The Master Degree in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation started on 20 October and welcomed 22 new students who intend to acquire new skills in order to join and/or coordinate multidisciplinary teams within the scope of prevention and cardiovascular rehabilitation programmes. Enabling gaining new tools in the areas of health science, this is a programme with a strong strategy in secondary prevention, therefore working in a multidisciplinary way with regard to cardiac patients. In order to minimize the impact of the disease on their daily life, the objective is not only to recover patients, but to prevent them from recurring again, preparing them to improve their way of life and slow the progression of the disease.
A pioneering project across the country, the Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Programme has always been based on the most recent international papers and guidelines, which is the reason why it has been accredited by the European Society of Cardiology. This is an interdisciplinary programme that brings together teams from the FMUL/CHULN and CRECUL and follows the basic principles enshrined in 2018 by the Portuguese Society of Cardiology.
Ana Abreu, coordinator of this Master Degree, cardiologist and responsible for the working group on Cardiovascular Rehabilitation, spoke about the general lines of this 2nd edition that has been adjusted to increasingly accommodate the requirements of those who sign up. “With the initial Master Degree, we were able to adjust some details for this second edition, and we felt the need to have a more practical nature. The 2nd semester will therefore have a more practical component and we will attempt to turn the theoretical classes into theoretical-practical. And despite the online classes in some modules due to the pandemic, there are contents that we will offer face-to-face”.
The profile of students in this Master Degree is increasingly diversified, bringing together Portuguese, Angolans, Brazilians and Iraqis who end up mirroring the various professional groups that are part of the rehabilitation teams. “They are doctors or cardiologists, physiatrists, nurses, physiotherapists, cardiopulmonology technicians and exercise physiologists. Many are here because they want to be involved in a rehabilitation programme, but there are some who ´ look at it from a more academic perspective. They intend to conduct Master Degree projects and present papers. There is even a student who already holds a Ph.D.”.
The selection was rigorous and the final result could not make the Master's coordinator more proud. “From a CV point of view, these candidates are excellent. We want to have a lot of interaction and make everyone very comfortable to propose their own theses, or we will give them the topics of the projects that we have planned or are underway. Our role is to supervise or co-supervise projects whether they are individual or integrated into existing teams”.
One of the major changes is distance training, which has changed the entire teaching paradigm so far. “To counteract the distance, even in a pandemic phase, the objective is to create groups of two persons in classes with a more practical component, so that this aspect of the Master is not lost. We will take the same care that we already take with medical students, using disposable gowns, masks and gloves and the proper distance between few people”, ensures Ana Abreu.
The pandemic made almost all training go digital, but the fact is that this change is also quite beneficial. As the cardiologist explains, “increasingly, education is global and so we need to reach people who are far away. In the case of these two doctors from Iraq, one is in England and has made himself available to come here regularly and the other is coming here to live to study for his Master Degree”. While this is not yet the scenario, the coordinator of the Master Degree believes that “although the Master Degree is not yet entirely online, it is possible to increase the number of foreign candidates even more.
It was as Director of the Faculty of Medicine that Fausto J. Pinto welcomed all those who attended the launch of this Master Degree. But without a doubt, his role as Director of the Cardiology Service and of the Heart and Vessels Department of the Northern Lisbon Hospital Centre makes him proud about the vast demand in this area of training.
We disclose some of the students of this Master Degree and attest their interdisciplinarity.
Vanda Dias is a nurse in Saudi Arabia and returned to Portugal as a result of the pandemic. She is linked to cardiac surgery and usually works in intensive care. She wanted to embrace a Rehabilitation project, but realized that not only she was not personally qualified, but also Saudi Arabia did not have this area. “A good structure was needed to start this project, so I researched the current offer in Rehabilitation and found this Master Degree. And so I returned to my country”. At this moment, if she can continue a Rehabilitation project in Portugal, she prefers it, otherwise she knows that the doors in Saudi Arabia remain open for her. Starting with heart transplantation in Saudi Arabia, Vanda Dias knows that the knowledge acquired in this Master Degree will be an asset for her professional life, either as part of an existing group, or conducting her own project. She does not lack motivation and admits that knowledge moves her, not hierarchical ascension.
Hélio Bragança has a degree in Physiotherapy since 2017, having always had a career as a navy military since he was 18 years old. The motivation seems clear to him, “cardiovascular diseases are the ones that kill the most, so I decided to study this Master Degree to improve my training”. On the horizon, the possibility of bringing together his passion for military life and physical therapy integrated into a programme that takes care of the heart. Concerned about prevention, Hélio Bragança knows that the way patients with cardiovascular incidence are cared for is fundamental, but for that, it is necessary to have more knowledge, even to open new doors of opportunity for his own career.
The Master Degree in Cardiovascular Rehabilitation is thus another pillar in the construction of this professional specificity and scientific research in this area.
Joana Sousa
Editorial Team