How Ukrainian rehabilitation specialists learned from their colleagues in Italy

During the war, Ukrainian doctors faced a challenge not only to provide medical care to the victims, but also to restore their ability to live a full life. Over the 2.5 years of full-scale war, they have gained a great deal of experience that they can now share with their colleagues from other countries.

At the same time, doctors are constantly faced with new clinical cases and challenges in their practice, so they must constantly learn to ensure that the care they provide meets high international standards. Recognizing this need, Soleterre, together with the Zaporuka Charitable Foundation, organized a study tour for Ukrainian medical professionals to Italy. The training took place as part of the project "Strengthening the Capacity of Healthcare Institutions in Ukraine", which is being implemented with the financial support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).

Learning by doing

For 10 days, various specialists of multidisciplinary teams (FRM doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists) from medical institutions in Lviv and Dnipro worked side by side with a team of doctors from the Italian rehabilitation center Montecatone. The experience of working with foreign colleagues helped Ukrainian specialists improve some of their approaches to rehabilitation care. During the internship, our specialists addressed the following topics:

• modern assistive technologies for patients with different levels of spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury;
• how to adapt living conditions for people with spinal cord injuries;
• Neuropsychology in rehabilitation - what to do to restore cognition;
• use of robotic systems in the rehabilitation of patients with central nervous system disorders;
• training in the use of effective means of recreation as a method of socialization of patients, etc.

All these topics are close to the challenges faced by the specialists of the rehabilitation center "UNBROKEN" in Lviv and "City Clinical Hospital No. 4" in Dnipro, so the team of Ukrainian specialists absorbed all the new knowledge and practices.

Head of the rehabilitation center "UNBROKEN" Oleg Bilyansky  says that this is not his first study abroad, but it is definitely valuable and useful. The Unbreakable Center, based at the First Medical Association of Lviv, provides treatment, prosthetics, physical therapy and psychological assistance to patients, including those with injuries and polytrauma. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, more than 18,000 Ukrainians, including children, have been treated here. The center has a large number of patients with nervous system injuries and is constantly looking for effective solutions for a quality rehabilitation process.

"As the head of a rehabilitation center, I have gained valuable knowledge about the organization and management of the rehabilitation process in general. The structure of the Montecatone clinic is fully consistent with rehabilitation needs. The changes that we plan to implement in November 2024 are already working here and are a role model," said Oleg Bilyansky.

The head of the rehabilitation center says that during the internship, he learned new approaches to physical therapy for patients with traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, and amputations. The training was immersive, based on the example of working with real patients, which made it possible to see how the theory provided by colleagues works in practice.

"Ukrainian specialists were fully involved in the rehabilitation process as assistants to physical therapists, occupational therapists, doctors and a psychologist, for which we would like to express our gratitude to the doctors of the Montecatone clinic. It is worth noting the training on approaches to working with complex rehabilitation equipment and artificial expectoration systems in the treatment of respiratory complications," adds Bilyansky.

After the training, the First Medical Association team plans to introduce innovations in respiratory therapy and physical therapy in the water. The applied skills gained during the internship will help them in this. According to the occupational therapist of the "Unbreakable" rehabilitation center Yaryna VasylkivShe will use some new approaches to breathing therapy.

"Occupational therapists in Italy showed us what kind of aids they use, which ones they invented and made themselves. We studied different positions of the hands on the chest, which help to better stimulate the removal of sputum from different parts of the lungs," Yaryna said.

In November, after returning from their training, the Invincible team opened a spinal cord injury unit and are already implementing what they learned from their colleagues in Italy in their programs.

The experience will contribute to the development of intensive rehabilitation

One of the internship participants, Ilya Grytsyuk, a physical therapist at City Clinical Hospital No. 4 in Dnipro, also noted the useful experience of working with patients with spinal cord injuries who need intensive rehabilitation. Dnipro is the largest frontline city that receives wounded soldiers from different areas, as well as civilians injured in the fighting. The doctors of the Quartet not only bring these patients back to life, but also help them recover after treatment in the Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Department. Here, patients undergo intensive rehabilitation after severe injuries and illnesses. The department's multidisciplinary team works tirelessly, learning and training new specialists. Despite their extensive experience, it was valuable for the specialists to hear how else they could improve their work in the most difficult cases.

"I really appreciate the opportunity to learn about advanced approaches that will allow me to help people with similar injuries more effectively and provide them with the highest level of interventions. I hope that this experience will not only help me personally, but will also contribute to the development of intensive care in Ukraine," said Hrytsiuk.

Read more about the experience of the internship participants in the article on the website HUBZ.