On March 13 Clinical and Didactic Centre of the Medical University of Lodz held Open Doors for the candidates for students. The event attracts hundreds of young people who face a potentially their most important decision to be made: which university to choose?

Open Doors is a perfect opportunity for them to gain information about the place they intend to be connected with for the foreseeable future and also get the answers to all the crucial questions: what are the recruitment rules, the dates of documents submission, previous point thresholds, the teaching facilities at our disposal, what our laboratories and classrooms look like as well as, what’s is important for the candidates, how our students spend their leisure time.

Open Doors are organised by students, members od students associations and organisations, who are supported by MUL employees. Nearly 450 MUL students got engaged in this year’s event organisation and they ran workshops, lectures, seminars and prepared the stands where they presented the associations and organisations they belonged to.

The official opening was made by Prof. Waldemar Machała, Vice Rector for Military Health Care and Paweł Bollin Chairman of Student Government Council. Prof. Katarzyna Taran from the Department of Pathomorphology MUL told a short story of the search for immortality in medicine in her lecture Can we be immortal? and Anna Smędra Md PhD from the Department Of Forensic Medicine MUL described the secrets of the forensic medicine specialist’s job.

We were visited by over 2000 future candidates, secondary school students, who are interested in studies at MUL, and who came from our town, region as well as more remote corners of Poland. They had an unrivalled opportunity to visit our laboratories, classrooms including University Laboratory of Preclinical Dental Education, University Laboratory of Arterial Blood Pressure Regulation and Autonomic Nervous System Function, University Laboratory of Thee-Dimensional Anthropometry, BRaIn Laboratories and Medical Simulation Centre Medical University of Lodz .

Students and MUL employees designed 32 workshops where the visitors could, among others, discover new methods of haemorrhage stopping, learn about baby delivery, the work of laboratory diagnostician and how to put on a plaster splint.

Our wide range of workshops also included the workshops on: blood collection, catheterisation, subcutaneous injections, blood pressure measurements, vital signs monitoring, kinesio taping or laparoscopy. What also proved very popular was workshops on healthy eating habits, providing first aid and unblocking the respiratory tract, and conducting proper antibiotic therapy, as well as classes in dental phantom rooms and workshops on career planning.

Along with the workshops where one needed to be registered for, we provided a number of no-registration required lectures or seminars. The set of lectures by the Student Association of Forensic Medicine could boast the largest audience. The Open Doors visitors could also participate in the interactive seminar in nephrology and transplantology, the seminar on microorganisms that naturally occur in the human

body, lectures in cosmetology, stress-coping or diagnostic methods in historical research of human remains.

What gains immense popularity each year is the meetings with the representatives of the Faculty of Medicine within the limits by the Ministry of Defence where anyone interested in ‘military’ studies can ask questions concerning both the recruitment and the study conditions.

Traditionally, the surgical suturing workshops MEGA was the greatest success of Open Door . Two hundred participants tested their practical skills in surgical wound suturing. The workshop was held in MUL in Aula 1000 and run by Katarzyna Kwas assisted by 30 students.

Apart from workshops, lectures, seminars and guided tours around our laboratories, students organisations and associations invited the visitors to the stalls where they presented their activities and scientific achievements and encouraged the visitors to join the ranks of MUL students. Numerous competitions, scientific experiments, explosive chemical reactions, breast examination instructions, hygienic hand washing, newborn care or wound dressing are only part of the attractions offered to our guests.

As usual , the musical complement was provided by the MUL Choir which took us on the journey to the world of music and singing together while the fitness level was taken care of the members of the Academic Sports Association.

This year’s Open Doors programme was very diverse, and we hope our students-to-be found what they had expected.

We wish to express our gratitude to those without whom the event would never have been held. The Open Doors 2024 was organised by:

Student Government Council Medical University of Lodz

Student Scientific Association Medical University of Lodz

IFMSA-Poland Lodz Division

Academic Sports Association

The Medical University of Lodz Choir

IAESTE

Student Association of Cosmetology at the Department of Cosmetology

Student Association of Dental Techniques

Student Association of Nursing Polish Nursing Society in Łódź

Młoda Farmacja Łódź

Department of Nursing

Polish Pharmaceutical Students’ Association Lodz Division

Student Association of Civilisation Diseases

Student Association of Rare Diseases

Student Association of Diabetology MUL

Student Association of Dietetics at the Department of Clinical Nutrition and Gastroenterological Diagnostics

Student Association of Gynaecology

Student Association of Prenatal Cardiology

Student Association of Family Medicine MUL

Student Association of Forensic Medicine

Student Association of Medical Microbiology

Student Association of Transplantation Nephrology

Student Association of Neurosurgery

Student Association of Neurorehabilitation

Student Association of Nutriepigenomics at the Department of Biomedical Chemistry

Student Association of Orthopaedics and Traumatology

Student Association of at the Department of Internal Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology

Student Association of at the Department of Biology and Pharmaceutical Botany and the Department of Biology and Pharmaceutical Botany Medical University of Lodz

Student Association of the Department of Bioinorganic Chemistry

Student Association of the Department of Non-invasive Cardiology

Student Association of at the Department of Operative Nursing

Student Association of at the Department of Practical Obstetrics

Student Association of the Department of Dental Techniques

Student Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Student Association of Psychodermatology

Student Association of Sociology and Medicine

Student Association of Medical Simulations

Student Association of Artificial Intelligence in Oncology at the Department of Biostatistics and Translational Medicine

Student Association of Emergency Medicine and Disaster Medicine

Student Association at the Department of Biopharmacy

Students Association of Laboratory Diagnostics and the Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry and Molecular Diagnostics

Military Centre for Medical Education

Medical Simulation Centre

HumanLab – University Laboratory of Thee-Dimensional Anthropometry

HumanLab – University Material Testing Laboratory and University Laboratory of Preclinical Dental Education

HumanLab – University Laboratory of Arterial Blood Pressure Regulation and Autonomic Nervous System Function

HumanLab – University Laboratory of Human Movement and Exercise Capacity DynamoLab

BRaIn Laboratories

Department of Medical Biochemistry

Academic Careers Office Medical University of Lodz

Student Affairs Office Medical University of Lodz

Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer

Department of Recruitment and Education

Łódź Bone Marrow Donor Centre at the Department of Immunology, Rheumatology and Allergy, Central University Hospital of the Medical University

Open Doors would not have been held but for the engagement of the Promotion Office that coordinated the whole event.

Thank you and see you next year!