The head of the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health, Siri Beier Jensen, is becoming more and more concerned about whether the many students will be able to complete their clinical instruction before the exams and the summer holiday. Here is the second week of the corona shutdown.

2020.04.02 | Siri Beier Jensen

A Skype high-five from the entire Occupational Health and Safety Committee (LAMU). One of the many meetings that Siri Beier Jensen also held during the week. Photo: Siri Beier Jensen.

Monday 23 March: An inventory of protective equipment and growing concern about the clinical instruction

I receive an early morning email from Lars Bo Nielsen asking whether we can get an overview of how many surgical masks, disposable lab coats and gloves we have, and how much disinfectant. Aarhus University is in the process of finding out how much protective equipment the university can contribute with, if a shortage should arise at the regional hospitals.

We hold the first, constituent meeting of our new local liaison committee over Skype. For the first time, my internet connection is poor, but I can’t do anything about it because it's an important meeting. We have decided to try to maintain our democratic forums at the department. They play an important and absolutely necessary role, and will certainly do so over the next few months, when we are certain to make extraordinary decisions. We finish at 14:59 precisely so that everyone has the chance to see the Danish Prime Minister's press conference. Now we’re looking at a further 21 days of shutdown. We’re concerned about whether we can manage to catch up on the clinical instruction for our many students and trainees.

I did get some fresh air after it was dark – by taking out the rubbish.

Tuesday 24 March: Calls from abroad

A hectic day full of questions, all of which were urgent and required quick solutions. During days like this we don’t have a chance to think long-term, and that makes it difficult to make all ends meet. I had a Skype call with my old mentor and good friend who is professor of oral medicine at the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Connecticut. One of topics was how we are dealing with the corona situation. Their situation is very similar to ours, and they operate after exactly the same principles as us with emergency treatment. In general, I'm starting to get a lot of questions from colleagues abroad about how we tackle teaching, training, research and patient treatment at the dental study programmes at Aarhus University.

I didn't really get outside again, but I did manage to drink a glass of red wine together with my former upstairs neighbour – over Skype.

Wednesday 25 March: Coordination of the clinical instruction with the University of Copenhagen

I've talked to the University of Copenhagen again today. We stay in close contact across the dental study programmes. All of our health science study programmes involving authorisations – dental, dental hygienist and the clinical dental technician and dental surgery assistant programmes, are running into problems during the corona crisis with our treatment clinics being closed. At the moment, we’re cancelling around a thousand patient treatments a week, where our 650 students would normally have performed the treatments under the expert supervision of our clinical teaching staff.

What we need to do now is plan how we can get as many students as possible finished in the summer, if it turns out that we can’t open the clinics before the summer holidays, which would mean that they end up lacking some of their clinical instruction. We hope that some kind of timeframe will soon be announced so we know what we have to plan around.

I managed to do the shopping today – just before the shop closed.

Thursday 26 March: Starting over again – different degree programme, different ministry, new dialogue with the University of Copenhagen

The issues with the lack of clinical instruction get an added dimension with our dental specialist study programme in orthodontics. The longer we’re shut out of the clinics, the more difficult it will be to complete the dental specialist programmes. Here it is the Danish Health and Medicines Authority under the Ministry of Health – and not the Ministry of Higher Education and Science or the Ministry of Education and Children, as is the case with our other study programmes – who issue the authorisation for the dental specialists, and we must therefore engage in dialogue with a completely different ministry and a new agency, if it turns out that we’re going to remain shutdown after Easter. Finding a solution so the degree programme can be completed requires common ground, so I will need to talk to the University of Copenhagen again.

I went for a two-hour walk in the sunshine and cleared my head. Much needed. And, finally, spring.

Friday 27 March: Research is in danger

The situation is beginning to turn critical for the research projects. They are at a standstill, may not be completed on time and will perhaps be lost completely. Today, the Independent Research Fund Denmark announced that they would extend their grants by one year, if necessary. We keep our fingers crossed that many of the other foundations will follow suit. Some good news to start the weekend.

Weekend 28-29 March: A break in the stream of emails and Skype meetings

There is a weekend break in the stream of emails and Skype meetings. This gives me time to get a handle on the many other tasks that I’ve had to put to off during the last few weeks. Rarely have I found cleaning windows in the spring sunshine, going for a run or reading a book – fiction and the print variety – so relaxing.

Siri Beier Jensen chooses head of building services at Health, Conor Leerhøy, as the next diarist. You can also read the head of studies administration at Health, Anna Bak Maigaard’s, dairy from the first week in the shadow of corona.