200 seconds
Was approved - without having met a single patient
Robert Aschberg,
Lindah C Mohlin,
Fanny Westling,
Joachim Kerpner,
Gustaf Tronarp
Updated 12.55 | Published 12.38
News
200 seconds has revealed extensive deficiencies in medical education in several countries in Eastern Europe.
Now the students talk about their experiences.
One was thrown into a naked woman's practice, another was only allowed to look in through a window.
Quick version
* Swedish students on medical courses in Eastern Europe reveal extensive cheating and substandard internships
* Learning through old exams on USB sticks, cheating on exams and internships where students didn't even see patients
* Concern about future colleagues with insufficient medical knowledge and inability to work practically with patients
"Mattias": Cast as a naked woman
Mattia's grades were not enough for medical education in Sweden, but they were enough in Poland.
When he arrived at the University of Warmia and Nazury in Olsztyn, Poland, the pace was so fast that he and his classmates were worried they wouldn't be able to finish their studies.
But soon he got a login to a cloud service where the exams were - with questions that turned out to be exactly the same as those on the exams.
- You completely ignore smaller courses because you know it's possible to cheat, he says.
Studying with the help of previous exams is a known method at many universities, also in Sweden. But according to Mattias, the tests are never renewed.
"Matthias"
"Mattias" Photo: Filip Meneses
He has, together with other students, raised the cheating with name collections, both in letters and in direct contact with the professor.
He received the answer that the responsibility lies with the student himself.
- I have met students who boast that they have not opened the book.
But what he was most disappointed about was the subpar practice. His worst example was when he, along with 10 other male students, was sent in to do an examination on a patient.
- The doctor asked the patient to take off all his clothes. It was an elderly woman who appeared very scared. The doctor said: go ahead, examine. Then she left the room.
- We were left completely speechless, trying to get words out in a language we don't know. It felt unethical and uncomfortable for everyone.
The practice of medical education in the EU and Sweden naturally differs. It has to do with both culture and language confusion.
But according to Mattias, the internship at his university was something completely different.
- We had to be happy if we got to watch an operation through a window. The practical element is completely missing in these schools. The students received a USB stick with old tests.
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"Erik": Didn't know the difference between vein and artery
Erik recognizes the problem. At the convocation at the medical school in Lithuania, he was given a USB stick by an older student. Old tests were saved on it, tests that would repeat themselves exactly.
His classmates made sure to learn what was needed, without opening the course literature.
- Cheating at the school is so widespread that I find it difficult to see how the professors or the employees would not know about it.
During the internship, they were supposed to meet patients - instead, they sat in a basement and were given theoretical tasks.
- We will meet people, we will help them to better health and try to treat their possible illnesses. You don't do that with paper and pencils, you do that by talking to people and hearing how they feel.
"Eric"
Erik's concern is that he will have to work with colleagues who do not know what is required. That concern was confirmed when he started working at a Swedish staffing company for doctors. There he met a colleague, who had also studied in Lithuania, who was going to take a blood test.
- He didn't know the difference between artery and vein, but thought they were the same. It is the most basic knowledge you learn when studying anatomy.
"Peter": Didn't meet a single patient
Peter, who studied medicine in Riga, also received a USB stick with old exams. They were exactly the same that then came at the time of the test.
- It was thus possible to memorize the response sequences. Question 1, answer A, question 2, answer C, and so on.
He talks about groups in various online forums where students gather and share information.
- I remember already during semester one, a student wrote and asked if you could write her essay for payment.
According to Peter, several of his classmates have cheated on big, important exams.
- Many students see it as a survival instinct. The pace is fast, and the university allows it to go on.
The practice did not impress either.
On the cardiology course, they would get to see patients and learn to read EKGs. He passed the course without seeing a single patient.
- My biggest fear is that in the future I will be met by colleagues with huge knowledge gaps. When I had been at school for five years, a classmate asked me what ibuprofen is, the active ingredient in Ipren. To not know something so basic after five years of study indicates a system error.
"Camilla": "Why wouldn't it be corruption?"
Camilla left the education in Lithuania after only two years.
- It was partly because of all the cheating. There was no guarantee that what I learned was correct. Medicine is, after all, a specific knowledge.
According to her, there was also no room to ensure whether one had understood the course material correctly. But she didn't dare say anything.
Studying abroad is not free. Camilla, like many other Swedes, was ready to pay over half a million kroner - just for school fees.
It was only a year, and she has not received the money back.
- In a country where there is so much corruption, why wouldn't it find its way into the education system?
FACTS
200 second reveal in a nutshell
200 seconds can show extensive cheating and deficiencies in several international medical education programs in Eastern Europe.
Hundreds of screenshots show how tests and exams are shared between students. According to several reports to Aftonbladet, several universities do not update the tests between test sessions, even though the cheating has been reported by the students.
In addition, several students testify that the internship does not deliver what it promises.
Aftonbladet has tried applying to a university in Poland. We managed to cheat our way into the training.
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Cheats his way in - works in a Swedish hospital
200 seconds
Cheated his way to the medical exam - works in Sweden
Updated 08.02 | Published 06.58
News
Widespread cheating and serious deficiencies in medical training in Eastern Europe affect Swedish healthcare and can be life-threatening for patients.
200 seconds has reviewed universities in Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.
See also when Aftonbladet's reporter manages to get into medical school in Poland - with the help of Google.
Watch the full 200 second SPECIAL in the player.
FACTS
200 second reveal in a nutshell
200 seconds can show extensive cheating and deficiencies in several international medical education programs in Eastern Europe.
Hundreds of screenshots show how tests and exams are shared between students.
According to several reports to Aftonbladet, several universities do not update the tests between test sessions, even though the cheating has been reported by the students.
In addition, several students testify that the internship does not deliver what it promises.
Aftonbladet has tried applying to a university in Poland. We managed to cheat our way into the training.
FACTS
200 seconds of revelation in numbers
More than one in three doctors who lost their medical license due to gross incompetence were trained in Eastern Europe.
There are 66,878 doctors in Sweden. It is possible to trace in which country most of the IDs have been issued (a total of 58,195), and of them approximately half (51.3 percent) have been educated in Sweden.
Approximately ten percent of the medical profession has been educated in Eastern Europe.
Since 2020, 27 doctors have lost their medical licenses due to gross incompetence, 10 of them trained in Eastern Europe.
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