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
- Be punctual
- Make your own notes
- Pay attention in class
- Smart attire
- Study smart
- Take time to ventilate
- 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)
- Don't become a bookworm
- Watch, see & learn from real patient
- Small study group
- Smart attire
- Good attitude & humble
- Approach lecturers for extra teachings
- Practice public speakings
- Accept your own mistakes and learn from it
- 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
- Long working hours
- Unable to eat on time
- Rotation to each department
- Don't expect to go back (home) in time
- Working 7 days in a week
- Expected to know all the cases in the world
- Scoldings from the superior
- 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
- Team work
- Proper attire and shoes
- Effiecient and work fast
- Learn as much as possible
- Be humble and gentle
- Patience
- Admit your own mistake and learn from it
- Relax and self-reward
Tips for Medical Officer (MO)
- Work efficiently
- Good team work
- Be gentle and humble
- Learn from mistake
- 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)
- Study group
- Learn from patients
- Approach lecturers
- Brave and more public speakings
- Do your own notes
- Lots of savings
- Do not give up
- Patience
- 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!
