Confessions of a house officer #5 – Day 19 of life, the WOW theory~ and the WOW-ing me~

I guess my last post was rather traumatic… depressing,.. or more accurately, hateful, in a way… sorry about that. I did not meant to be demotivating. The last thing I need is to demotivate all those medical student / HO-to-be out there, or amplified the sadness is my fellow friends/colleagues.

You know, sometimes, when you are in your down-most condition… like when nothing can get worse,.. then suddenly, something happens, and things miraculously gets better.

I remembered once, a friend of mine, bingwui , he has this WOW theory. which was pretty interesting. So, allow me to share this theory with you today.

Quote: The reason I wanna do medicine is because medicine wows me. Medicine wows me more than other fields.

I think this is one of those things that keep us going.

When I performed my first delivery, the beauty of childbirth, bringing life to Earth, WOW! (correction, the mother brings life to earth, God creates life, we merely facilitates)

The first time I saw the fundus of the eyes, the pretty optic disc staring back, WOW!

The first time I auscultated a murmur, like the wind hushing,WOW!


The first time I heard a prosthetic heart click, like the clicking of the watch, WOW!


The first time I saw a craniotomy surgery, the pulsating brain, WOW!


My first forensic experience, although eerie, yet WOW!


The time my schizophenic patient shared his story, stories of attempts suicides, unbelievable...

The good old days spending time with the kids at the peadiatric wards, the time the kid gave me his transformer stickers, shared his toys, WOW!


The first time i saw blue eyes, correction: blue sclera, WOW!


The first time I performed CPR, and patient regained a pulse, *beep*, spontaneous breathing, WOW!

When I insert the needle into those veins, see the blood gushing out, WOW!

When I get a successful branula on a difficult patient, WOW!

When discovered a misdiagnosis, WOW!


When discovered an abdominal aorta aneurysm the other day, incidentally, WOW!


So yes, everyday is a WOW! day… there is always something new.

-------------------END OF WOW! STORY----------------------------------

I discharged 5 of my patients today. It was tiring, writing referral letters non-stop. I know, some might think I mengada wanna find work to do by referring here and there. But really, it makes a difference you know. Like when you incidentally found your patient to have a neglected cataract, the simple referral letter to opthal can actually give her the luxury of perfect vision again, something she might not think she’ll ever had. That referral to the health clinics can offer better compliance to medication and better diabetic/blood pressure control. That letter to Social Welfare and SOCSO may ease her financial burden. That request for physiotherapy may prevent contractures and improves quality of life. That letter for home nursing may ensure better supportive care for the patient. Like I had said earlier, the pen can be a very powerful object. And I ran 2 pens out of ink, within 3 days. My fingers and arms hurt. But, it is okay.


So, my hateful days at the wards did get better.


1. Guess what? I’ve got a new MO (medical officer), Dr Gary Lee and Specialist, Dr Ahmad in the ward, and they are SUPER NICE!! Serious!super SUPER NICE!! Sure, the workload did increase, with them being very thorough with patients, but it is nice that we learn a lot from them. And yes, they have a good sense of humour, they treat patients (and co-workers, and HOs) very nice and life just gets better.


2. My tagging days are over! Yippie!! I get to punch out earlier… recently as early as 830pm, I’m aiming for 7pm.


3. I am glad I am getting my daily dose of endorphins before sleep. ^^

Confessions of a House Officer #4 - Day 13 of life

I hate my job.

I hate my life.

I can’t decide which of them I hate more.

So, I started to hate my job on day 13.

WOW! That is quite early to start with.

I hate having no time to eat, no time to breathe.

I hate having to generalised breakfast, lunch and dinner into one meal.

I hate losing the luxury of sleeping.

I hate working hard, yet not appreciated.

I hate having sore legs and the wrong footwear.

I hate not having time to shop for new shoes, send my laundry, etc.

I hate it when unnecessary procedures and test were put upon patients.

I hate it when I was asked to take a good detail history, and the next day was told that I had ‘too many information’ in the clerksheet. I thought they were relevant positives and negatives.

I hate it when my writing style was criticized.

I hate it when I had to waste my time tracing lab results.

I hate this very much.

I hate it when they didn’t have a computer system like HUKM. (oh, how I missed HUKM)

I hate it when I had to go through a whole stack of lab results and do 'office work' like finding forms, puncturing holes, filing them.

I hate forms in general.

I hate it when the ringing tone to the lab takes a long 4 minutes, and later, I was entertained by

‘please try again’.

I hate it when staff nurses refused to help doctors do ECG. What did you learn in nursing school anyway?

I hate it when the PPK disappeared at night. and when Trop T levels were needed ASAP, we had to do the PPK’s job to head to CCU to get a simple ‘special bottle’ for Trop T, go back to the ward to take blood, then send the results to the lab and get it back stat. and at the same time, we need to review the patient and get an ECG done. and later I find 7 PPK lepaking at the lab counter. At that point, I just wished to strangle either them or myself.

I hate it when the pneumonic tubes were just for display, non-functioning.

I hate it when thyroid function tests were ordered for every patient with borderline tachycardia, with no attempts to get history of hyperthyroid or hypothyroid symptoms. What difference would it make when they are euthyroid? Oh, come on, she’s having fever, of course she’s tachycardic!

I hate it when we were taught to be 'clinical' people who emphasizes on history and physical examinations, and when started working, we were taught to be 'lab' people who orders all investigations under the sun. 'Medicolegal reasons, or so, it seemed'...

I hate it when the beds in the hospital are not adjustable. How am i suppose to check for JVP or prop up breatheless patients?

I hate it when all the SPO2 machines in the wards are not in good condition, and when I bring it up to the KJ, I was told that ‘terpaksalah’....

I hate it when I want to elevate a patient’s upper limb, I can’t find a simple triangular bandage in the whole ward. And the reason the staff nurse gave was ‘sini bukan orthopeadic’… oh, come on, even a first aid kit has a triangular bandage!!

I hate it when I take 1.5minutes to take blood, and double the time to find the syringes, and triple the time to label them and fill up forms.

I hate it when I requested for a chest x-ray to look for cardiomegaly, clearly fill up that request form, and the radiographer did a AP view film.

I hate it when i weren’t allowed too many opinions.

I hate it when my attempts to be holistic to the patient was rejected.

I hate it when different specialists/MOs have different opinions. It can be very confusing.

I hate it when I was not allowed to offer pain relief to my patients.

I hate it when staff nurses report everything to me, and I find myself doing someone else’s job, while mine was not settled yet.

2 days later, I learnt that it was called 'taggers kena bullied'.

I hate it when my superiors are serious people who enjoy sarcasm, and lacked sense of humour.

I hate it when I learnt that we should never go against our superiors.

I hate it when my seniors advises us to just do our job and pretend to be dumb.

I hate it when life becomes a routine.

I hate it when life becomes demotivating.

I hate it when people around me are no longer inspiring.

I’m tired.

So very tired.

So tired, i think i forgotten how to smile again.

I think I have depleted positivity.

Confessions of a House Officer #3 – My first CPR

‘ASYSTOLE!!!!’

a voice came from the back…

‘DOCTOR, PATIENT ASYSTOLE!!’

the staff nurse continued…

Spinal reflexes made us run to the acute bed.

Mdm X lay there, pulseless… ECG reading flat…

‘Start CPR , chest compression, bagging..’

shouted the senior HO
‘page MO oncall’

Then, we jumped onto the bed, locked the fingers together, and started CPR…

30:2

Still pulseless, asystole…

Repeat CPR… continuously…

Change rescuers, repeat CPR…

Continue bagging…

IV Adrenaline Stat…

Still asystole…

IV Atrophine Stat…

Still asystole..

.

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Aunty, please come back…

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MO arrived… continue CPR… repeat IV Adrenaline Stat,

IV Atrophine Stat…

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Finally, after just about 30mins of CPR, someone spotted apex beat visible, pulse
present…

Patient arrhythmia…

Prepare cardio defibrillator…

Laila squeeze some gel on it, rub them together, “CHARGE” she shouted…



Still asystole…

Continue bagging…

DeFib again, “CHARGE”



Finally, sinus rhythm…

... [phew] ...

Take ABG, Buse/creat… repeat full leads ECG…. Continues monitoring…

The MO went to counsel family members…

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This was my first performed CPR on a life patient, who actually had a successful CPR...

I learnt that:
1. The hospital can be a very scary place
2. Miracles do happens, at times
3. CPR can be very tiring… especially chest compressions…

currently suffering from biceps/triceps muscle-ache CPR induced…

i also found that working 0630-2300 daily can be super tiring... sometimes, eben longer hours... i just punched out at 0115am today,.. and tomorrow, 0630am, i need to be back in the wards... shoulder and heels & calves aches very much... how i wished for a massage, at this point of time... and a hot shower bathe... with both luxury, currently not accessible to me.. haih...

(picture by Athena)




The pen is your most powerful tool.

Whatever you write in the stack of casenotes,
will be done for your patients.

Whatever drug u prescribed,

the nurses would serve.

Whatever management you planned.

it shall be it!

Yet, with great powers, comes great responsibilities...

Confessions of a house officer #2 – Tagging

For the benefit of non-medical related readers, allow me to first explain the term ‘tagging’. You know, when a House Officer just graduated, they are usually assigned to a senior doctor (HO/MO) whom they would ‘tag’ with. Meaning, following them around, learning about how to manage patients, how to fill forms, what should be done, etc.

So, my Tagging period started last Friday Night, 5:00 pm. We were each assigned to wards. Dr Laila and I was sent to Ward 4-1. Female Ward.

5:00 pm – Reporting

5:11 pm- Laila & I were assigned to beds to a cubicle to manage patients and do the evening reviews. (Yup! On the first day itself! Correction: at the 11th minute, literally). Which I was pretty scared at first. But of course, whenever we are unsure, we consulted our senior HOs and MOs.


Myth: Housemanship is a time for training. We can study for exams during med school and later learn how to work during housemanship.

Fact: What you learn during medical school really effect life in housemanship. And it’s not just knowledge, but also the skills and ability to analyze the patients’ condition and manage them.

Moral of the story: Make good use of medical school. Yes, you are expected to ‘WORK’ right after you graduate. Good knowledge on history taking, physical examination, investigations, and management is very important. Skills especially blood taking, branula, etc is imperative. And the best time to learn is at medical school.


12:00 midnight – punched-out. Need to be back to prepare for morning rounds 630am the next morning. Then, a bunch of discharge summaries.

So the tagging schedule in Hospital Malacca is 7am-11pm.

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shinyin’s diary:

I salute doctors. Not that I am proud of becoming one, but, being in their shoes, I realized how much they had sacrificed. Watching them, I feel sad for them. Lunch hours, Dinner dates, sometimes, even the luxury of FOOD in general, health, gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, risk of contacting diseases, needle prick injury, weekends, weekdays, holidays, kid’s report day, girlfriend’s birthday, phone calls, sleep, relationships, sometimes, even more…

Did I mention that I have only 10days of leave(cuti rehat) every 4 months, and that MCs are considered as cuti rehat? Means, I have to pay to get sick. Meaning, we cannot afford to get sick. Go ahead, abuse PCM (paracetamol), abuse antibiotics, abuse painkillers, do whatever it takes so that you can appear to be fit enough to work. Otherwise, risk losing your holidays.

And what the Pengarah Hospital promised to us during induction, about at least one day off during a week, well, it’s just a fantasy. THIS DOES NOT EXIST IN HOUSEMANSHIP IN MALAYSIA! And about what the ministry of health promised to us, about the day off after post-call (36 hours oncall), also a myth. THIS DOES NOT EXIST HERE!

So, if you are about to be a house officer, please be aware of this.

for the first time, I learned to eat alone. Not only that, I learnt to eat alone AND on the go.

I salute doctors because they had the stomach to withstand the acidic peptic juices. I wondered how much of metaplasia would have taken place.

I salute doctors because they had the ability to stand for hours, then run for blood perhaps, and continue standing for hours, then run to resuscitate patients, and continue oncall, do not sleep, and continue standing, and run, stand and run. And above all, still have sufficient glucose to supply the neurons in the brain.

Matriculations results just came out. Congrats to my evil brother, who just got into E&E, UPM. STPM results would be out soon. There will come again, the issue of top achievers not getting places into med school.

Think again, why would you want to be a doctor?

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Okay, I do not want to be demotivating.
I think it is easy to like this job, this field.
But you have to be prepared to face the harshest conditions.

do you believed in fairytales?

Confessions of a House Officer #1

I had never felt so alone in my life before.

Perhaps, the last time was some very long time ago.

Since first year, I guess. Okay, now I sounded almost like Mummy’s pet.

But hey, I think I was quite independent today, you know. I was the ONLY outstation HO who drove down to Malacca alone, without my parents or family. Even the 2 only guys from PJ had their parents babysitting them. Don’t you think I deserved some credit for that???

However, it was quite scary as well, as I did not slept well the night before, and almost doze off on the journey here. Which of course, was bad. So bad I had to stop at one of the rest area, and took a 10 minute nap, and some coffee, before continuing my journey.

Today was basically ‘REPORTING DAY’ for me. Seriously, I have not been into the wards yet. Maybe I shall find some time to go to the wards tomorrow morning, just to have a look. I had like a session of lecturing until 12.45 noon, which I struggled very much not to fall asleep.
There was 11 new House Officers reporting to work today, 2 guys, and 7 girls. Apparently, both the guys had a quarter each to stay, while 9 of us, Yes, NINE of us, did not.

So, we were offered two options, temporarily, until we get a room at the hospital quarters. One to stay in a nearby abandoned wooden house in the hospital compound (A), or staying in a new apartment about 5 minutes drive away (B), both non-furnished. When I was shown to the former, I was like, how can I survive here?

I mean, in less than 2 minutes, my skin already had flares from the overloading mass cells, and I had rhinitis relapse. Yup, the place was super dusty; probably no one had been living here for the past 2 years or so. And there’s not yet all.

About 5 feet away, parted by a single fence, was a HUGE alarm clock. Of course, my other coursemates were like happily commenting, ‘Bagusnya,… waktu subuh mesti mudah bangun’…. While the little voice in me was saying, (forgive me for my harshness), WALAUWEYYY, I HAVE A DEDICATED 5 TIMES PER DAY ALARM CLOCK, the kind that vibrates some more.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Have I mention about the terrible sanitary condition, and the lack of facilities?
Naturally, I suggested taking a look at the other apartment, the new one, which is about 5 minutes away. Unfortunately, everyone was keener to Mr Alarm Clock. And I had no choice but to follow the crowd, as we were asked to agree upon one place to stay.

I felt alone.

Thank God, my seniors from UKM, Patricia & Yvonne, had an extra bed at her Quarters, and they sort of ‘adopted’ me. I got to stay with them for a while. So, they were my heroes who saved me from another asthmatic attack/rhinitis outbreak/atopy eczema… And my super-nice senior, Julian was kind enough to offer help and useful advices. And I’m glad Su Yin and QKK were still around for the next few days. At least I’ll have people to have dinner with me.

Otherwise… oh well… God knows what might happen to me.



I had been trying to learn the roads in Malacca today. I had learnt that:


1. Malacca had to use parking ticket EVERYWHERE you park. Which I thought was very troublesome, the scratching and time estimation thingy. Su Yin thought me how to sort of ‘cheat’ a few minutes… hehe… wow, I have a lot to learn.

2. The parking lots in Malacca are SUPER NARROW. I think after 2 years here, I’ll probably be a PROFESSIONAL in side parking!! Seriously!

3. Eventhough my friend gave directions to ‘go straight’ (in other words, follow the main road).. but the roads in Malacca Town is NEVER straight… It’s like a snake, winding…. And the one way streets makes things even more difficult. Not to forget, my naturally poor sense of directions… oh well…



I’m currently typing from the hall at the end of my block. It seemed quite scary around here. Me being the only one. I can hear the rain pouring outside, with occasional flashes of lightning, strikes of thunder. I fought the fear, the way I fought the fear all day, today.

I think I feared of not being able to fit in.

I feared that I might not be as strong as I thought.

I feared that I might give up. That I might break.

Dr XYZ warned me at induction that the first one month at our new hospital would probably be one of the HARDEST! Over 50% would be having second thoughts of ‘why am I here?’ ‘Why did I take medicine?’ … and I can’t help feeling the fear that I might fall into that category. I hope I won’t.

It’s sad you know. The quarters that I am currently accommodating is a 3-people sharing room with an attached bathroom. That’s all. YUP, that is all. No laundry area. No kitchen. No hall or rest area. More importantly, NO washing machine. NO refrigerator. okay, now that sounded almost too bimbotic, but nvm... i thought it was basic.. my senior sent her laudry to the dobi, which cost like RM3 per kg!!! wow! super-EX la... each time i go wash will be like RM10, times twice a week, for 4 weeks... hmm... RM80 per month on laundry! that also so susah, have to send clothes out...

And seriously, it does not feel home at all. I cannot imagine living in a place like this for the next two years. The social life in Housemanship was said to be almost non-existent. They have take so much away from me, sometimes, I just wished I still have some room of my own to breathe.

Do you know how does it feels, wanting to find a place to stay but there’s no one to share the place with me? And I do not think it’s very safe to live alone. I do not have that courage, yet, not yet. I surveyed this place, there is no swimming pool nearby, or squash courts, or any sports that I can play alone. Except, jogging, perhaps.

I wonder whether I need to have dinner alone. I have not tried that yet. I can imagine, even when I have the time to watch movies or go shopping, will I be doing that alone? At this point, I missed my friends and family so very much.

Well, I found there’s a MPH in Mahkota Perade. So, maybe, maybe there’s still a place where I can hang out contentedly.

Sorry, I am getting a little too wordy today.



I have a message to all :

COME TO HOSPITAL MALACCA TO WORK! COME FIND ME WHEN FREE!!

Oh well, I better get some sleep. Enough ranting for today…

p/s: some pictures of my new room :)

place to rehat

the beds...

you see what i see??

BINGO!

HOSPITAL BEDS!!!!!




>

CUPBOARDS

i got one all to myself!

yippie!!

the shower room a bit sad and geli...

sigh....

no heater... aiks...

this is the end of the beginning... the journey starts here...

~announcement~

a self-explainatory announcement... i'll remove all expressions and feelings...

it was not in one of my options, but i guess, i could adapt...

Malacca, here i come~

Princess Bimbotic going blonde @ BTN

Room: Mutiara A4

DAY 1@BTN
BTN should be fun, right? I mean, it’s just 5 days, how bad can it be?
Guess what? When Princess arrived here, Princess where shocked to see her accommodation...

20 beds to a room???

and they only had 4 fans!! super hot wehhh....

geok lian & i @ my bed
my bed

Princess is very particular with toilets...

the toilets were very small...

and we had to shower in the small bathrooms,... it's like about 4 feet x 6 feet space... and you have to try your best not to tersentuh the walls or terjatuh into the toilet bowl... but i guess, we were considered lucky... my cousin Ying Ying had to mandi berkemban during her BTN !

the washing area

the drying area

Princess did her laundry on Day 1 of induction itself. Terpaksa lor… since Princess only had limited sets of baju, only 2 to be exact… sadly to say, princess is not very experienced in hand-washing baju… not that Princess do not know how to do it, it’s just that, it’s very difficult. Especially, when you are washing jeans, squeezing them dry is damn hard weh… by the end of the washing, you get muscle aches liao… so ya… you see what I mean? Princess loved the genious who invented the washing machine.

Guess what? The dress code for BTN was made princess and the other princesses here looked either too young or too old…

Oh yes, one more thing, they served us six meals per day. Yup, SIX MEALS per day!!
Breakfast
Brunch
Lunch
Tea-time
Dinner
Supper
-wow… so many, sure will get DM and fat… haih…

DAY 2 @ BTN

Today, we were expected to complete a 2 km run in a given time:
Male : 18 minutes
Female : 23 minutes
Guess what? Princess Bimbotic did it!! And in 12 minute 11 seconds!!! Can you believe that? Well, maybe I’m over-proud over a small event… but hey, I had just proved that if you want something, you can do it!! Princesses can run too! I think the 2 puffs pre-run and post-run works… and perhaps to one point, although the physical gives up, the mind keeps going, motivating, pushing… yes, it’s a mind thing… focus..
The imaginary ipod @ the background played as Princess focussed on her breathing: in-out. In-out..
Seriously, I think I did pretty good for a girl,.. as I came in 3rd, after Jia Yi and Lian Lian… or perhaps medical students are just too sedentary… oh yes, Princess learnt something important today: Never eat anything solid before a run… Princess was worried of getting hypoglycemic, so she had a piece of bread, only to feel nauseated after the run and puked everything out… okay, not a very good sight… so, Princess strongly suggest sweet/isotonic drinks before a run…

DAY 3 @ BTN
Period pain, kill me ba!

DAY 4 @BTN
KEMBARA- when jungle trekking…. Quite fun to do it with friends… but I was expecting something more challenging though... Had a performance… sang Perajurit Tanah Air - my group got 3rd place… not bad ei?

DAY 5 @ BTN
EXAMS!!!! How I missed doing MCQ… and no negative markings! The government very generous, while UKM medical faculty very kedekut markah… did I ever tell you that the marking system here is you have to answer TRUE or FALSE… and for every correct answer, you get +1, every wring answer -1. Yup, that’s how hard our paper is, cannot simply ‘bantai’ / ‘tikam’ / guess… the dean said that, when we graduate, we’ll be dealing with people’s life… cannot simply make guesses,.. and I think he has a point…
Head up to Port Dickson for induction…

#Princess talks:
Some people said that BTN (Biro tatanegara) camps are to make one feel more patriotic, while others said that it is perhaps, just a brain wash scam… In Princess’s point of view, Princess learnt a lot in this camp. Princess had a better exposure on Politics and Princess learned that we should always hear both sides of the story before coming into conclusion…

my good friend Annisa~~

she's so sweet... i always manja with her, and she would still layan me... hehe... will miss you very much de..

amirtha & i... she's such an angel... a nice person...

the cute sharvyn a.k.a mrs thousand woodhead & i

chew yong & i heading for induction^^

the friendlty Vaish~

sharvyn, chew yong, geok lian

my roommates~
(sorry, tak sempat take everyone, some left liao)

yong sing, jia yi, vernice

Why treat houseman shabbily? - a reply to R.K.S.

I'll like to respond to a letter in The Star:

Why treat housemen shabbily?

THERE has been so much hype on the tough life a houseman faces.

As a parent of a final-year student, l totally agree how depressing it can be for young housemen just graduated after a gruelling five to six years of study – and not all are government sponsored – to be treated so shabbily that they would want to leave the service, no thanks to the system.

Even as final-year students, they are sent to hospitals and are kept on their toes for anything between 10 and 12 hours a day without a weekend off.

How do you expect them to study with the exams around the corner? Mind you, most students already decide to leave as soon as they graduate.

To make matters worse, the consultant comes in and verbally abuses those poor housemen who have been in the hospital for over 24 to 40 hours.

They are even called “stupid” and “donkey” in front of their patients!

It is really absurd to be made to work continuously in the most inhuman manner, depriving them of sleep and rest.

What irks me most is why aren’t housemen subjected to the same labour laws of the country as other civil servants – eight hours of work and overtime to be paid for on-call duty and a rest day in between calls?

Why is it so difficult for us to follow the foreign practice in which housemanship is for one year and subsequently, the houseman can decide whether he or she wants to continue or leave the service.

Come on, doctors need a life too!

R.K.S.,
Bidor, Perak.

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Dear R.K.S,

Speaking from the point of view of a final year student, I think final year students are expected to performed almost like a doctor, perhaps the reason why they were sent to hospital for 10-12 hours each day. It gives them early exposure of what they will be facing during housemanship, therefore, they will not get a ‘cultural shock’ when they step into the working environment. I am not too sure about your son/daughter, but from where I was trained (UKM-University Kebangsaan Malaysia/National University of Malaysia) we were even expected to be oncalls. In my opinion, it is worth it, to attend these calls, when there are consultants to teach us during these calls. In fact, I enjoyed on-calls very much, as we get to see many cases at night, and we get to learn a lot more. Especially during O&G (obstetric & gynaecology) where we do Labour room calls...The thing is, medical school is very much different from high school, or other courses, perhaps. The knowledge and skills we need to obtain, are not merely from textbooks per se. Ward works, clinics, theaters, clerking patients, case presentations, are very important too. I guess many students would agree that they preferred their clinical years to pre-clinical years.

About verbal abuse, do bear in mind that not all consultants are like that. I have seen consultants who give compliments and encouragements to students and housemen. I believed that consultants/ MO should be more careful in their choice of vocabulary, especially when addressing other doctors as they are all colleagues. I had once had my share of embarrassment, when my friends and I were called ‘brainless’ during my medical school years, but I guess, we deserved that, as we just started our posting and had very little knowledge at that time, being third years. I was indeed motivated to work harder and prove myself. But that was being a student. However, I guess, for the doctors, and the house officers, surely, they deserved more respect.

The working hours, I must agree, is crazy. Sometimes, to think of it, would you want to be treated by a doctor who had back to back calls? a doctor who had not been sleeping well for the past 48 hours? That thought itself is scary I suppose. It comes back again, to our health system. The government trained many doctors yearly, sent many overseas, yet there were never enough housemen. It is about time they ask the question – WHY? A huge proportion of the people chose to do their housemanship overseas, get their post graduate degree and return to out country as specialist. Some perhaps, never return. Why you may ask? The answers are very obvious, other country offers more.

You know, when compared the salary of house officers in Malaysia to other countries in Asia, Malaysia ranked third from the bottom, following Indonesia and the Philippines. Housemen in Korea is earning 6 times more the salary than those in Malaysia.

Today, we even have patients complaining about doctors... sometimes, they forgot that, doctors are humans too! and yet, they really need encouragements from time to time, and they too need acknowledgements, appreciations... very much indeed... to boost them on, help them get by...

You know, if the conditions is not that bad… and the pay is more or less the same, and opportunities for a postgraduate program good, I am sure that many doctors will opt to stay in our country… thus more doctors, less workload, less stress, happier doctors, happier superiors,.. see the cycle? I hope the people up there will put some thoughts into it… and i hope that more and more doctor would opt to stay back and serve the rakyat... together, we can make a difference...

Yours sincerely,

shinyin WU

Shogun & Saisaki & Tengi Promotion!!

Good news: Shogun & Saisaki Promotion! 30-50% off!! yippie~~
Bad news: i'll be attending a camp for the next 3 weeks, and work after that.. haih... so, will not be enjoying this luxury... but, i don't want you all to miss out on this... so, here it is~~
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Details in vkeong's blog

Monday to Friday: 50% Discount for Lunch
Monday to Thursday: 30% Discount for Dinner

Terms & Conditions
1) Valid from 5th May - 5th June 2009
2) Not valid for Public Hoilday
3) Promotion offer is subjected to change by Shogun Management without prior notice.

Location:
- Shogun Japanese Buffet Restaurant, 1 Utama Shopping Centre 03-7726 3770
- Shogun Japanese Buffet Restaurant, Sunway Pyramid 03-5622 1831 or 03-5622 1832
Restoran Saisaki Japanese Buffet (Jalan Pinang) 03-2166 3728 or 03-5622 1831

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Tengi also got promotion:

Tenji Parents Day Promotion - Lunch & Supper Promotion RM39.90++

Lunch promotion only valid for weekdays.
Supper promotion valid on weekdays and weekends.
Promotion valid from 11/5/09 to 30/5/09
Promotion not valid with other promotion and discount vouchers.
Tenji reserves the right to change the promotion anytime without prior notice.

Tenji Japanese Buffet Restaurant
Lot L-01-01, Soho KL, Solaris Mont Kiara,
No.2 Jalan Solaris, 50480 Kuala Lumpur
Reservations : 1700 80 1818

Malaysia vs Singapore - a tough decision made...

I guess I had too much on my mind lately… You know, after graduating, you are to step into the working world, a new phase of life. And there are options, many options. It is about time to plan our future, to decide where we stand 10 years from now. What decisions we make today, decides tomorrow. And being a Libran, decisions are what I feared most. And therefore, I had put a lot of thoughts into this.

Let’s see, there are two sides of the coin, at this moment. One side offers better working conditions, more advanced technology, better working hours (having only 1-2 oncalls per week), and halved the housemanship period (one year only). More importantly, it promised better opportunities for postgraduate programs (postgraduate training after housemanship itself!), educational funds and sponsorships. As a bonus, you get better salary and higher increments. It is almost like a dream come true.

On the other side of the coin, you have the hectic working conditions, work politics, every-other-day-calls (EOD) pushing a straight 36hours call and then given the night off and expected to report back the next day for another 36 hours call. On top of that, the doubled housemanship period (2 years), sleepless nights, heavy workloads, and your superior pushing you beyond your limits. Opportunities for post-graduate programs, from what I gathered, was somewhat slim, especially if you plan to opt a surgical field. The competitions are great, too many demands, yet too little supply. And the salary? Oh boy, you would certainly be surprised if I were to show you our starting salary… and with only an increment on RM100 yearly… so, I don’t think anyone would want to opt to be a chronic MO, now to think of it…

Funny, despite all that and more, I turned down the offer to work in Singapore.

A friend of mine once said, there is no ending to this argument, this debate. Either way, they had their pros and cons. In the end, you just have to close your eyes, shut your mind, search deep within you and follow your heart.

So, there I am, back at the beginning. I came back to the big question, why am I here? Why did I take this path? Why did I study Medicine in the first place? Knowing that this is probably one of the most challenging professions on Earth! One that requires sacrifices, choices… yet here I am…

-To make a difference-

Why else take up medicine if not to one day treat you family, friends and loved ones?

After a year of consideration, and cracking my mind for the past whole month, I have decided… Yet, yesterday, Su Yin and my cousin asked me again, why did I rejected the offer to Singapore… and today, MK asked. In fact, everyday, people had been asking… and news on the papers has been disappointing… news like this(1) and this(2).... it sometimes clouds my mind… perhaps I needed reassurance that I had made the right choice.

So, I needed to blog about this.

I want to constantly remind myself why I chose this path. I needed to remind myself, constantly.

-HOPE-

Something I strongly held on to. I have hopes that the Malaysian Health System can be improved. Hopes that there are still many doors opened for us, opportunities for us to specialize in our desired post-graduate field. Hopes that after 10 years, when I looked back, I would be glad I made this decision.

Sometimes, it strike my mind, that if I were to take the greener road, the comfortable path, I would probably be away for a solid 10 years. It’s like uprooting yourself, starting a fresh. And there is a fat chance that one may not come back to the country. My friends thought that I think too far ahead. And so, I was thinking, if all our good doctors were to leave our country, despite the lack-of-doctor-crisis, who else is there to treat our loved ones? The vicious cycle continues…

Perhaps, it was because I was trained locally, I felt that I owed it to the country, that I should serve our people… Did I sound almost too patriotic? Haha! Very unlike-shinyin, ei?

Besides, my Professor, Prof Shahrir, once said, 'Don't go, the Singaporeans are just using you...'. Perhaps, he was right. Singaporeans are smart people, they would not do a losing business.

In fact, during the interview with Dr Liam, the Singaporean Recruitment team, I popped out the question, 'Why employ us?', despite knowing very well the answer, perhaps i needed reassurance.
He answered, 'because we are building 2 new hospitals, and we do not have enough doctors to sustain the hospitals'.
'2 new hospitals?'
'Yup, we plan to make Singapore the one-stop Medical Centre'
'What about your local students?'
'We had opened new medical schools, but it would take another 5 years before they graduate and practice'.

So, the fact hits hard.

1. The Singaporeans wants to build new hospitals to earn money
2. They did not have enough resources
3. They needed us
Repeat: THEY NEEDED US

So really, to think about it, the decision is all up to us. Do you want to help them? and if you noticed close enough, we were needed merely to fill in the gap.

My dad had this interesting illustration for this... He said that our country nurtured us from young, right from the seeds, with patience, with love, and when we start bearing fruits, the Singapore government added some fertilizer, promised a better future, and start plucking us...

It would be nice though, if our country itself can provide us, that better future. I think most of the people who left the country, was doing it against their heart. They were disappointed, and perhaps lacked the sense of security... the reassurance...

So maybe today, I felt that I loved my country, I loved my people, I loved my family, I loved my friends, I loved them too much to leave… I loved the life here. The people. (and the food, of course!)

And I hope

Yes, I do

I hope that, I will be loved in returned.

Hope, faith and love can take a person very far indeed...

Like Robert Frost once said, I took the road less travelled by, and that had made all the difference!

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p/s: i'll be leaving for my BTN and induction course tomorrow at Pontian, Johor & Port Dickson respectively... will keep you all updated whenever possible ^^