Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Dr Chew telling us about Emergency department

Assalamualaikum,


So, I am still in my pre-clinical year, year 2 of medical school. I am currently still in on-going research about CPR. And my supervisor for my research group is Dr Chew, he is a consultant for A&E department.


We got curious on how A&E department work, why he chose that department.


He told us, that A&E is for someone who love fast work, short-attention span, and you don't have to think too much on the management of the patient. Mostly the cases that come to the A&E are trauma cases, cardiac arrests and overdose cases. The patient won't stay at the A&E ward for too long, they will get referred to the other specific department for their cases, that's why, you don't always have to follow up the patient on anything.


Sound nice.
But in reality, it doesn't always nice & simple.


Day by day, I hope my will become stronger. Hope I will get tougher. You, if you also still struggling, know that struggles never betray their owner. Eventually, it will lead to a beautiful ending; I hope.   

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Finished Year 1 Unimas Medical School

Assalamualaikum & hello


So, Alhamdulillah, just finished year 1. Actually the passing result for year 1 is not out yet, so it's still not confirmed whether I passed year 1 or not. But put that aside, because I never know when will I ever be committed for this blog. I literally, forget the existence of this blog once in a while because I usually focus on my main blog because I have bigger audience there, but because I don't really feel like talking about boring medical stuff so I had to make a new blog for it. 


In Unimas, we use block system.
Block system is like you study one part of the human system and it will include the anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology (ubat), pathology (penyakit) part. So you learn all the subjects to understand 1 part of the human system for example endocrine system in block 5. Anything about endocrine will be learn in block 5. 

Other universities that I heard, they will finish the whole anatomy in one semester and proceed the next with pharmacology and so on.. So Unimas system is like you try to relate all the subjects into 1 block.



Here's some information regarding block system.

Duration           : 7 to 8 weeks
Credit hour       : 7 or 8 credit hours (that's a lot!)
Total mark for  : 100 (there is 5 blocks = 500 marks)
each block

Total mark to    : minimum 250/500 marks to pass
pass year 1

List of blocks for year 1 :

Block 1 : Foundation block
Some revisions on your biology knowledge and add ons few here and there. Basic knowledge and intro to incoming blocks. For me, I don't really like this block, felt a little boring for me. 

Block 2 : Man in the environment
Microbiology : virus, bacteria, hygiene. I like this block because there were a lot of bacteria involve hence, more lab! But I scored the least in this block even though I studied the hardest. Probably because I didn't found my study tempo yet.. cehh macam muzik lak.  

Block 3 : Blood and immunology
You get to poke each other and draw bloods! That's what I like about this block the most. I miss this block yet block 2 is still my favourite. I love Madam Tay as block coordinator because she is so caring and Prof Henry had thought us a lot in clinical lessons. 

Block 4 : Musculoskeletal & head and neck 
This is where you feel like, "Oh I am a medical student now" because you have to memorise the name of bones, nerves, muscle even to the smallest bones. Don't worry, repetition is the key. Go march to the museum frequently because visuals can help a lot. This block test memory the most, there I said it. 

Block 5 : Endocrine, metabolism and nutrition
Biochemistry will mess your life. More towards understanding and then you will remember it. Don't tell anybody, I actually love biochem especially when I understand them ahaha. 

Here are my found-able pictures of my year 1 in my phone.


Block 3 - mainly on blood
I learnt how to draw blood, IV infusion yada yada


We use dummy hands first then we tried on each other's hand ahaha


They say, when you donate your blood, you can save three life. Why? Because the blood that you donate will be separated into red blood cells, platelet and plasma. And usually there will be 3 different receiver for each separated blood components.


Just some notes I pasted on my wall


Yeah most of the pictures are from block 3. I didn't know why I don't really take photos in other blocks?


As for the lecturers, most lecturers are nice. Some lecturers (I can't mention just to make you feel curious) love to ask questions, love if you'd pay attention in class (yes I'd been caught talking in class ahaha & was punished for it) and so on.. 

Lecture hall and it was outside the faculty but it is just nearby


other interesting things :
- You will have buddy (means, a senior/s that is/are assigned to help you)
- Medical students will get college even if you are never active in college
- Previously, medical course had the highest fee, worry not because architecture is now the most expensive course in Unimas (just to make u feel better)


Okay, I let you guys figure out the rest yourself okay.. ehehe

My fellow classmates for year 1 (2016/2017)
I hope we all passed to year 2, I really do...


We got 2 months of break after year 1 which had never happened before to my senior. I'm guessing that Unimas is trying to standardize to semester system. The 2 months should be the time we will be revising our year 1's material once again to prepare for our first professional exam in Year 2. But what am I doing? omg, endless procrastinating. 

I am grateful to Allah for He had granted to pursue my preferred course because not everyone were given the chance to taste of it. Yep, medic is hard, there's no doubt in it. But if they (the doctors right now) can do it, we can as well. 

Looking forward to the next 4 years. (I really hope it is another 4 years. Let's pray for everyone to graduate on time uhuhu)







Friday, March 24, 2017

Do you have what it takes to be a doctor?

Assalamualaikum & hello,


          Pretty much now, especially in this week, I read and heard a lot about "doctors are not made, they are chosen". Have you heard about it? I read articles about in facebook. Mostly about being a doctor you must sacrifice a lot of things to ensure your patients get the best treatment care. Sacrifice your sleep, your youth, time with family and the lists go on..


This evening, my PBL facilitator which is my Pathology lecturer told us, even in medical school we tried to make the students cope with their future job. So, there were less holidays in typical medical school settings and sometimes even if you have the holidays, you still required to study & do revisions. Nerdy right? 



So I always have this question popped in my head, especially when I see my peers can answer questions like diarrhea (quotes from the deen), "Am I gonna be a competent doctor?"


Throwback to my foundation years... 
There was one day, where all of the students we required to stay in the hall and we were exposed to the choices of degree courses in my university. Oh god, I can't stop reminiscing this story over and over again. So, at that time, the deen / vice deen (sorry I can't remember who) went on stage to promote about medical course which everyone was kinda wanting to hear about it.


He asked on the stage, "Whoever wanted to pursue in Medic, PLEASE STAND UP!"


You won't believe me if I say, almost everyone stands up (3/4 of the hall). Can you imagine why I stopped wanting to be a doctor for a while during foundation year? Cause the competition is real & fierce. 



So whenever I thought back about the story, I feel motivated because Allah has provide me the chance for me to be a medical student. And now, it's time for me to work hard to be a competent doctor. 


Do you have what it takes to be a doctor?
Yes or no, you gotta work for it!

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Nak ambil medic tapi tak straight As SPM? Ini kata Dr Aimir Ma'rof!

Shared from his personal facebook

Kesinambungan daripada karangan saya mengenai SPM tempoh hari. (you can read here)
Ada yang memberi komen, perkara yang berlaku pada saya itu mustahil pada masa kini. Zaman dan senario sekarang sudah lain. Betul, memang saya setuju. Malah terbaca pula hari ini kenyataan Menteri Kesihatan bahawa kemungkinan tiada penempatan 'housemanship' diberi untuk lepasan universiti yang punya keputusan SPM tidak melepasi kelayakan minimum jurusan perubatan.
Now there goes my career. I should have been fired!


To a certain degree, yes I agree. If you enter bogus medical school through backdoor channel just because you or your parents want you to become a doctor but you have minimum entry qualification, your degree is questionable of course. But what if you work hard like everyone else through proper channel and in the process, who knows maybe you perform much better than your colleagues who previously have better SPM result than you? So to me, that is a kind of a knee jerk solution for a much bigger problem.


The process of 'creating' a doctor should not start after you receive the degree, but should start way back even before you choose to do medicine. I still believe that whether you can be successful as doctor or not is not entirely based on how much A you get in your SPM.


Being a doctor starts from inside your heart first. The head or brain will follow. So that is why I think ALL candidates who want to enter medical school should be interviewed, like a job application process. For example, if the students themselves not 100% interested, but being forced by parents, that should be the first reason to reject the application. I have spoken to some of my friends and you can also ask administration staff in private colleges, who is more excited to become a doctor? The candidates or the parents?


Interview (by a proper conjoined national medical body, not only the college/university) can let you gauge the attitude of the candidates, the passion to serve and most importantly the will to sacrifice and put others before oneself. That is what medical profession is about. And your number of As, or any paper qualification for that matter, cannot guarantee that!


You do that not after the degree is obtained. Not when they start dropping like fly during housemanship. You do this as early as before they even think of joining medical programme. Then maybe you can minimize the issue of demanding 8 hours of working and 6 hours of sleep!



Entah la, ini pendapat saya sahaja. As we all know, opinion is meaningless with no scientific basis and value at all. I know I am wasting my time writing all this. I should have write scientific papers instead.
So let me end with this.
Not all students can become a doctor.
Not all straight A students should become a doctor.
Not all NOT straight A students cannot become a doctor.
Because to repeat myself, I am the living proof of that!




My comment :
Way to go Dr! I hope I can meet a supportive MO like him one day and a good doctor as well, InsyaAllah ;)

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