Kota Bharu is kinda significant to me. I've spent 2 weeks there in 2014 and this year, another 4 weeks. Not really 4 weeks haha as I went home almost every weekends. Another fact that makes Kota Bharu special is, my experience with domestic flights were all between Kota Bharu - KL (Subang, KLIA, KLIA 2) either with Firefly, Air Asia, MAS. :D
It has been almost 5 days I left HUSM, it feels a bit different when I don't have to get prepared early in the morning to catch the ward round, I don't have to walk from the hostel to the ward, I don't have to struggle to get online. But, I miss the environment especially the students there - they are way younger than me T_T but never mind, I love juniors.
I would love to express my gratitude to everyone I met there; the students, the doctors, the nurses and the workers. Without them I bet my life in HUSM would be dull and lonely. Hoho.
I spent most of my days with my lovely junior, Ika. It's been a while since we last met, but I am glad she is still the same Ika I used to know :) A stronger one. I enjoyed most food-hunting in Kota Bharu with her. We rented a car to get to KB Mall, AEON Mall or simply walk around shops in front of HUSM.
At the wards, I was closer to 3rd year students. Ana, Sameera, Faiqah, Rafidah, Rubiah, Shamim, Shafika, Tasha, Zhi Yee, Hafiz etc. Gosh, these bunch of lovely juniors were so welcoming. My days in the wards were never bored with them. They were new to clinical phase so it was easier to join them with all introduction to short and long cases - just to get rough ideas how presenting cases in Malaysia looks like. I joined final year classes occasionally for more detailed-presentations.
Towards the end of my elective like another one week and half, I met another 2 electives students from PMC - Ain, Adnin. The three of us were free to manage our own schedules, and actually electives are more about our own desires to learn. If we want to learn more, we can join more practical sessions, join the doctors for ward rounds or oncalls, join the HOs to do procedures. Our own initiatives.
Dr. Afaf, Dr. Afiq, Dr. Nahily, Dr. Preet, Dr. Tiqah, Dr. Adib, Dr. Wafy, Dr. Amry. I am totally glad that most HOs are about my age, it was a bit awkward to think how to call them but seriously most of them are so friendly than I can call them with just names. During on-calls, I can listen to their experiences while taking blood. When there's no new admission, I joined them for late supper.
MOs and registrars are helpful as well :D
I met them almost every weekdays for ward rounds. Even though they will not recognize me but I am so thankful to have chance to learn at least something from them - especially about all those mobile apps used to make life in the ward easier. Believe me, doctors cannot remember everything. Why not we just use those mobile apps?
Dr. Abu Dzarr - my supervisor. He works in Hematology (a part of Medical). I didn't meet him frequently as I usually spend more time in general Medical ward - more diagnosis and patients clerking to learn etc. But, I would love to thank him to keep responding to my daily reports.
Rasya, Kina, Hana. Thank you girls for allowing me to stay over your room for few days while waiting for my own room.
And special thanks to my high school ex-deskmate, Dr. Amyny. :D Thank you for spending your off day with me. So many things to catch up and it was really fun to listen to your experiences.
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At the beginning of the elective, I listed down my targets throughout those 4 weeks. Alhamdulillah, after checking back, I managed to expose myself to each of them.
- To expose myself with working environment in Malaysia as I plan to work in Malaysia after completing my study (HO tasks, oncall, ward round etc)
- To gain more experience with blood taking as this task is more likely to be done by nurses in Czech.
- To familiarize myself with common diseases in Malaysia and how to approach these patients, especially dengue, leptospirosis, melioidosis etc.
- To do history taking with Malaysian style - for this one, I have approach few USM medical students to help with the guidelines.
- To join classes for USM students for short and long cases.
Some techniques and approaches are different and I can say students here learn very detailed practicals.
Okay, freshly graduated doctors will start their work as housemen, well we need to admit the word 'fresh' as less working experience. Housemen are more known as HO (house officers) or interns. From what I know, during 2 years of housemen-ship, HOs need to fulfill 5 postings (4 months each).
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Pediatrics
- Medical
- Orthopedics
- Surgery
My 4 weeks in HUSM was only for medical posting. In this department, I met patients with diseases of heart, lungs, kidney, digestive system, blood. Basically, almost every major organs in our body. Even neurology patients (saraf) can be in this department as well. In this ward, you can expect the most sudden deaths T_T when everyone need to struggle to give CPR to the dying patients.
Most patients are elderly but younger one is frequent as well. T_T I learned that before I approach a patient, I really need to check his / her age. Kadang-kadang perasan muda padahal patients umur sebaya or lebih muda. I still remember a doctor (age around 40+) called a 50 year-old patient as pakcik. Haha, formality maybe.
Going back to Czech soon. :)
