Want to play doctor? This posting is the best time to do it. During this posting, students will be posted to Kudat, attached to Kudat Hospital, several General Practitioners, a few Klinik Kesihatan as well as Maternal and Child Health Clinic (KKIA).
Kudat Hospital is kind of ideal in a way, for learning about health in a district setting and primary care. There are about 5 Medical Officers, no specialists but plenty of nurses and Medical Assistants (MA) from whom you can learn from. In fact, you will find that you learn mostly from them rather than the MOs. There are a few visiting specialists, who comes regularly on a monthly basis. If you see the visiting surgeon, Dr Khaz (I will confirm his name again later), LEECH ON to him. He is ever- so- willing to teach, student-friendly and most importantly, can teach well. Oh, students get to assist in surgeries and conduct deliveries in Kudat Hospital as well. So, grab the opportunity.
In fact, not only surgeries and deliveries, you get to do loads. For example, seeing patients by yourself,coming to a diagnosis and even prescribing medications. Before someone freaks out on reading this or is already planning to sue us (Kerajaan Malaysia, that is), of course, all these are done under the MAs' supervision. They will double-confirm our history, physical examination, diagnosis and management plan.
This is the best place to learn some Emergency Medicine as well. Of course, Emergency being emergency, the cases you get to see are unpredictable, in terms of varieties and timing. Sometimes, you could wait the whole night and not see a single emergency case, but at times, you could see a few in one night. Mostly, the cases are MVAs, what with the winding and dark road at night, so dark that you are practically blind. Seriously. Oh, Kudat Hospital has the most conducive room for sleeping when you're on call. Well, I'm saying this because I come from Sandakan Hospital, which doesn't even have a decent student lounge, what more a place to sleep during on-call. Our school does have an apartment opposite QEH for us to stay during on-calls but nah, it's not within the hospital. You still gotta drive. So, relatively, I think Kudat Hospital is well-equipped in that sense. We have a place in the hospital, period. And that statement means a lot. Back to EM, instead of just sitting around waiting for cases during on call, make full use of your time by learning from the MA about emergency management of the common cases like MI, acute appendicitis, febrile convulsions, hypokalemia and etc. Besides that, this is also the time to brush up on your fluid management, resuscitation and dosage of drugs.
For Family Medicine, you need to have some initiatives and seek opportunities to learn. If not, you will just be sitting there in the clinic for 4 hours. The cases seen in GP clinics are minor but common cases, which we will be facing frequently in future. However, the management is very different. It's more to symptomatic relief, as this is what the patients are looking for when they go to GPs. Hence, not much history and examination to be done. Well, I suppose we can learn about the drugs used for symptomatic management. Oh, you see a lot of Dermatology cases too. Mostly, the patient come with rashes of some sort. But of course, frequently, you don't get to know the final, definite diagnosis. Well, what to do? The GPs aren't dermatologist.
This posting also demands that you know your Medicine, Surgery and O&G well. If you have gone through Paediatrics, ENT and Orthopaedics, it is even better. Basically, being a district hospital, it's a all-in-one hospital. You get to see ALL types of cases here. The case varieties are very good with positive findings in most cases. If you get this posting as your last posting, you would really get to fully-utilized this hospital to revise and apply all the knowledge you have learned in forth year. Of course, this comes with a catch. It means, your exams will comprise ALL postings too, yes, all your previous postings prior to this. Ask Dr Arif.
Accommodation-wise, we'll be staying in our highly-acclaimed Rural Health Centre. You get your own room, so that's good. There's a kitchen as well and the kitchen will be your tool for survival since the only way to feed yourself is to cook. You don't get to drive your cars to Kudat for this posting so you don't have the luxury to go out and buy food. Besides, the nearest decent source of food is in Kudat, 30 minutes away and don't forget the winding roads and pitch-black darkness I mentioned earlier. The center also has a badminton court, a gym, a volleyball court and a small field. Oh, and bicycles as well, although most are broken. So, this posting is the best time and place to lose some weight or gain that 6-pack that you are always talking about. If not, there's really nothing else you can do here.
No comments:
Post a Comment