Life as a Junior Doctor

1. Screening for patients - I spend a fair share of time rotating among a few community health clinics every week to screen for patients whom fit the criteria of the study. As easy as it may seem, the task could be overwhelming at times due to the huge amount of patients in each clinic. These numbers go up all the way till the thousands.
2. Gaining consent - This is something emphasized and taught since Day 1 of medical school. Before signing up a patient for a study/research, it is important that he/she understands the risks and procedure of the whole shebang. Legally, you could be sued for malpractice and negligence if something unfortunate happens to the patient during the entire study duration for issues pertaining to the study. This is especially important if your research involves the testing of new drugs in the market. SO.....I'm PREEETYYY sure you want to get that part right. 

   Source: claudiajb

3. Data entry and encoding - As the RA, you basically play the role of a secretary because the investigators (usually doctors and specialists) are too busy to be bothered by secretarial work . Data collected has to be keyed into the system for safekeeping. You would not want a fire to wipe out all your study files.
4. Scheduling appointments and follow-ups - Yes. You get be a phone operator too. 
5. Tracing blood reports - More often than not, the nurses in the department would be more than willing to get this done for you. However, as they can get quite busy carrying out orders from other doctors, it is usually faster if you pick up this task yourself.

Every junior doctor (houseman) in Malaysia were required to undergo a 5-days course known as Program Transformasi Minda (PTM) carried out at a hotel before officially reporting to your respective hospitals. Mostly every hospital in a certain state will conduct the course together except certain bigger hospitals which conduct it individually due to their huge intake of junior doctors.

What is this Program Transformasi Minda (PTM)?
Well, a direct English translation of it is Mind Transformation Programme. Sounds rather interesting, right?

So, I went through this course for the pass week. I was quite reluctant to go for it at first because it felt like boring school camp all over again. The course started on 22nd April and we were required to reach the venue at 2pm. We handed in all the required documents and checked into the hotel. We were required to get 2 other roommates to share a room. I heard certain states had actually allocated roommates for you but for Johor, you can find your own roommates if you want.

I felt like my post will bore you guys out if I go on in detail regarding the content of the course. So here is a summary, you will listen to loads and loads of talk about Malaysian healthcare from clinical to management, get put into groups (not by choice) to do some group works and lastly, eat 6 meals a day. And this is all done from 6am to 12am everyday.

Time did started passing faster from the 2nd day onwards and without realising it, it was the last day. I was glad to be put into a group with 14 other brilliant doctors from different backgrounds and universities. I enjoyed my time there with all the fun and laughter we shared. I did not think that I would be able to find such good friends at such a short span of time. But we somehow bonded over due to similar thought wavelengths i guess.

Here is a photo of the awesome G6 *poppin' bottles in the ice, like a blizzard*:


Overall, the course itself was not too bad so for those that will be going for it in the future, go with an open mind. You might able to encounter something unexpected.

For now, I am still going through orientation for the week at my chosen hospital and will start tagging from this coming Sunday onwards.

Bonus: Photo of all the NUMedians who decides to stay in this state down under~

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Hello and welcome to the blog!