when shops are open and if there are any issues with keys or rooms they can be sorted as the accommodation office will be open. There is also duty free shop by the luggage carousel when you arrive in Oslo so stock up on anything you can (especially chocolate and alcohol!)

Accomodation Kansleren studenhaus- Cost 2990 Kroner per month (approx £330 with exchange rate and post office charges). Share a kitchen with 7 other students (mainly international). Each person has their own fridge with freezer compartment and 2 cupboards. The rooms are quite big and have a bed, desk, chair, table, drawers, bookshelf and wardrobe. There was LOADS of storage space. The bathroom is an ensuite wet room with a toilet, sink and shower. You have to provide your own cleaning things and you are expected to take the bin out of the kitchen every day. You also need to provide your own sheets, pillow case and duvet cover. One pillow and a duvet were provided but we bought extra pillows from Ikea cheaply. There are washing machines and tumble dryers in the building which you book online and it cost 15 kroner (about £2) each time. You will also need kitchen utensils but again we bought pans, plates etc from Ikea once we were here. There are other accommodations to choose from but we chose this one for the ensuite facilities. However there is more information about the different options and prices on www.sio.no

Halls are very different to England and people generally just do their own thing and keep themselves to themselves, it’s not very sociable but this is normal for Norway so don’t be put off!

Toyen-the accommodation we stayed in is in an area of Oslo called Toyen which is a very multicultural area. It isn’t very pretty to look at but we felt very safe and it is only about 5 minutes walk to a main street where you can get the bus to university in approx 10mins. There are lots of shops with fresh fruit and veg outside for cheaply….much cheaper than the main supermarkets! There is a big park next to the halls which was good when the snow had melted. There is also a swimming pool, botanical gardens and the Edvard Munch Museum.

University- The first thing to realize is that there are 2 universities in Oslo. Oslo University College is the one with the physiotherapy programme. Norwegians also call university ‘school’ so have no idea what you are talking about when you say uni! You need to get the number 37 bus from outside Batat Imports which is at the bottom of the road from Kansleren studenhus, and get off at Stensbergatta. When you get off the bus cross over the road and head straight down Stensbergatta for just over 5 mins. Then when you get to the bottom of the road turn right and up some steps and that is the college campus. The main entrance is the building on the left.

Placement-The placement is on the 4th floor of a building called ‘Elisabeth Lampes Hus’ which is on campus. The clinic is run completely by students and is open for blocks of 10 weeks and then closes while the students have their exams. Each appointment is 1 hour long and most patients come twice a week. There is a huge room with cubicles and plinths, wall bars, parallel bars, gym balls etc and lots of floor space. There is also a gym room with 2 treadmills, lots of bikes and weights machines. Private rooms are available if patients need more privacy. There is also a large computer room where all the students are given their own desk/computer to do work. Our educators were called Elisabet and Kari Annette who lecture in pulmonary and cardiac rehab at the university as well as working in the clinic. They both had very good English and Elisabet studied in Aberdeen so had an understanding of the NHS and physiotherapy in the UK.

On the first day we had an induction with the other students (11 in total) and met our educators. Each educator has 3 or 4 students that they are responsible for. We all had a patient booked in that day so had time to get notes translated and prepare. The note format follows a similar SOAP structure but involves a large clinical reasoning section which has to be referenced. Notes are all written on the computer and then handed to the educators after you have seen patients twice and written some clinical reasoning. There is a lot of responsibility given to students and the first 2 sessions with each patient are completely independent. Educators are available if needed but they like to give you time to fully assess the patient and come up with a treatment plan before they quiz you about it. There is a much more relaxed feel as you don’t have your educator stood in the corner assessing you all the time. All students are paired up to run a group once a week- this could be pulmonary rehab, parkinsons, rheumatology, hemiplegia, activity or MS. There is a wide range of patients in the clinic including MSK, neuro and respiratory problems and the educators try to ensure that you have a range in your caseload or if there are specific areas you feel you need to work on they try to find a patient to fit your needs.

We were required to do a patient clinic in which the other students in our group and both our educators sit in on a treatment session and then there is an hour of discussion afterwards. This is very useful for getting ideas and feedback from other students as well as the educators.

Money- Oslo is very expensive! Even though we had been told it was expensive we were still shocked when we arrived. However it is possible to find cheaper things if you try! If you are happy to eat student food then there shouldn’t be a problem. We ate a lot of pasta and sauce, potatoes, beans, tuna, and for meat we stuck to chicken and mince. We found that generally ‘Kiwi’ was the cheapest supermarket and they are everywhere. The nearest to Kansleren is across the road from the bus stop and left. Alcohol is very expensive (so buy at the airport if you can) the average price of a beer was around 6 pounds. In general Norwegians don’t drink through the week and on a weekend have parties before they go out to make it cheaper. And watch out for expensive takeaway food…£17 for a pizza was a bit of a shock! The cheapest place for coffee is Deli de Luca which is a big chain and you see them everywhere is Oslo. Its only 10 kroner (about 1 pound).

Travel- Once your student card has been issued you can buy a student trafikanten. It cost 350 kroner (around £40). It is a travel card that lets you use any bus, train, tram, subway at any time within Oslo and it lasts for 30 days. The trafikanten where you buy the cards is a building outside the central station by the tiger! There are a lot of bus and tram stops outside central station so you can get to most places from here, there is even a free bus to Ikea! Weather-we arrived on 7th March and it was below freezing with LOADS of snow. Very icy pavements so make sure you have boots with a good grip or good ice skating skills. However the snow started to melt quite quickly on the roads within about 2 weeks of being in Oslo so make the most of it and do ice skating, sledding and skiing while you can! By easter it was warm (up to 20 degrees) but this is unusual for this time of year.

Language- Norwegians learn English at school from when they are quite young so in general they all speak very good English, its mainly the older generation that don’t. We only had patients that could speak English so the language barrier wasn’t a major problem on placement however we learnt some physio related Norwegian words and numbers to make things a little bit easier. It is quite a difficult language in terms of pronunciation however there are a lot of words which are very similar to English so when reading things it is sometimes possible to understand.

Touristy things- We spent most of the first week getting lost and finding nice places by accident. Must sees are the Opera house (you can walk on the roof!) the fjord, Vigelands park, ice skating, sledding at Frognersteren, Holmenkollen ski jump, skiing at Tryvan, Akershus and the Ice Bar.

Overall we are having an amazing time, it’s such a good experience and we would definitely recommend it to anyone!

If anyone has any questions or wants to find out anymore information we are happy for you to get in touch. Our email addresses are:

[email protected]