In September last year, Artem Panchenko and Yuliia Shevchenko undertook a road trip from Ukraine with two goals: escape from the war and approve the demanding MIR exam in Spain. After a course of six days and months of intense study, this last Wednesday they both achieved their purpose by getting a place in Seville, he in otolaryngology at the Virgen del Rocío hospital and she in gynecology at the Virgen de Valme hospital, with only five numbers of difference in the classification (positions 1,693 and 1,698).
From Torrevieja, where they settled temporarily, the difficulties of the journey and the preparation of the exam in complicated conditions. With limited resources and under the constant stress of the blackouts and bombings in their country, they combined their medical works with the study of Spanish and the agenda, much broader and more complex than that required in Ukraine. “There were days when we couldn’t even sleep,” Yuliia explains.
Both began to plan their future in Spain since 2019, when they visited the country during their honeymoon and were in love with it. Since then, they began the process of homologation of their titles and began studying the distance language from DNIPRO. Despite the hardness of the exam, which according to experts has been the most difficult in history, they achieved solid results that allowed them to choose specialties in the same city, one of their great desires.
Even without having visited Seville, they are excited about their new destiny and hopeful to be able to build a professional and personal life there. “It is a big city, with good hospitals, where you can investigate and grow,” they say. With a fluid Spanish and the conviction of having taken the right path, Artem and Yuliia leave behind a country at war to start a new chapter as doctors residing in Andalusia.
