The Centre Visit Educational Scholarship provides the opportunity for members to gain experience and a different perspective in their area of interest. Applicants need to identify a centre that is willing to accommodate them for the duration of the centre visit. The EBMT Nurses Group funds €1,000 for travel and accommodation.
For over ten years, I have been working as a ward nurse at the Department of Haemato-oncology at Ostrava University Hospital in the Czech Republic.
On 16–17 September 2026, I completed an internship at Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset, Sektionen för hematologi och koagulation in Gothenburg, thanks to the EBMT Nurses Group Centre Visit Educational Scholarship.
On my first day, I received a warm welcome from Head Nurse Petra Lindroos Kölqvist, who gave me a tour of the clinic and introduced me to the various departments.
My main goal was to compare nursing and work procedures with those at another facility and to learn some interesting facts about the field. The inpatient ward had a pleasant atmosphere and one of the nurses immediately took me under her wing, with whom I discussed topics that interested me.
The main difference between nursing work in Sweden and the Czech Republic is the level of authority, such as prescribing medications and administering transfusions. In the Czech Republic, there are still many procedures that only a doctor can perform. Other specialised procedures and ward operations are very similar in both countries.
I was surprised by the much lower patient volume in the clinic’s outpatient section. Here, I would definitely like to highlight the work of the “contact nurses”, who handle many matters with patients remotely, over the phone, thereby preventing large numbers of patients from congregating in the outpatient areas. Once again, I was impressed by the nurses’ greater autonomy in making independent decisions about the next steps in patient care. I had the opportunity to observe the work of nurses on the lymphoma, myeloma, leukaemia and transplant teams, as well as the gene and cell therapy team and the separation centre.
All the nurses demonstrated a high level of expertise and professionalism and their very kind attitude towards me was an added bonus—they gave me their full attention throughout my visit despite their heavy workload.
The internship showed me that both of our clinics provide high-quality medical and nursing care at a comparable level and it inspired me with several ideas on how to improve our work. We would love to stay in touch with the nurses at the host hospital and look forward to further collaboration.
Once again, thank you to everyone who made this internship possible and allowed me to see another workplace in another country with my own eyes.
