Vienna

The City

Vienna by Emma Phillips

Situated on the river Danube (Donau), Vienna lies only around 40 miles off Austria’s eastern border, in close proximity to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The capital city is easily the largest city in Austria, home to some 1.6 million people. It is home to many churches, parks and stunning buildings, as well as the renowned Kaffeehaus culture. Vienna’s architecture, particularly that around the famous Ringstrasse, built at the height of Austria’s power in the 19th century, is both grand and beautiful. The city has a long artistic and cultural history, especially in the areas of opera and classical music, fine arts and theatre. There are two opera houses and several theatres in the city, as well as the Musikverein, home to the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wiener Konzerthaus. There are also innumerable museums to visit, covering art from the mediaeval to the modern and everything in between. If you are lucky enough to be there during Fasching (festival period) which runs post-Christmas to the beginning of Lent, you may also be able to attend a Viennese ball, and learn to waltz!

The University and Hospital

In Vienna, the host university is the recently formed Medizinische Universität Wien (opened in 2004) (http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/), which was originally a faculty of the Universität Wien, but is now situated within the extremely large general hospital of the city, the Allgemeines Krankenhaus (AKH).
There are a few hospitals in Vienna, but generally all of your placements are likely to be in the AKH, which dominates the 9th district of the city. The AKH is an enormous site, home to many different departments. Two large tower blocks, each of 21 floors house the inpatient beds for medicine and surgery (one in each block). You enter from the U-Bahn on Ebene 5. The outpatient clinics and A&E are on levels 6-9 and the wards start at level 13 and go right up to level 21! If you are on a placement in Ebene 21, arrive in the hospital 10 minutes early as it can take you that long to reach it in the lift!

Accommodation

It is possible to live in halls or in a private flat, and there are advantages and drawbacks to both. Rent for either is cheaper than in Bristol.

Halls

If you apply in time, you are likely to be able to get a room in halls. Information about the halls in Vienna can be found at http://www.akademikerhilfe.at or at http://www.housing.oead.ac.at/.
Living in halls can make it easy to meet new people, which is a bonus as the way the placements at the hospital work means it is difficult to get to meet and integrate with the medical students as a group.
There is also the bonus of not having to pay bills, although the halls will ask for a deposit of a month before you go.
The hospital is in the 9th district, so recommended areas to live are in the 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th, but it is reasonably easy and efficient to get around using public transport, and the hospital has its own U-Bahn stop (Michelbeuern AKH on the U6), so anywhere in 1-9th, 17th, 18th or 19th would be ok.
You can work out the district from the address (the district number has a 1 at the front and a 0 at the end, i.e. 8th district is 1080, 19th district is 1190).
Halls can be pretty basic, but meet all your needs for sleeping, washing and cooking.
You may find yourself sharing a room- quite common in Austria. This makes the rent even cheaper. If you really can’t stand your roommate, you can apply to have a single room, but this decreases your chance of getting a room in the first place.

Private accommodation

Although this may be the more stressful option at first, you may prefer to live in a flat with other students rather than returning to halls’ life! It can be difficult to find a flat or room for a 6 month period, especially as you are coming half-way through a semester. Tips on finding a decent room:

The best website to use is http://wohnen.career.at
Rooms go very quickly so try to call or email on the day the advert comes out
You are unlikely to be able to rent a room before you go, but it is worth checking the site out the week before you leave and setting up some appointments
Most landlords will hold a ‘party’ to check out any prospective tenants who have applied- it can be a bit intimidating, but is certainly an experience and your German will pick up quickly!
When you are filling in the online form, remember to click the möbiliert box so that you don’t need to go out and buy your furniture!
Be aware of extra costs: ablöse (contribution to recent decoration of the flat- best to avoid this); kaution (deposit, normally 3months rent, returnable if the flat is in the same condition when you leave); provisio (agency fees- usually 3 months rent for an estate agent)

Important information and tips

Get hold of a map of Vienna – a good A-Z is the Taschenatlas Wien by Freytag und Berndt – you should be able to get this at most Tabacs.
The public transport in Vienna is really efficient and pretty cheap. There is an underground (U-Bahn) system, as well as trams, buses and local train (LokalBahn or S-Bahn) and the surprising thing is that they all run to a timetable! You can buy a Monatskarte or a Wochenkarte at the U-Bahn station which cover all of the transport running within the town boundaries (Stadtgrenze). These are cheap compared with prices in the UK. If you think you will use the transport a lot, it is just about worth getting hold of a student Semesterkarte (costing €117) for the first semester (beginning of October to the end of January) if you do it straight away. Although you have missed the first month, this card is still marginally cheaper than buying 3 Monatskarte. For this, go to the WienerLinien Office in the U-Bahn station at Westbahnhof, taking your Vienna student ID with you.
When you arrive in Vienna, you are supposed to register (anmelden) with the local council offices within 3 days. This has to be done for any visit over 60 days. You will be able to get the Meldezettel from your halls or a local newsstand. The halls or your landlord have to sign it to confirm your place of address, then you can take it to your local Magistratisches Bezirkamt to register. This can be found online at http://www.wien.gv.at/mba/mba.htm (the nearest one depends on which district you are in). Take your passport with you and check out the opening times online before you go! You will need your Meldezettel for opening a bank account and registering at the hospital library to borrow books.
A bank account is quite useful, just for the benefit of not relying on your English card. You need your Meldezettel to open an account (this gives proof of address) and you will probably also need your passport. Make sure you get a student account- this has the lowest charges, so you should not be charged for opening or closing the account. They may take a few cents off the account every now and again as a cumulative charge for using your debit card, but this does not amount to much. Banks that have student accounts include ErsteBank/Sparkasse and Bank Austria. There is a branch of Bank Austria in the AKH, but this closes at 13.00, whereas other banks across the city stay open longer.
SIM cards can be bought for about €30. Ask around the students for the best deals – up until now, Telering has been the best. A Telering Twist15 SIM gave you texts to abroad and within Austria for 15 cents, which is not a bad deal.
The main shopping street in Vienna is Mariahilfestrasse – this is where you’ll find department stores and large chain stores and is always a good bet for where to look if you are trying to buy something ‘normal’, i.e. not presents or tourist kitsch! Remember shops are shut all day Sunday, so try not to be caught with no food!
Flying direct to Vienna can be expensive. If you have lots of stuff and it is going to be easier to fly directly, the cheapest airlines to Vienna Schwechat airport are usually KLM and AirBerlin/AirNiki, flying from London airports. You can then take the CAT (Ciy Airport Train) from Schwechat to Wien Mitte Bahnhof, which connects you with the U-Bahn network. Alternatively, if you want to fly for cheaper, Ryanair flys to Bratislava Airport in nearby Slovenia, and you can get a bus from the airport to Wien Erdberg bus station, which connects to the U3 line. This bus costs €9 one way and takes about 90 minutes; not bad if you are saving £50 or more!
The Erasmus ski trip is a definite laugh and probably the cheapest ski trip you’ll ever get to do, as its heavily subsidised (and sponsored by Red Bull!)

The Austrian Medical School System

Similar to the French system, Austrian students only need to pass their Matura (A-level equivalent) to be able to go to University. This means that the first 2 years of the course consist of basic science teaching, with difficult exams at the end of each year getting rid of the majority of students. Even with these exams, the course in Austria is massively over-subscribed, and even after the second year, a year group may contain in excess of 1000 students! Recent changes in the legislature in Austria to come in line with EU requirements, means that other EU students wishing to study in Austria also need to have only a minimum A-level equivalent to get in. Previously, students from these countries wishing to study in Austria must have qualified for a University place in medicine in their own country to be able to get into the Austrian system. This lack of a so-called ‘Numerus Clausus’ (closed number) system, means that the first year of the course can contain a ridiculous number of students – last year they were taken on a “first come first served” basis and were camped outside the registration office for days before it opened in an attempt to get a place! It is hoped that the government will soon change the rules to prevent this reoccurring.

As in many other European countries, the course is highly theoretical, with students spending most of their time in ‘Vorlesungen’ (seminars/lectures), and a minimum of time in hospital. The curriculum in the medical school has recently changed; at the moment the students are split into those following the ‘alte studium’ (old system) or the ‘neue studium’ (new system). The new system is much more proscribed and organised, similar to here in England, whereas in the old system, the students must organise their studies themselves. Once they have completed the first 2 years of lectures, these old system students must apply for the various courses which they wish to attend during the year. If they manage to get on the course, they must then apply to a professor to take them for an exam at the end of it. Most of the courses are heavily oversubscribed, and application for a course is certainly no guarantee of getting on it. This means that it is not uncommon for students to be in their 15th or 16th semester of study and still not be finished, simply because they could not organise their courses!

The clinical hospital time they have to do consists of ‘Praktikum’, which is compulsory. Depending on the specialty, this is either a practical based teaching course usually lasting a couple of weeks, or ward time for ‘innere medizin’ (general medicine)or ‘chirugerie’ (surgery) where the placements are a month on each. In addition to these praktika,which are compulsory and have exams relating to them, the students must also undertake 16 weeks of ‘famulatur’ or ward-based placements. They can choose which to do depending on their interests.

Once a student has completed all the exams for the compulsory praktika, and has done the required amount of famulatur, then they have finished their degree. There is no final exam in Austria as there are here in England.

Placements and when you have to be there

Your placements fit in mainly with the old system of praktika and famulatur. At the time of writing, it is unclear how, in the future, Erasmus students will fit into the neue stadium.

Most of the placements will be on the wards. Timing varies, and you have to stay for as long as the doctors need you there, but most placements are around 8.00 until 13.00, with surgery starting earlier at 7.00. Occasionally you may be expected to stay all afternoon. Students are not free to come and go as you are at home- when you are on the ward, you are responsible for doing some of the ward tasks (most of which would be carried out by nurses in England). If for any reason you will not be able to attend a day of your placement, you check with the staff on the ward first if this will be ok; similarly if you are unlucky enough to be ill while you are away, then you will need to phone in the morning to let them know you won’t be there.

The placements that have been done in the past include:

Famulatur equivalent in:

Respiratory (3 weeks on a ward-based placement in Innere Medizin IV)
Ophthalmology (one week in the Augenambulanz)
Orthopaedics (3 weeks in Ortho, attending outpatient clinic and theatre)
Emergency (one week on Notfall, which unfortunately does not include trauma, as their A&E system is split into separate Unfall and Notfall departments)
Intensive care (3 weeks on Intensivpflege – coronary care unit)

Praktikum equivalent in

ENT (2 weeks of HNO praktikum – lecture and practical based course during which you are also taught the outmoded use of a head mirror!)
Rheumatology (4 weeks on a ward-based placement in Innere Medizin III with a one-lecture per day course in topics relating to any general medicine, e.g. ECG)

Role on the ward

When you arrive on the ward, you start off by taking bloods, putting up drips, re-siting venflons and giving s.c. injections of heparin. The students are then supposed to take a complete history and examination from any new patients who are being admitted. Visite (ward round) usually starts at around 10.00am, and you are expected to follow this after you have finished your jobs. Ward rounds may last in excess of 2 hours, and can be a bit dull on occasion! Once a week, there is the ‘Chefvisite’, where the top man comes in to make all the underlings sweat. The hierarchy is very traditional in Austria, and everyone has to bow and scrape to the Chef, so the Chefvisite will be obligatory to attend (and you will probably have to drop anything you are doing the moment it starts!).

For surgical placements (orthopaedics), you have to be on the ward at 7.00, when the Visite begins. After this, and the case discussion, you will either be in theatre, where you may be needed to assist, or in outpatient clinics. Theatre can last until 17.00, but if you are not needed, then you can often leave earlier!

Dress code

You can wear anything sensible in hospital – most students stick to jeans and a T-shirt – as you will also have to wear a long white coat over your clothes. On some wards, you are also expected to wear the white trousers and shirt (for men) or T-shirt (for girls) which you can get from the central stores. These all have to be changed once or twice a week. When you register for your placement, they will give you a certificate entitling you to these wäscher, without which the ladies in the central stores will be very mean and won’t give you anything!

Organising your placements

With the Austrian system of students applying for their own courses, it is important you make sure that the International Office in Vienna has sorted out your courses for you before you arrive; otherwise, arriving in November, you will struggle to find any placements at all!

The contact in the international office is:

Dr Human Salemi
SOKRATES Hochschulkoordinator
Address MEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITÄT WIEN
Büro für Internationale Beziehungen
Spitalgasse 23
1090 Wien
Phone 0043-1-40160-21023
Fax 0043-1-40160-921001
Email human.salemi@meduniwien.ac.at

Dr Salemi is assisted in the office by a very helpful lady who will tell you where you need to go for the start registration of all of your placements.

Mag. Christine Baier
Phone 0043-1-40160-21014
Fax 0043-1-40160-921001
Email christine.baier@meduniwien.ac.at

Ask her about times, places (make sure you get a floor and clinic number (e.g. the Studentensekretariat for Innere Medizin III has its office in the clinic on the 6th floor, in area J – written simply as 6J) and who you should ask for when you arrive! If you can’t get hold of this information through the office, you can look it up on the website www.meduniwien.ac.at, looking under the section on Universitätskliniken & klinische Institute to find the home pages of the separate departments, which usually has information on where their offices are. Registration for the placements is usually between 7.30 and 7.45 on the first day- this gives you enough time to pick up your wäscher from the Zentrallager (central stores) on the 4th floor before you need to be on the ward at about 8.00am!

You will need to register in the International office on the first day, to get your student card. You may find however, that they pack your timetable so full that you will also be expected on the ward at the same time. Go to the ward first (after registration at the Studentensekretariat) and familiarise yourself with what is going on before you try to go to the office. The office has limited opening hours (9.00-12.00 Mon-Wed and Fri, 14.00-17.00 Thurs). It is on the ground floor of the medical building on the Spitalgasse side of the hospital, but can be difficult to get into as sometimes the outer door leading to the section is locked. Don’t be disheartened, just bang loudly until someone lets you in- you are allowed to be there!
Contacts of previous students

Emma Phillips – (2005-2006) – ep2188@bristol.ac.uk (or emma_danescourt@hotmail.com)
Helen Walters – (2004-2005) – helenwalters@gmail.com