What is the OsEAN ?
The Osteopathic European Academic Network (OsEAN) is a group of like-minded osteopathic educational institutions with a common mission such as:
- To develop a standardised model of osteopathic education throughout Europe
- To achieve academic recognition for osteopathy in all countries, etc.
OsEAN Research Award
Reading Osteopath Jérémie Agius
For the first time, OsEAN invited students or former students, from their member schools, to come and present their research project during a poster session. On this occasion, 5 people including me presented a research poster. I had the opportunity to discuss about my research project on Frozen Shoulder with many people especially the Chief Editor of the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine. He was very interested in me publishing my paper, and he gave me a lot to think about and most of all, to work on! Later, all participants of the open forum were asked to vote for the best poster, and OsEAN delivered an award to the 3 best ones. I got the amazing privilege to receive the 2nd place award!!!
Teaching the Soft Skills
This years open forum’s topic was Teaching the Soft Skills. And so, most people were part of international educational 
institutions. The aim was to share around skills such as communication, professionalism, ethics and selfcare, and how to teach them to osteopathic students. This year’s conference took place in the Parkhotel Schönbrunn in the south of beautiful Vienna, just outside the amazing Schönbrunn Park. There were a lot of different presentations, for example “the pedagogy of osteopathic communication skills” (Raidmond Blaich, Australia) or “a new e-learning programme for biopsychosocial skills” (Jerry Draper-Rodi, United Kingdom), etc. We were also able to attend different workshops during these 2 days. As for me, I attended one about “how to teach communication skills”. All the people around me were teachers so at first, it felt a bit awkward. But it turned out to be very interesting. We had to discuss in small groups about what is easy/difficult to teach. As only a few months ago I was still a student, I had a very unique point of view, and it was very constructive for all of us. This experience reinforced my belief that students should be more involved in such meetings.
Reading Osteopath wins award
Although “communication” seems like a very simple word, in reality, it’s much more than that, especially for us as your Reading Osteopaths and Chiropractors. It’s actually a very important part of what we do at Reflex Spinal Health. By constantly working on it we keep pushing ourselves to ensure that we provide the best care possible to those who trust us with their health. If you are not yet one of them, come and meet our passionate team, we will do our best to help you reach your true potential!
Final word
In the end, this open forum was a very enriching experience both personally and professionally.
