Serious illnesses and prolonged health problems often influence study progress. “Students frequently mention feeling ashamed by their declined productivity. However, it’s natural for mental or physical strain to affect your ability to study,” says Katri Muranen, a psychiatric nurse for the FSHS.
“There is support available to aid students in a challenging life situation or following an extended sick leave. One of these support measures available are student health meetings, where we find the right ways to get a student back on track.”
A student health meeting may be necessary at any stage during studies. In Muranen’s experience, when course completion requires a lot of self-directed learning and the required work is not divided into smaller blocks, it is more likely to result in circumstances where illness may impair a student’s ability to study. “An example of such a demanding part of a degree course is a thesis”, she explains.
Individual ways to get re-engaged in studies
A student health meeting is attended by the student affected, a representative of the student’s educational institution and a representative of the FSHS. The purpose of these meetings is to determine how a student’s impaired ability to study is affecting their studies. The most important goal is to find solutions to help the student progress.
The FSHS representative is responsible for producing a memo based on the meeting, which they will send only to the student. The memo describes how the meeting proceeded and what plans were made to assist and monitor the student’s study progress.
Examples of measures that might be agreed on in the meeting include:
- Based on their health status, the student will apply for the right to accommodations, such as more time for finishing assignments.
- The student will participate in a support group to help with their study progress. These support groups are organised by higher education institutions and student organisations.
- The student and their thesis supervisor will have regular discussions about progression of the thesis.
Preparing for the meeting and what to discuss
The idea of a student health meeting may make you nervous, even scared. “We often explain well in advance how these meetings proceed and what their significance is, especially to those students who experience social anxiety”, Muranen says. “This helps them to prepare for the meeting and hopefully also helps to alleviate their anxiety.”
Student health meetings are primarily arranged as video meetings, which may also make participation easier for those who tend to get anxious. If a student requires extra support, they can bring a support person of their choice with them to the meeting.
“This support person can sit in the same room with the student if, but they don’t have to appear on camera”, Muranen adds.
Muranen wants to emphasise that the primary purpose of student health meetings is to improve the student’s ability to study.
“Health status and other sensitive information will only be discussed to the extent that the student chooses to. And it isn’t necessary to talk about other aspects of a student’s life situation, such as how working in addition to studying is affecting studies”, explains Muranen.
It is important to keep the channels of communication open
The idea is for the dialogue between the student and their educational institution to remain open after the meeting. The FSHS will also maintain a treatment relationship with the student if the student needs to be supported by healthcare to re-engage in their studies.
“Usually, a follow-up meeting is set up right away where we can evaluate whether the plan has been followed. Sometimes, all that’s needed is to re-establish the dialogue between the university and the student. Sometimes the student may need assistive devices, extra time or other types of special arrangements”, Muranen says.
For this article, Katri Muranen’s 2023 Master’s thesis on clinical staff’s experiences on arranging student health meetings with the FSHS was used as background reading.
What are student health meetings?
Who are the meetings for?
Student health meetings are meant for students such as
- those who have been on sick leave for at least two months
- those whose study progress has become slow due to health problems
- those who are applying for an extension to complete their studies and whose health is slowing their study progress.
How do you get to a student health meeting?
The request to hold a student health meeting can be made by the student, FSHS staff or a representative of the teaching staff, student welfare services or administration of the higher education institution concerned.
If you’re receiving treatment from the FSHS, you can express your wish to have a student health meeting during one of your appointments.
You can also contact
- the FSHS’s assessment of the need for treatment team
- the person responsible for student health meetings at your educational institution.