Alumna Piia shifted her career towards crises and disaster preparedness in an international setting

Piia Ollila, who is originally from Tampere in Finland, was looking for a career change after having worked nearly 10 years as an intensive care and paediatrics nurse at a Finnish university hospital, when she came across the Public Health in Disasters masters programme. 

– I had done a master’s in public health sciences in Finland and done an internship where I worked with preparedness related issues, which I found very interesting. I have also always been interested in working in an international context and in living abroad, so when I found this master’s, it ticked all those boxes and I decided to apply, she says. 

However, between being accepted to the programme and the first semester starting, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, and the programme was put on halt. Instead, Piia, went back to working in the Finnish health care sector. With her extensive experience as a nurse and nursing education teacher, she became an assistant head nurse and set up a covid intensive care unit at the hospital where she worked. 

–  COVID-19 gave me first hand experience of working in a disaster and if anything, it motivated me even more to begin my studies when the programme started back up, she recalls. 

Appreciated the international student cohort and outlook on the teaching

And so, in the autumn of 2021, Piia arrived in Stockholm. She brought her two children with her. They attended a bilingual Finnish Swedish school in Stockholm and got to have the experience of living abroad for a year while their mother studied at KI. The lingering effects of the pandemic meant that the social aspects of university life were not the same, but Piia still thinks that getting to know her course mates, who came from all over the world and were able to share their perspectives and experiences, was an incredible bonus and resulted in a network of contacts that are hugely beneficial to have later on. 

All in all, Piia appreciated the combination of academic and “real world” knowledge that the programme gave her. Scientific studies and information were put into context and made applicable by using examples from around the world, and lecturers and fellow students alike shared their experiences of working in disaster preparedness and response in a global context. 

Moreover, as part of the programme, Piia did an internship with the Swedish Red Cross, which she really enjoyed.

–  Doing the internship was a very good opportunity for me to apply what we had learned during the master’s and I still stay in touch with people I got to know there. 

The programme concerns a very relevant field in today’s changing global context

The internship would not be Piia’s last contact with the Red Cross. Just as she was finalising her studies, she applied for a Red Cross delegate training in Finland. She was accepted and later went on to work in a humanitarian mission on Ebola preparedness in Tanzania. 

When asked what she would say to someone who is thinking of maybe applying to the programme, she says: 

–  In a changing world, where both natural and man-made disasters surround us every day, disaster preparedness and response is a field that is gaining attention. If you are interested in it, I found that this programme teaches you about the broader global perspectives that are at play and helps set you up for a career in the field.

As for her own career, Piia now works at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland, where she is responsible for large scale EU-level preparedness project, especially stockpiles of medical supplies. It is just the kind of job that she hoped the programme would make her suitable for and in the course of her work she frequently encounters situations, big and small, where what she learned at KI proves useful. 

Note: Internships are no longer part of the programme, but students are welcomed to apply for volunteray internships during the summer holidays themselves