Tuesday, 18 August 2015

MD UKM Year 3 Tips

Assalamualaikum and good morning folks!
Hello dear medical earthlings!
I know you must be both anxious and excited to start your 3rd year.
Well, good for you! I hope you keep that spirit on for the next weary few years.
I can’t help but get excited for you as well.
And as usual I can’t resist myself from giving out tips to y’all.



#1 Preps before practical
It is always a good habit to read prior to any classes or practical.

Because by doing that you will understand and remember better once you get your hands on.

Plus, I can say every supervisor has high expectation from you since y’all are still considered a fresh meat from theory years. So they assumed that you already got yourself familiarised with all the clinically significant anatomy and pathophysiology of the common diseases in wards.

There is no harm if you don’t read before class. It is just that maybe you’ll give out bad impression to your supervisor and that can never be good. It is always good to impress your supervisor with brilliant questions or smart answers which can only come by through reading.

Question like “Doctor, which is the most likely the main cause of renal failure in this both hypertensive and diabetic patient?” and answer like “Besides thyroid function test, we have to measure serum Mg in patient with hypocalcemia because hypocalcemia is almost always associated with hypomagnesemia” are always welcomed and appreciated.
I can understand that at some point we can all be so exhausted that we prefer sleep rather than doing anything. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that you can skip reading. This is where friends come in handy. While you read, prepare short yet comprehensive notes on the topic you’re reading and then exchange the notes between your friends or members of your study group. This works like magic and you can cover a few topics quicker.

Medical school is not a blind race and it is definitely not a frenzy where you drag down people to come on top. Na-ah. Help each other.



#2 Practice !
After some inputs you gotta have some outputs so that what you’ve read could stick at the back of your head for real. It is time for practice! Practice, practice and practice the physical examinations (PEs) on real patient. How do we know a patient has hepatomegaly and not liver ptosis? How do we know a patient has ascites and not just an obese abdomen? It all comes with experiences. But you gotta practice the right thing. After all, practice makes a habit. Try to make a habit of the right thing.

And guess what? The best time to practice is during bed side teaching when your supervisor can point out your mistake and correct you. Now, I know you might think that it would be embarrassing to have your flaw exposed like a nerve to other members of your group but it is for the sake of learning. In some cases, you would get scolded and unkind remarks, and it can be some kind of traumatizing sometimes that you can’t help but remember them forever, but bear in mind that these lecturers have allotted some precious time of their busy schedule to share their knowledge with you. And it is actually a good thing because you are not bound to repeat the same mistake since the scolding hurts our pride and ‘traumatizing’. Haha.

In case you are thinking of faking a fluent PE, forget it because lack of practice will always show no matter how hard you try to hide them by pretending to know what you’re doing. These supervisors’ eyes are just that good they can tell that a mile off.



#3 Be confident
I understand that approaching patients is not easy. You just don’t know how to start the conversation and get them to open up to you. The key is to gain their trust. Patients will not open up and thus will hesitate to entrust you with their private matters if you stutter and appear unconfident. Good soft skills + confident = trust. Capiche? 

HOWEVER, never force a patient to agree to be examined by you. There’s a fine line between persuading and coercing. Just be careful and make sure you don’t cross that line. Sometimes, their illness has taken its toll on them that it can render them so tired and bed-ridden.

Be warned to not be over confident especially around your supervisor because you may be mistaken for being stubborn or even rude instead of confident. Moderation in everything, aite?



#4 Be friendly & helpful
Be amiable. Mingle with everyone. Offer kindness to the patients, staffs and friends. Some nurses are so busy that they overlooked some things and you can’t really blame them.

I have some personal experiences on this matter. Just to share one with you.

We were having a bed side teaching with our registrar. It just so happen that on our way to a cardio patient we tumbled across an elderly chinese man lying on the bed calling for nurses and people around to help him with something but nobody came, thinking that he was just making noise and fussy about something unimportant. Yes, we do have patients who refused to be IV-ed, take off oxygen mask and stuffs like that and they would scream in the wards trying to pull out the line, remove the mask and all sort of nuisance. So it really was nobody’s fault that no one came to him. However, it was not the case with this uncle. I felt so sorry for him that I almost cry if I turn on a deaf ear or take another step farther from his bed. I just could not ignore him calling for help and plus he can’t even pronounce words clearly because he had no teeth. That was just too sad for me and I didn’t have the heart to walk away. So, I walked closer to him and offer my help with anything he needed. I had no idea how long he was asking people who were walking past him to help with his bare gum before somebody even came. Would it not break your heart if it was your parent in his shoes? It sure broke mine. He spoke with his bare gum and albeit with his chinese-malay slang trying to say something. As much as I pitied him and wanted to help him, honestly, I could not figure out what he wanted. Then he started pointing something on the floor and what I saw just broke my heart. There it was a smudged muffin. I picked the muffin up and once he saw I was holding the muffin, he said, “Bagi saya. Saya mau makan”. Oh my goodness, I finally could actually understand him but I can’t let him eat something from the floor. So I said, “Uncle, ini sudah jatuh. Sudah kotor. Tak boleh makan lagi. Nanti uncle sakit. Saya buka muffin baru ya?” He nodded. I and a few friends helped him with the water, tissues, and of course a new muffin for him. I didn’t buy him new muffins because he had them in an unopened plastic case. What he said afterwards touched my heart and changed my life, “Terima kasih. Semoga Tuhan lindungi kamu semua. Tuhan lindungi kamu semua. Tuhan itu ada.” He said that loud and clear repeatedly.

My gesture was not big enough that he had to pay his gratitude in his prayer. My heart was at ease and I had a deep thought about life. Thank you, uncle.

*clears throat* Ehem. Okay guys! So don’t forget to be kind all right? Small gesture like this is what brings us together because we touched each other’s life. It gives you a new perspective at the world. Don’t choose who to help. Just help. Maybe when you come in the morning into the hospital you can help an elderly in a wheelchair. Isn’t it a pity to have them push the themselves on the wheelchair?



#4 Manage time wisely

All right. This is the most important thing. In every posting you are required to complete few procedures in a log book and there will be a few case reports you will have to complete before the posting ends. Never take case report lightly and avoid plagiarism! If your case report is good enough, you can send them for publication in medical journal. Yeay, how cool is that? And some tips for y’all. Complete your log book in the first 2 weeks so that you can have the rest of the weeks to produce an excellent case report (you need to do some serious reading). Kena rajin lah okay?

In a nutshell, you need to do things effectively:
  •       Study hard and smart
  •       Exchange notes with colleagues.
  •       Avoid procrastination.
  •       Complete log book in the first 2 weeks


So guys I think that is all. 
Good luck and see you around.


  

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