Saturday, October 22, 2016

TIPS along the way from medical student to specialist!

Assalamualaikum
Peace be upon you



       So, few days back Dr Mardiah who is a specialist and head department of O&G in Sarawak General Hospital came to give us talk and general tips about the whole thing being a doctor. It was very inspiring I would say because she graduated with MD from the university I'm currently in and she succesfully finished her master in O&G in UKM (which is my dream university to pursue for ophtalmology). Okay, personal dreams aside and let's go for it!


Tips for Medical student year 1 & 2

  1. Be punctual
  2. Make your own notes
  3. Pay attention in class
  4. Smart attire
  5. Study smart
  6. Take time to ventilate
  7. Respect the lecturers

       She said, making your own notes is that you should not just depend on lecturer's note 100%. You should make notes based on reference books too. That's how you can remember and understand better. She stressed on how important for us to wear smart and neat attires because we will someday become a doctor, InsyaAllah and wearing smart attire can make a good impression on us. For future medical students, you better wear smart attires during interview ya!

She told us to allocate one day to relax. Lecturers need to be respected and don't attempt to be someone who talks back. 


Tips for Medical student year 3, 4 & 5 (Clinical years)

  1. Don't become a bookworm
  2. Watch, see & learn from real patient
  3. Small study group
  4. Smart attire
  5. Good attitude & humble
  6. Approach lecturers for extra teachings
  7. Practice public speakings
  8. Accept your own mistakes and learn from it
  9. Do not give up
During these clinical years, most of the exams are oral exam. So she asked us to practiced public speaking and speaking English as we need to present a lot in front of the lecturers. She said that during these years, this was not the time to be a bookworm anymore. See real cases, real patients and communicate with them. She mentioned that you can always approach lecturers for extra teaching but bear in mind you have to set appoinment and possibly you have to follow the lecturer's time table. 


Truth about housemanships

  1. Long working hours
  2. Unable to eat on time
  3. Rotation to each department
  4. Don't expect to go back (home) in time
  5. Working 7 days in a week
  6. Expected to know all the cases in the world
  7. Scoldings from the superior
  8. Assessments at the end of posting

Housemanship sucks she said. You need to be ready to receive scoldings from your MOs, specialist, senior nurses and get ready to be super tired. 


Tips for housemanship

  1. Team work
  2. Proper attire and shoes
  3. Effiecient and work fast
  4. Learn as much as possible
  5. Be humble and gentle
  6. Patience
  7. Admit your own mistake and learn from it
  8. Relax and self-reward

Tips for Medical Officer (MO)

  1. Work efficiently
  2. Good team work
  3. Be gentle and humble
  4. Learn from mistake
  5. More cases, more experience you will gain

       She told us that MO life is a little bit better than HO. But still MO can still receive scoldings from specialist and upper management. Being MO means higher responsibility because if you are an HO, MO will cover for you wrongdoings but if you are an HO, and you do mistakes, you can be sued and patients can filed a lawsuit against MO but not applicable on HO. 


Tips to survive Master programme (To be a specialist)

  1. Study group
  2. Learn from patients
  3. Approach lecturers
  4. Brave and more public speakings
  5. Do your own notes
  6. Lots of savings
  7. Do not give up
  8. Patience
  9. Ventilate when neccesary

And this is the hardest part I think. If you pursue for specialist, you are required to work in hospitals too (as a doctor) and attend class at the university as well. How crazy is that sound? So I had a lot of respects to all specialist in this world. No wonder, we still need specialist in our country. Oh, and save a lot of money because the fees ain't joking. It is expensive. Even before entering an exam, you are required to pay RM__ k to take the exam. Yeah.


I hope this can enlighten you through out the journey. 

One of Dr Mardiah's quote, "It's okay to fail in medical school than to fail as a doctor" as she told her experience that she had to extend another 2 years to finish up her master program. But Allah knows best, now she's the head department whereas her friends that passed master in single trial didn't make it up to her state yet. 


All the best and be strong!


Friday, September 23, 2016

After week 3 in Medical school!

So, I can't believe it's already 3 weeks now.
The fact that I'm in medical school is also something that I'm still getting used to it.


    But!
I still need to find my own pace & the way of study. Lecturers never give us any 5 minutes break in class. The lectures are pretty straight forward (except for comm. class/TITAS/soft skills). There were time, I reflected on myself whether I can bring myself up to year 5. InsyaAllah pray for me. Whenever I felt lazy, I would look at my seniors in my class (repeaters but it's not a suitable word for them), I would remind myself. Hey medic is not your ordinary asasi anymore.


Really, these 2 weeks most of the time I spent myself on bed dozzing off rather than sitting on chair focused. Study and try to understand. Oh! About housemates, most of them are medic students too, one of them is nursing student. They always study and that make me feel motivated as well. Classmates - I still unable to know every single of them. They are from wonderful backgrounds - asasi unimas (major), uitm, um, matrics and also stpm. So, there are not much of age gap between us. And very 1 Malaysia class.


      Whenever I felt lazy, I try to remember how I wanted to be an efficient and compatible doctor, how bad I wanted JPA scholarships because PTPTN offers little money bcs I fall under 3rd category, how I hate / feel troublesome when my dad said he had deposited money into my bank account. 


       Early block are usually where all my money flows out leaving behind my empty wallet. Oh yeah, and we medical & nursing students are required to do screening on hepatitis B. Turn out that I need to get vaccinated with boosters (antibody) and do the next screening. This also required money maaa! 


Studying MD in Unimas uses block systems so most of the time we don't have the priviledge to have long holidays / semester break. It's kinda sad but it tells that I will spend more time in Sarawak. I may not be active in joining sports / organisations / clubs because my timetable are so packed that they even change every single week but I joined only a single islamic organisations because I have commitment issues cewah


Hope to be a more hardworking in my studies and make all these sacrifices (especially my parents') worthwhile. 






Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Advice to Doctors-to-be (IIUMC)

Credit to IIUM CONFESSIONS (Fb) 


Do you still remember your childhood ambition? Have you ever thought what will you be in 10 years? What are your dreams? Like the dreams that haven’t yet come true.
This is more like things to ponder, what should you aim in future and what shouldn’t you do.
Yes, I am a doctor, legal one, I have passed my 2 years of housemanship phase ( practical phase what they used to say, but you are real doctor already actually).
Medical school wasn’t that easy. 5 years of journey, some places required you to finish 6 years of studying. Wow. Just wow. That isn’t a short period of time, that is LENGTHY much I shall say.
As for me, I was a former medical student in triple MC. ( some of you might know it) .it was a twinning programme. Throughout the 5 years of studying, you had to complete like 5 university exams and more that 20 small block exams. The stressful situation came when the exam was around the corner.  Lack of sleeps, entertainment, less time with family, there are all normal for those going for exams. Fair enough, that all students also feel the same when it comes to exam.
But can you imagine memorizing a bunch of thick books like thousand pages and more? Straining your eyes trying to understand what the terms are, and the pathophysiology of life? That was hella so much you brain can actually digest. I guess all the medical students out there agree with me. But alhamdulillah I made it through eventually. I passed all the exams. However despite of that, there were some of my friends who didn’t make it. They had to repeat the paper. And worse things worse were, they had to repeat like another 6 months. Can you imagine that? Another 6 months of tortouring. Whatever it is, those being a medical students understand this so much.
Cut story short, I managed to complete my study and became a doctor. A  naive houseman I was 2 years ago. Within less than 1 month after the interview, I got my placement for housemanship somewhere in the north.
Being a housemanship , was like the lowest hierarchy of all, even lower than the Faber ( cleaner in the hospital) . YES. That was the truth. Your bosses will trust them rather than houseman, that is the fact you all out there need to know. I am not saying that all your bosses are thorns, they are still some of them are the beautiful roses inside out. The housemen are the port for them to raise voice, shout, be mad, try find the mistakes as tiny as dust. Really. But, the tips are, you just have to bear with it. Just have to bear and keep quit. Don’t try to argue back . don’t try to show your true feelings. Because housemen are like slave. Yes. Slave . Just do your damn works, keep praying everyday that you works for your patients and correct your niat whatever it is. Then you will be fine.
Being the lowest creature in the hierarchy, you will also be scolded by the patients. Yes, patients are clever, they tend to double standard. They know you are housemen, they will say bad things about management in front of you, not your specialists. Some more, having so called educated patients, they tend to be choosy, even setting the iv line for them will be a torture! As what I have mentioned earlier, just bear with it. Make a stunned face ( don’t care kinda face), do your work well and just move on. Don’t ever feel threatened with these annoying creatures.
During this phase, you will know who are your kind hearted, cooperative colleagues, and on the contrary, the always M.I.A, lazy, EL seekers kind of colleagues. Yes they exist! Please be the first one, never the latter, because whatever you will become, you will get the same things.
Alhamdulillah, I managed to successfully complete my 2 years of housemanship, currently going to be MO.
Become medical officers will have another challenges never the less. Don’t stop searching for knowledge, whenever possible further your study. Be specialised.
I am not saying being a doctor is all negatives , but turns the negatives into positives, you will see all positives.
Whoever is currently a medical student, please complete your study, whoever currently is thinking of becoming a doctor, please be one if you are 100% ready.
Do you still remember your childhood ambition? Have you ever thought what will you be in 10 years? What are your dreams? Like the dreams that haven’t yet come true.
Ass
This is more like things to ponder, what should you aim in future and what shouldn’t you do.
Yes, I am a doctor, legal one, I have passed my 2 years of housemanship phase ( practical phase what they used to say, but you are real doctor already actually).
Medical school wasn’t that easy. 5 years of journey, some places required you to finish 6 years of studying. Wow. Just wow. That isn’t a short period of time, that is LENGTHY much I shall say.
As for me, I was a former medical student in triple MC. ( some of you might know it) .it was a twinning programme. Throughout the 5 years of studying, you had to complete like 5 university exams and more that 20 small block exams. The stressful situation came when the exam was around the corner.  Lack of sleeps, entertainment, less time with family, there are all normal for those going for exams. Fair enough, that all students also feel the same when it comes to exam.
But can you imagine memorizing a bunch of thick books like thousand pages and more? Straining your eyes trying to understand what the terms are, and the pathophysiology of life? That was hella so much you brain can actually digest. I guess all the medical students out there agree with me. But alhamdulillah I made it through eventually. I passed all the exams. However despite of that, there were some of my friends who didn’t make it. They had to repeat the paper. And worse things worse were, they had to repeat like another 6 months. Can you imagine that? Another 6 months of tortouring. Whatever it is, those being a medical students understand this so much.
Cut story short, I managed to complete my study and became a doctor. A  naive houseman I was 2 years ago. Within less than 1 month after the interview, I got my placement for housemanship somewhere in the north.
Being a housemanship , was like the lowest hierarchy of all, even lower than the Faber ( cleaner in the hospital) . YES. That was the truth. Your bosses will trust them rather than houseman, that is the fact you all out there need to know. I am not saying that all your bosses are thorns, they are still some of them are the beautiful roses inside out. The housemen are the port for them to raise voice, shout, be mad, try find the mistakes as tiny as dust. Really. But, the tips are, you just have to bear with it. Just have to bear and keep quit. Don’t try to argue back . don’t try to show your true feelings. Because housemen are like slave. Yes. Slave . Just do your damn works, keep praying everyday that you works for your patients and correct your niat whatever it is. Then you will be fine.
Being the lowest creature in the hierarchy, you will also be scolded by the patients. Yes, patients are clever, they tend to double standard. They know you are housemen, they will say bad things about management in front of you, not your specialists. Some more, having so called educated patients, they tend to be choosy, even setting the iv line for them will be a torture! As what I have mentioned earlier, just bear with it. Make a stunned face ( don’t care kinda face), do your work well and just move on. Don’t ever feel threatened with these annoying creatures.
During this phase, you will know who are your kind hearted, cooperative colleagues, and on the contrary, the always M.I.A, lazy, EL seekers kind of colleagues. Yes they exist! Please be the first one, never the latter, because whatever you will become, you will get the same things.
Alhamdulillah, I managed to successfully complete my 2 years of housemanship, currently going to be MO.
Become medical officers will have another challenges never the less. Don’t stop searching for knowledge, whenever possible further your study. Be specialised.
I am not saying being a doctor is all negatives , but turns the negatives into positives, you will see all positives.
Whoever is currently a medical student, please complete your study, whoever currently is thinking of becoming a doctor, please be one if you are 100% ready.
Assalamualaikum and good luck.
– Dr F.

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