In May 2005, FAR’s CME Program was launched to promote the improvement of medical service quality in the Armenian regions outside of Yerevan. The program continues to organize one-month training sessions at the leading hospitals in Yerevan, in order to benefit of physicians from rural Armenia, Javakhk and Karabagh.
The next important step taken by the Program was to provide financial support to select Yerevan State Medical University’s (YSMU) resident students from the regions. Financial support is provided on a selective basis to those students whose are part of Armenia’s “paid” educational system, meaning their education is not free. The key condition for participation in the program is that the graduate is obliged to return to his or her native region and work at the local medical institutions. Under this condition, six resident students of YSMU are currently being supported by FAR.
The newest feature of this program is the internship. Last year, FAR and YSMU decided that going forward, they would send the resident students to their regional hospitals for a one-month internship within the framework of their educational curriculum. This provides the residents with an opportunity to become reacquainted with his or her hometown, and also to get to know the facilities in which they will be working.
In order to make this program successful, the entire network of FAR health professionals has become involved in the project. The representatives of the network serve as local mentors for the students and become the main link between the intern and the medical institutions. One of the resident students who completed his internship in this summer is Eduard Bayramyan. Stay tuned Monday to read his story…