Sosialpodden

How is it to be an intern from Western University - Canada in Norway? We are so happy to have two students from Canada here for 7 weeks, working as interns at our department. But what is an intern? How is it to get to know introwert Norwegians?

All this, and more you will hear about in this episode!

In the episode:

Creators & Guests

Host
Steinar Vikholt
Leder av Sosialpodden, og er også vert i en del av episodene. Vernepleier, universitetslektor og internasjonal koordinator

What is Sosialpodden?

Sosialpodden er en sosial fagpodkast fra Institutt for helse-, sosial- og velferdsfag ved Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge. Du vår podkast vil få et innblikk i alt fra noen av de temaene vi snakker om i vår undervisning, besøk fra foredragsholdere vi bruker, til episoder med og av studentene våre. Podkasten er produsert av Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge (USN) med Steinar VIkholt som redaktør.

[Automatic captions by Autotekst using OpenAI Whisper V3. May contain recognition errors.]

So welcome to The Social Pod and in this episode we're actually going to do the whole episode in English.

So again welcome to The Social Pod, it's the podcast of the Department of Health, Social and Welfare Studies here at the University of Southeastern Norway.

In the podcast, we do explore different kind of topics.

We do get interviews from lectures that we have at the university.

And this time we are actually going to do an interview with two people that is visiting from Canada, from the Western University.

So please say hello or you guys can say hello and introduce yourself, please.

Yeah, I can go first then.

So my name is Isaac Lue.

I am an incoming fourth year student, actually, with the Department of Health Studies at Western University, as Steiner so kindly introduced.

And yeah, it's been fifth week here in Norway, and it's been a pleasure.

Just a quick question, because you said you're a fourth year student.

What are you studying?

Specifically, my department and specialization, it looks more at public health.

So looking at a more societal level of health and application.

And this is going to differ from other specializations that look more at the biomedical aspect, for example, the biology module or

EAS's rehabilitation sciences module.

So yeah, it's just kind of looking at a more health promotion aspect to Canada's healthcare system.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

So like Isaac mentioned, my name is EAS Ojuda.

I am going into my third year at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

So yeah, I'm in the same faculty as Isaac, Faculty of Health Science, but I'm doing a specialization in Rehabilitation Sciences.

So we're looking more into how to rehabilitate people with different kinds of disorders, whether that's occupational therapy or physical therapy.

So I'd be taking, for example, this year, some musculoskeletal disorder rehabilitation classes.

So we're focusing more on the biomedical, physical side of rehabilitation, opposed to just health promotion.

That's nice.

And my name is Steinar Vikult, and I'm the assistant professor here, and usually I host the social part, so probably the...

Listeners know who I am.

I just need to go back because a couple of times my colleagues in the faculty, they have asked me, but are you guys bachelor students?

Are you master students?

You just said that you're a fourth year student.

What are you?

Yeah, so I know here in Norway, what we've learned here is that your bachelor's programs are three-year programs.

So in Canada, most standard is a four-year bachelor program.

And at Western, we have just a regular bachelor program, which would be just a major in a certain topic.

Or you can do a specialization.

So an honor specialization in your last year, you would generally do a thesis or you do a practicum where you would go into the field and work in your field of study.

So me and Isaac, Isaac and I both are both in a bachelor's program and we're both in honor specialization.

meaning we will be doing some sort of accumulating project in the end of our four-year program.

And we'll get a distinction in our diploma saying we have an honors specialization in health science or in rehab science.

But after that, I heard that you're going to become doctors?

Yes, hopefully.

That's the plan.

Yeah, actually, I guess to speak on that a bit, my goals are to go into family medicine.

So I'm hoping that this whole experience and also just with my undergraduate degree, learning about the public health system can help me sort of apply that towards family medicine, which I feel is a bit more intimate with the community as opposed to other specializations in primary care.

Yeah, so for the Norwegian listeners, if they're confused, it's like, why are they bachelor students but they want to go to med school?

So in Canada, we have to do a four years bachelor program.

In Ontario and whenever you want, you can do an art, history, science, music, and then you have to apply to go to med school and that's another four year program.

Okay, so four plus four.

in total yeah schooling is eight years so we're going to be learning until we're 30. yeah because i think in our way to become a doctor you have a seven-year program but everything is seven years yeah you just go straight into the into the program

Yeah.

So my goal is I do want to become a doctor, hopefully.

And I want to go more into sports medicine.

So sports injuries and rehabilitation when it comes to orthopedic injuries like bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and so I think I've spoken to a few people or a few students and staff here so essentially to my understanding the way it works in Norway is You're pretty much air academic success kind of matters all throughout Coming out of high school determines where you what you do in university or at the bachelor's level.

Yeah, it's I would say

somewhat similar in Canada, but in a way where it's not as heavily monitored at the level of high school or secondary school.

And there's a lot of other factors that are considered, like for example, experiences like these where the students kind of go out of their way to gain experience in the field through internships or co-ops, things like that.

So you're here as interns.

First of all, why would you do this program where you do going as interns?

Because this is not the thing that all the students do.

You have applied for this.

Yeah, and it's a very few group of students that are actually here in Scandinavia as a whole.

I believe it's about 38 students out of our program probably has 400 per year.

So for the four years, we're talking about 1600 students.

So it's a very competitive program to go on an international exchange or international internship program.

Yeah.

Because it's a special program.

It's not just going on an exchange just to do coursework.

You're also getting experience in a workplace, which is important to advance your career.

So I would say the reason why I was really keen to doing this for, I'd say, two main reasons.

First of all, I love traveling.

I love exploring.

And I wanted to see different cultures improve my cultural competency.

And Canada is especially important because we have so many people in Canada from different cultures, different perspectives.

And it's important even when you become a doctor to know the different perspectives, because if you only know your own perspective, you're not going to be able to be an empathetic doctor, which is very important.

So that's one goal was for me.

I wanted to come here and learn about the different cultures, the different ways of life, different way of life around the world.

The other goal I would say for me is research is something I'm very interested in.

And obviously this is for people who don't understand we're doing a research internship.

So I wanted to advance my skills in research.

And to sort of expand on the whole idea of just experiencing different cultures, another thing specifically because we're taught so much about public health and health promotion within our program, it's a very interesting opportunity to be able to get to see firsthand how healthcare systems vary in these different Scandinavian countries.

Of course, with each student, they're only experiencing within the country they're designated to,

In the fall, once we all come together, we'll get to hear all the different research that everyone's been working on.

So yeah, it's just a very good opportunity to sort of like collect all that knowledge.

And I would say for that reason, that's why I've decided to apply for this program.

And I'm glad that I'm here because it's been so far a very unique experience.

And I've gotten to basically discover all the things that I came out here to seeking to discover.

That's nice.

And also, I just add for the people that don't know, when it comes to health care and social welfare in general, the Scandinavian countries are the top of the world.

Amazing policies and programs.

So Canadian schools like to send their students to Scandinavia to learn and bring back information and ideas to how we can improve our own society in Canada.

That's nice to hear.

But you said you're interns and I know that when I got the first email from your university and it was like, hey, can you please have some interns?

I was like, what is interns?

Because in Norway, internship is not very common.

especially not in the health services and social work that I teach, but because I'm used to my students, they travel abroad to do practice placements, being out in the field, giving services and experience that.

How is that different from being an intern?

Yeah, I know.

So you mentioned that with the practicums, there's something required of all students within this field compared to back in Canada.

And this actually applies to many different bachelor degrees and programs where students are actually expected to go out of their own way to seek these opportunities.

And while their program may offer chances to get practical experience with it, whether it's in clinics, a big example being nursing departments, usually in the third and fourth year of their bachelor's degree, they'll be sent to hospitals to do practicals.

But for most programs, they are expected to seek opportunities on their own.

So in the form of internships, which is essentially just

pretty much just doing work for others to gain that firsthand experience.

And in our case, it would be acting as sort of research assistants to assist with some of the faculty research projects that are being performed here.

And in other areas, it might be seen as an actual paid job where it's more of a student position.

Last summer, I actually worked as a summer student intern for the government insurance company of Ontario that deals with workplace insurance and for coverage on workplace injuries.

We'll go back to the project that you've been working on.

But first, I'm curious, you've been here now for four weeks, three weeks, something like that.

I think we've been here for almost five weeks now.

Five weeks.

Wow.

It's been flying.

Yeah.

So you've been here a while.

What has been your impressions of Norway, the Norwegian culture?

So I'll be honest, before I came here, I had no idea what even Norway was.

I knew Norway, they were good at Olympic sports, that's it, winter sports.

That's pretty much, and I knew Ingerbritsen, if anyone's a track fan, I knew the track runners.

Athletic people, that's all I knew, and they were tall.

So, and I didn't, I'd say I didn't really know much going in, but when I'm here, actually, I think I'm really enjoying it here.

I think it's a lovely country.

The weather was really good in May.

So apparently that's not usual, but we got lucky.

So I think it's been great.

The people are nice.

Everyone's very nice.

Maybe more introverted.

But lovely people, very welcoming, very hospitable and love the nature.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's something I wanted to touch on.

Actually, I feel this is my first experience being overseas, actually, and within Europe.

So I feel like before coming here, I had sort of this romanticized image of how European and specifically Scandinavian countries are going to be.

But I was very surprised to come here.

uh it felt very uh i i didn't really get much of that homesickness as it felt very similar to canada in terms of the nature i've seen there which was very comforting and everyone here has been so nice so polite um very very accommodating and it's sort of helped in settling settling down and i guess

Yeah, it has made these five weeks sort of fly by very fast.

And in terms of the food, I've actually been very enjoying the food, but I do feel like I still have, I guess, a lot more to explore in that regard.

Been very limited options, but hopefully within the next week or so, I'll get the opportunity to explore a lot more.

Yeah, so Isaac touched on the food and the comparison to Canada.

I would have to agree.

I think where we're from in Canada, it seems very similar to Norway.

Weather is pretty similar.

People are pretty similar.

The only thing is the first day I got here was a Thursday, and I guess it was a holiday, and I walked out to see Porschen, and it was empty.

I'm like, there's no people live here.

But I've seen, after I noticed there are people that live here, just populated.

And there actually is diversity too, which again, I wasn't expecting.

Definitely not as much as Canada, but there still are different cultures and people here.

And we got to go to Oslo on May 17th and see the Constitution Day.

And that was really amazing to see the culture and everyone celebrating such a lovely day.

But what was your honest opinion about this?

The Constitution Day?

Yeah.

Was it strange to see so many people walking in line?

It was definitely different.

I've never seen anything like it before, but I think it was amazing.

I think it's very important that a nation can come together and celebrate a common event like that because there's a lot of things that, if you look at it, can divide us.

But when you have something like that that can unite everybody and everyone can be just happy for a day, smiles and enjoyment, I think it was an amazing event.

I hope I can come back in the future and experience it again.

I'm sure the listeners will be happy to hear that Norway definitely shows its patriotism way better than Canada.

Our Canada Day event, which is our national holiday, definitely not as lively as we got to see in Oslo on May 17th.

Yeah.

Well, let's go over to what you've been working on because when I got your first request from your university, I started first trying to figure out what an intern was.

And then I was trying to figure out what actually are you guys supposed to be doing?

Because most of the work that we do as employees here, we do ourselves.

We don't have a lot of student assistants.

We don't have interns.

But we figured out a couple of projects that you've been working on now.

Could we have a short presentation of them?

I can start first.

I've been working on a research project looking at the well-being of children with disabilities.

A lot of it is surrounding a social look at how children with disabilities are affected by their impairments.

So, for example, it sort of touches on how environmental factors, things such as inaccessibility to certain services or healthcare, or how parental upbringing can affect them, especially with regards to their unique scenario in which they are either physically or mentally disadvantaged.

And I would say so far it's been a very successful process.

I've gotten a lot of help from my supervisor, Christian, and so far he seems satisfied with the work I put forward.

I'm hoping that we're actually going to be doing a presentation on it tomorrow from the time of this recording.

And yeah, I'm hoping that I'll have a lot to present and a lot of unique ideas to bring to the meeting room.

That's great.

I'm doing something very similar.

We're both doing research projects.

So I'm doing a literature review on the experiences of sick-listed individuals when navigating the return to work process in Scandinavia and perhaps exploring how that's different from how they do it in Canada.

So I've been looking at a lot of the qualitative experiences that people on long-term sick leave experience

experience when they're out of work and how they navigate going back to work.

So it's a very interesting and complex situation when people are in long-term sick leave.

What kind of factors lead to them going back to work or what can delay the return to work?

Obviously, that's a huge issue in productivity in both societies is how many people are on sick leave and what factors, what we can do to promote a successful and efficient return to work policy.

yeah yeah um actually uh something learning uh i learned about here is that there's a lot there's definitely a lot of parallels between the way public health is handled in canada and within norway but then there's also at the same time very slight differences one thing that i remember speaking with someone in the faculty with

how Canada's various provinces actually handle public health differently due to differences in funding.

So that was sort of an alienated concept when I brought that up.

It kind of revealed a lot more differences, especially surrounding funding.

Apparently, to my knowledge, Norway is given a very generous amount compared to what we might receive in Ontario, allowing for more flexibility in public health and healthcare.

allowing for those sort of gaps that you might see in Canada to be filled.

So again, going back to the whole purpose of this course and this whole internship, to bring these ideas back to Canada and hopefully be able to apply them, not in the near future, but in the far future, be able to sort of apply them to Canada's healthcare and welfare system so that we can sort of catch up in that leading healthcare reputation.

Yeah, I've definitely had a lot of opportunities while working on my research project to reflect on the differences between the countries and see how, in a lot of ways, Norway's system is more efficient and it's more sustainable and fair for everyone.

As it's like it's a top bottom approach where everything is equitable and everyone has access to the same resources.

resources.

So I think it's definitely something that we can bring back to Canada and examine how we can do a better job distributing funds and ensuring that return to work is a fair and easy process to navigate.

Yeah.

And the third project you've been working on is what I would say is my project.

And as you're working on Soglo, can you say a little bit about it?

Yeah, it's a very unique idea, I feel, compared to what we might be presented to in Canada.

And in the first place, the whole idea and the whole stance of how to apply social workers to throughout society.

I feel in Canada, social workers are very limited.

they're very limited to just simply social work.

But here it feels like they have a bit more of a diverse role and that they're able to sort of apply themselves in more than just a few ways.

And I think especially with the case of trying to bring those social workers these international skills and these international experiences,

It can definitely help in sort of broadening their horizon and I guess being able to sort of see the bigger picture and just sort of equips them with better skills in handling the social work.

So I do think it's a very unique approach.

yeah yeah just add on that um soglow it's a very interesting project and um i think it's a good idea to look how social work is approached in different societies because every society has their own approach and there's pros and cons to each approach and to look at each pro and each con it can help us

improve our own approaches in Scandinavia or in Canada.

Or I know that the project's based also in the United States and I think they like sometimes behind in their welfare system.

So it's an interesting comparison to give even Norwegian students that live in, I would say, a very good welfare system to see how other countries are not so good.

Yeah, but like I always try to challenge my own students, it's very easy to put Norway on a pedestal and say, yeah, we have the perfect solution.

But the challenge is also when I have students coming from the United States or from Canada, you are also saying the same thing.

Hey, you Norwegians, you have found this...

best solution or this works very well.

But sometimes I'm sitting trying to figure out what is bad with our system?

How is it different?

How does it have different values from other countries?

And that's why I started also studying what is a social worker in different countries?

What are, yeah, we have an international definition of social work, but even though we have a definition of social work, what a social worker should be, there's a huge difference from country to country.

That's true, yeah.

And I think just in general, it's also very dependent on, I guess, how society develops.

For example, back in Canada, we have our population, our demographic on average is increasing in life expectancy, so we have to sort of adjust our healthcare systems in a way that can accommodate that aging population.

So that might mean allocating more resources towards

health services for like old age homes or for physicians that focus more on aged populations.

So I think being able to look at social work and all aspects of societal services in a holistic approach is kind of the more progressive and necessary stance to take.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I'd say also kind of relating to how things are done differently.

So your program that you teach is called Varna Playa.

Yeah.

So it's interesting to see the connection between being a nurse and being a social worker and like a nice medium.

We don't have anything like that in Canada.

And I think it's good because there's in a lot of cases that profession is needed.

Yeah.

Something that's not generally just all focusing on the medical model, but also tying in the social model.

to provide a very tailored care to people that need it.

Yeah.

Just lastly, because hopefully the people listening to this podcast episode would also be people that is wondering about becoming interns to travel abroad from Western.

Do you have any tips for them?

Why should they do this?

And if you do it and you have the ability to go, what should you plan for?

Yeah, I would say, I know, speaking from my own experience, this was presented to us at the beginning of one of our required lectures in person.

And I remember sitting in my classroom thinking, like, oh, that's an interesting program.

I'm probably not going to do it.

And then here I am now in Norway, currently doing it.

What changed your mind?

I think what changed my mind is just sort of, I just had to get rid of that initial hesitation that I had.

I think for any Western students that are looking to maybe pursue this program, I think they just sort of need to face it head on and not be afraid of the idea around the experience because I think international travel can be very daunting to some individuals.

the whole idea of just being thrown into a whole different culture and different society.

But I think what needs to be realized is that it's all growing pains.

This is going to help develop skills that are going to be useful towards their careers back in Canada.

I think especially with the resources that Western provides in terms of funding and scholarships and in terms of the supervisors that help us through everything, it's been very helpful.

So I really don't think there's much to be afraid of because the whole process is very well facilitated.

Yeah, because what you just said, and that is from the perspective of a student sitting in Canada on the lecture that it has to be in.

And it's the same thing with my Norwegian students.

They experience the same thing.

They listen to that lecture, but I'm giving that lecture.

And I was like, yeah, that sounds nice.

I'm not going to do it.

And I had a very similar experience.

Mandatory lecture sitting there.

Come to Scandinavia, go explore.

No way I'm going to do that.

That's just crazy.

But I think it's definitely something.

And how I got into it is that I talked to another person, another student that I work with in my workplace in Canada, also as a research assistant.

And she was like, you have to go.

I went last year.

It was the best thing I ever did in my life.

So I think it's good to talk to other students, talk about your experiences.

and network and that's one of the best things about this opportunity is that you can go to Norway and you can network with people across the world and you can get their perspectives and you can make long like lifetime connections with people because I know for sure I'm going to keep in contact with my supervisors and people I meet in Norway

And yeah, it gives you an opportunity to to get into research, to practice your skills and to become a better candidate for a lot of different jobs in Canada.

And as Isaac mentioned, there's so many at Western, there's so many scholarships, so many bursaries, so many grants that you have access to for international work and study.

So why would you not use the resources that are provided for you?

Yeah, and I think even at Western, it's not even just limited to this field towards social work and looking at health promotion.

There's also other areas that I think that are facilitated.

I know some students over in

Sweden are working on they're looking at projects with AI and there's just and then there's also some also from Western that are studying business and economics over overseas.

So Western just does a very good job of facilitating this whole process and allowing these students to gain these very unique skills that set them apart from the other students that are within the same field.

Yeah.

No, that is great, and I see that we planned on doing a 15-minute episode.

We're now hitting 30.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

We didn't even talk about any tips for future students.

Okay, please do that.

Okay.

Yeah, so I'd say before, so once you've decided, okay, I'm going to Scandinavia, I'm going to Norway,

I'd say do some research on the culture, the food, the people here.

I think it's important to go in to at least have a very basic knowledge of what you're going into.

You don't want to go in blind.

And yeah, I just say be open-minded and be ready to adventure, to explore, and make the most out of it.

Don't just sit down and stay comfortable.

The whole point of it is to expand out, branch out, leave your comfort zone.

That's the only way you're going to grow and progress.

Yeah.

And I think that my biggest tip would be, like you mentioned, Norwegians are known for being introverts.

So as a Canadian coming here, you need to be what I would say Canadian, being outgoing and talking to people because we don't like to bother each other.

We like to keep for ourselves.

So to get more out of it, just know that even though we don't speak to everyone, we like to get to know people, just a little bit harder.

Yeah, and from myself, as Eos and Steinar mentioned, I think proactiveness is very much key, and not even just within Norway, within the other Scandinavian countries, or even other countries outside of Scandinavia that are collaborating with Western University.

Proactiveness is the key to succeeding within these programs.

And on a sort of side note, I think maybe what might help is familiarizing with some words within the native language.

I tried my best to learn a little bit of Norwegian before coming, but I have not been able to apply it very well.

So do better than me and maybe learn a bit more.

I can say two words.

And this is for you, Steiner, and everyone else at USN.

Tusen takk.

Tusen takk.

Thank you so much for that episode.

Thank you for your inputs.

This is going to be the end of this episode.