Supervision of medical students's final exam
Constituent (2012-2020):Sahlgrenska Academy
University of Gothenburg
SWEDEN
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy ACT
ACT in Behavioral Medicine, to improve lifestyles among patients with chronic conditions. ACT, offers a compassionate way to relate to our patients, and teaches our patients the same in relation to their chronic conditions in order to reach a vital life despite their symptoms.
Our Clinical Research Lab & Program
ACT Institutet has an active international collaboration advocated to groundbraking clinical research with the aim to develop evidence based and effective clinical models.
What to expect
While writing a thesis at ACT Institutet the expectations are mutual.
Evaluation after supervision
To improve our quality of supervision, pleae complete follwoing survery
Research projects 2020
Clinical research
How can we prevent and treat chronic conditions (Chronic Pain, Oncology and HIV) targeting lifestyles for self-care, applying the evidence-based principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in medicine?
Systematic Reviews
We are planning systematic reviews in the above-named areas.
International collaborators
During 2020 there will be possibilities to do research in San Francisco
Before you start
There are some important things to consider before you decide to do your project by distance (instead to go to a lab every day).
You need to be very interested in the area, self-driven and be willing to keep momentum (continuity) in your writing and an open and and genuine communication with with your supervisor.
We will start by reflecting your learning style in order for me to adapt the supervision to your own learning preferences.
I have also been asked what I expect from my supervisees:
1) Sincerity determines de quality of the collaboration between supervisee and supervisor. If you cannot make a meeting or not delivered when you were suposed to, just let me know. I do not need explanations.
2) The other most important is to have regular communication and plan for our collaboration. Each Monday I would like to know how the process is going and I am also available for video-meeting.
3) You do not need to know everything, you need to dear to try and make mistakes and then know what you do not know, so you can ask for help. Do not try to do the work alone!
1. Make sure that the area of research interests you
Most of the students do not have previous expeirence in writting research rapports. It requires to read a lot of scientific litterature and be able to integrate all the reading in smaller pieces of knowledge, which will be excential for you future career. Therfore it is important that the first steps in this direction are taken in a field that you are really curious and interested about, so you can make the process exciting, even in times that feels difficult.
2. Make sure that you are self-driven and self-disciplined
Working distance gives you freedom, youdecide your pace, working time and priorities. At the same time, this requires that you are your own boss and even the time-pan that is agreed, can always be flexible. Just makesure to communicate so that the supervisor has avalability for you whenever you need her support
3. You can travel or do what you whant, BUT ...
I see this term as a term for you to charge batteries and do things in your own rhythm. If you want to travel, fine, if you want to work, fine.
The only thing is to be totally open and let me know your plans so I can plan my time and our time together in the best possible way. Sincerity is critical in order to have a succesfull collaboration!
4. Continuity in writting is one of the key to succes
Whether you decide to travel or work during T10, is your call. However, make sure to have cntinuity in the reading and writting. Each pause from the work costs several hours (sometime days) to get into it again. Very frustrating!
5. Ask for help! I am here to help you in the process.
Be kind with yourself and ask for help when you feel lost. Better one time too much than less. When you are unsure or start feeling the ‘normal’ anxiety that comes along these kind of work, contact Graciela directly! Do not wait! Do not build frustration, it will make it more difficult for you to enjoy the process.
6. Expectations
Mutual respect and awareness that this is a collaboration. This is a process of dialog and mutual learning. This is also a process that make us vulnerable, since we both in different situation will find oureslves not knowing, and that is not only normal, but it is part of the growing we do together. There is one thing I have difficulties with, that is when the students is not being open and sincere, then the trust is broken and the collaboration is very difficult for both of us.
Education, Research & Supervission
ACT INSTITUTET has supervised more than 20 medical students since 2012. We have done studies and visited Buenos Aires, Argentina; San Francisco, USA; and of course most of the studies have been done here in Sweden.
The research programs are in the field of chronic conditions (pain, diabetes, HIV) and studied from a Behavioral and Lifestyle Medicine’s perspective.
One of the key foci of our research is the implementation and adaptation of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for all the health professionals working with patients suffering of chronic diseases (cardiovascular, respiratory, diabetes, obesitas, neurological, inflammatory and mental health).
Some of the Medical Students supervised by Dr. Rovner
Kirsi 2020
Jens 2019
Jessica 2019
David, Amanda, Graciela, Elin, Rebecka och Linn 2017
David och Linn 2017
Rebecka och Elin 2017
Anna 2016
Amanda 2017
Sofia, Henrik & sonen 2017
Jakob 2016
Louise 2016
Daniel 2016
Emilie 2015
Jonas 2015
Maria 2012, Frida 2013, Linn 2014, Niklas 2015, Hwayung 2017
Read some of the abstracts
Here you can find a summary of some of the studies exploring how pain acceptance create different behavioral patterns that inform and predicts the treatment needs and the differential responsiveness of patients with chronic pain.
More Details
The studies listed are some of those done during the development of ACTiveAssessment, which is a quick triage and assessment model to understand the patients capacity to make changes and respond to treatment. During 2019 we have also done Systematic Reviews.