Europe

Albania: Continued Medical Education (CME) approved courses, palliative care development, medical school/student training, one-to-one mentoring, faculty development and primary care development. Since the inception of the Government Continuing Medical Education scheme 18 months ago there has been an incerease in medical education activity within Albania and PRIME has been at the forefront of providing some of the teaching.

Armenia: Disaster response and emergency first aid training, palliative care, family medicine, nurse and faculty training, six-monthly teaching visits to Armenia for the National Institute of Health and the Haematology Centre in Yerevan and first international Nursing Congress. A PRIME team also visited the only hospice in Armenia, established for three years, and with eight beds, for a teaching session. The Palliative Care Workbook has been translated into Armenian and has been distributed. The PRIME programme includes communications skills, whole person care, bereavement and ethical issues as well as the clinical and theoretical aspects of care for patients.

Belarus: Medical school/student training. PRIME tutors have participated in the annual student camps.

Bosnia: PRIME is in partnership to work with family medicine doctors and medical students in adolescent health and Dermatology and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Bulgaria: PRIME has worked with the University of Sofia Medical School and the Association of Medical Students to teach clinical skills, clinical topics, the doctor-patient relationship, basic consultation and communications skills - all with a modern patient-centred perspective. We have also run a course on teaching and learning which included sessions on problem based learning, how to learn where there is no teacher, and enabling students learning.

Czech Republic: Medical school/student training, nurse training, spiritual care development in a major hospital.

Hungary: Two members of the PRIME Executive were invited to participate in the healthcare stream of the Hope for Europe 2011 conference. Presentations on the work of PRIME and the need to heal the dualistic divide by engaging with theological education as well as medical education were both well received and endorsed. An ongoing European Health Network was established in wich PRIME will play a role and extremely valuable contacts were made which should lead to significant PRIME opportunities in USA, Central Europe and in establishing dialogue with church authorities.

Italy: PRIME conference

Kosovo: PRIME tutors participated in an EU-funded programme to evaluate, develop and train the trainers in Kosovo. PRIME provided the main tutors at Kosovo's first conference on palliative care.

Lithuania: Primary care development and child mental health project funded by the European Union. PRIME has provided training for medical students and family medicine doctors on topics as varied as the nature of family medicine, caring for dying patients and their families, the use of role-play in learning and the facilitation of self-directed continuing professional development meetings. PRIME tutors were involved in developing and delivering the Child Mental Health programme.

Moldova: Two paediatricians attended the European PRIME conference held in Romania last year. They have arranged a visit by a PRIME Australia tutor and hopefully other PRIME tutors for this coming autumn, after which hopefully the need for other input may become clear.

Poland: PRIME conferences and development. PRIME has been involved in national CMF Poland conferences, most recently teaching doctors, nurses and church leaders.

Portugal: PRIME conferences and tutor development. 2012 is expected to be a very active year for PRIME Portugal. Several contacts are being made with our partners in order to have PRIME conferences next year in the cities of Porto and Braga (North Portugal), Maputo, Beira or Nampula (Mozambique) and Bissau (Guinea-Bissau). PRIME has delivered a number of teaching programmes in Portugal focusing on values and whole person medicine. Portuguese PRIME tutors have already developed and led a programme in Mozambique and run a very well received conference entitled 'Global Health: Challenges and Opportunities in Africa' in conjuntion with a Portuguese NGO, Assistencia Medica International.

Romania: Primary care development, palliative care development, medical school/student and
faculty training, PRIME conferences. As a result of PRIME's longstanding involvement with Romania we have developed regular teaching links with many of the medical schools. The courses are warmly received with just one of the courses attracting 650 doctors, nurses and students. PRIME tutors have provided a variety of programmes over the years and have been involved in training and consultancy for the deveopment of a family medicine training programme.

Russia: Primary care development, medical school/student work, faculty development and conferences. A successful course on relationship skills, communicating with patients and motivating change was delivered. A short course on whole person medicine for senior faculty staff to train them to deliver PRIME style training independiently of PRIME. A PRIME team visited in November 2011 to develop a curriculum on spiritual care for family doctors. The editor of 'Zemski Vratch' (The County Doctor) has invited PRIME to write a regular column, starting with English general practice and developing the theme of whole person medicine.

Serbia: Medical school/student training. PRIME tutors have participate in annual medical professional conference and medical student summer camps for many years. PRIME teaching materials are used by a Serbian Theological College as part of their programme.

Spain: PRIME conferences, tutor development.

Ukraine: Staff development. PRIME is involved in partnership with another international organisation in conference for 400+ English language medical students from around 70 countries and from 15 medical schools. The conference could pave the way for collaboration with medical teaching institutions in several parts of the country. A PRIME team has also delivered some palliative care training for hospice, nursing and medical personnel.

United Kingdom: Tutor development and medical school/student work. In the UK, PRIME is about to develop and launch a postgraduate learning initiative, materials and guidance that enable small groups of junior doctors regularly to explore a range of topics in whole-person clinical practice. We hope that these resources will also be of help to others across the world who share PRIME's vision, and several countries have already made enquiries.