This year's Online International Days, which were initially planned as an alternative solution due to the impossibility of organizing the annual International Week, turned into a widely visited event with a diverse, interesting programme, and we feel really pleased to have succeeded in attracting all the Latvian and foreign leading specialists who shared their knowledge and professional experience with students, colleagues and guests from 11 to 13 May.

This year, the main theme of International Days was “End of Life Care Education for Health Care Students: Challenges and Opportunities.” In terms of the Discussion (11.05) and the Lecture Day (12.05), participants spoke about palliative care, jointly seeking answers to such complex but crucial questions as: How to talk about death? What to say to the patients and their relatives? How to deal with patient death? As part of the discussion, academic staff members and health care professionals spoke about the current situation in the field of End-of-Life Care, comparing the situation in Latvia and abroad, the place of this topic in health care education, and mutual cooperation possibilities, while, on the Lecture Day, guests and students from different study programmes had the opportunity to hear lectures on such topics as choosing the right painkiller, CPR ethical and legal issues, body-mind connection, virtual environment in patient care, etc.

This year, the International Days brought together more than 300 participants from different universities, hospitals, and other organizations:

• Rīga Stradiņš University (Latvia);
• Daugavpils Medical College (Latvia);
• Rīga First Medical College of the University of Latvia (Latvia);
• P. Stradiņš Medical College of the University of Latvia (Latvia);
• Children's Clinical University Hospital (Latvia);
• Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital (Latvia);
• Rīga East Clinical University Hospital (Latvia);
• Latvian Dance Movement Therapy Association (Latvia);
• Institut Régional De Formation Sanitaire et Sociale de Bretagne (France);
• Institut Régional de Formation Sanitaire et Sociale Hauts-de-France (France);
• Institut Régional de Formation Sanitaire et Sociale Nouvelle Aquitaine (France);
• Escola Superior de Saúde da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa - Lisboa (Portugal);
• Tallinn Health Care College (Estonia);
• Kajaani University of Applied Sciences (KAMK), School of Health and Social Services (Finland);
• Laurea University of Applied Sciences (Finland);
• Diakonia College of Finland (Finland);
• Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (Belgium);
• Vilniaus University of Applied Sciences (Lithuania);
• Kaunas University of Applied Sciences (Lithuania);
• Klaipeda University (Lithuania);
• IES Santa Bárbara (Spain);
• Bar-Ilan University (Israel);
• Calisia University (Poland);
• Kristianstad University (Sweden);
• St. Vinzenz Hospital Dinslaken (Germany);
• Oslo University Hospital (Rikshospital) (Norway).

Our greatest thanks goes to our wonderful Student Council and its representatives – 1st-year students Jānis Freibergs (“Treatment”) and Valērija Kuzmicka (“Nursing”) for their responsiveness, bright ideas and active involvement in planning and hosting International Days events.

We express our sincere gratitude to all the speakers for their courage and for sharing their knowledge, experience, and research results. We are also thankful to all the listeners for their interest, questions and involvement in the discussion.

We were truly delighted to receive all your kind words and supportive comments! Your feedback shows that we succeeded in implementing our ambitious idea of a widely attended event bringing together enterprising intellectual people from different countries – learners, teaching staff and specialists, with the aim to learn, discuss, share best practices and draw inspiration.

See you next year!