"Parloir" is painted in light blue on a 208-year-old building by the quay at Känsö in Gothenburg's archipelago. It recalls another time of looming danger.
The French word for speaking indicated that it would take place inside the building. This while a sulphurous smoke rose from a gutter in the floor. Conversations would be held with crews on arriving ships to reduce the risk of contracting the plague.
The parlor was the first thing the healthcare workers encountered during the two-day course "48h" this weekend when they were put ashore at a distance from their civilian lives.
March in a straight line to the accommodation.
- In a while I will have a demonstration of how the bed should be made and how it should look, said an instructor to participants who were unpacking the backpack they had been given to fill in at the Gothenburg garrison.
The instructor added, as in passing:
- ... and then there will be an inspection of the bedding tomorrow morning.
Känsö is a military protection object at the entrance to the port of Gothenburg. Now doctors, nurses, veterinarians, dentists, paramedics and physiotherapists from all over the country had been invited there for a form of try-on and PR weekend.
The goal of the armed forces: to get them to apply for a place in the defense healthcare system in the future - full-time or alongside their regular job.
- You may have seen the secrets of the Elite Force on TV... maybe this weekend will give you thoughts about contributing to the Armed Forces later, said Lieutenant Colonel Sam Garanpayeh at the organizer Defense Medical Center when he welcomed.
Half in jest, half in earnest, the 75 civilians, who had just put on their uniforms and boots, had to greet him standing at attention.
- Now the defense is in NATO. But also you, the whole society, and the will to defend is directly linked to how we cope with healthcare, he said.
Sam Garanpayeh says to DN:
- With us, there are actually endless opportunities for licensed staff in care that can be combined with civilian work.
He mentions the analysis in which the National Audit Office recently concluded that the military health care is, as Garanpayeh summarizes it, "underdeveloped".
"The armed forces need to practice logistics and healthcare to a greater extent in order to be prepared to operate in war", was a conclusion of the review.
Recruiting competence was described as "a challenge" and it was noted that it was "expressed as problematic" that healthcare "is not included as mandatory parts in the training of officers".
Particular attention was paid to the requirements that come with NATO membership: It "implies a new dimension of complexity in terms of organization and resourcing of logistics and healthcare".
The weekend at Känsö becomes a piece of the puzzle.
The Defense Medicine Center had invited for the seventh time to "48h". The search pressure has increased, now around 380 wanted to join and 75 were thus selected.
One group practiced making a fire with tinder. Another came under fire and carried a casualty who appeared to have lost both legs on a stretcher to a medical tent to stop bleeding and administer painkillers. The course director Ann-Kristin Thulander is a former ambulance nurse.
- They can take the lighter with them from here, so they can start preparing at home, she says.
- They have also brought tampons, they are good for speeding up the fire at the same time that it de-dramatizes the period and also makes it easier to stop bleeding.
The try-on weekend has an effect, Thulander feels. During an exercise on hypothermia, five volunteers fell backwards into the sea and were then placed in a "cucumber" to be warmed.
- 47 percent of those who have been involved have returned and done something more with the defense within a year.
Ukraine is recording, is her image.
- Many have said that the war has come to be experienced so close, that they probably need to be more prepared. Many also talk about teams. In everyday life at home in a hospital, many people can manage quite well by themselves, here you only survive as a team.
Ulrika Sandvik is a neurosurgeon and senior physician at Karolinska University Hospital. She is both a Finnish and a Swedish citizen and had relatives who fought and were injured during the war with the Russians.
Back home from Känsö, she remembers a "fun and intense experience".
- The big benefit is coming into a different context. The defense is expanding, there seem to be interesting openings. But for me it's about what could work with my current work situation.
Now you had to go into uniform, go into a strict system.
- Yes, here I let go of everyday life and do as I'm told.
