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So it has been quite a while since I’ve blogged anything at recent times. So lets start with some of the exciting things that have happened at work.

For starters, going into work, I was constantly plagued by news reports often times stating the bad state foreign medical graduates were in. Let me just say, after joining the work force in Klang GH, I must tell you this doesn’t hold any weight, at least in the Medical Department.

There are so many MO’s and HO’s from Russia, and Ukraine who are bloody good at their jobs. It’s a bit inspiring really, truth be told. I’ve seen a Moscow graduate do Bone Marrow aspiration and trephine whilst teaching it to another MO and myself. Another Moscow MO casually handling a patient crashing and successfully stabilizing her. While he’s intubating, and pushing in medication, he’s explaining it to all the HO’s helping him. Imagine that. Here we have a patient with SVT, and he’s explaining everything that he’s doing, even before cardioverting.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is, don’t be disparaged by the numerous reports you’re reading online. I am not doubting that there are plenty of HO’s that don’t give a shit, but if you do give a shit, you’ll learn. Whether you learn as fast, or at a slower pace is irrelevant, as long as you learn. Just the other day, our good Uncle Sam from Surgery referred a case to the medical ward for hypoglycemia, and the Medical MO was rushing to push D50, our uncle Sam just provided Kit Kat and rectified the situation. Of course he was hyper later, but that’s not a problem. Just keep your cool and you’ll be fine.

The biggest obstacle we will face is clerking new cases and learning our medication name and doses. You’ve probably learnt it in trade names, or generic names, and the hospital you may work at is probably using the other. Tough luck, all you can do is to learn it as you go. Learn the doses, it’s just a matter of practice, and soon it will be finger tips. It’s not too hard, you’ll see the same cases quite often, so you’ll have plenty of time to learn the management.

As for clerking case, it gets a bit trickier. All those years you’ve been copying and pasting your history bolezni makes this even more daunting. However, it’s a real simple procedure. Clerking and Presenting cases can’t be taught per se, but something you will learn as you practice it. Of course there are some guidelines you can follow to make it easier for you, so if I ever find the time, I’ll make a post about how to clerk and present. Whilst it may not be the best way to do so, it seems to work, at least for me.

Final word of advice…whatever you do, go to a computerized hospital. Do not be a smart ass and opt for one that isn’t. It’s asking for a shitload of work, and becoming Kerani Kerajaan. If you want to finish your work on time, and fast, computerized hospitals are the way to go. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself running to the records department to trace a patients old notes, running to the Echo/USG/CT/MRI room to get appointments, and even then you must present the case to the MO/Specialist there to convince them to give you an early appointment. If you suck at presenting that case, bye bye early appointment .

Another thing is to not get discouraged for getting yelled at. In my first two weeks, whilst I wasn’t getting “yelled” at, some MO’s and Specialist did indicate what were my shortcomings in my clerking and presentations. Over time, I suppose I’ve improved, as criticism has reduced on their side. Reduced, yes, but not completely stopped. However, make a mistake once, and don’t repeat it. If you repeat the same shit again, then you’re just asking for it.

Klang GH Medical is known to extend HO’s left and right, and recently a few of my colleagues were extended. These are competent, hardworking, and pleasant colleagues who do not play truant, finish their work and help out others. The day I started work here, everyone told me how Medical in Klang is. So all I can do is do my best, hope to be competent enough when assessment comes and see what happens.

P.S. Fill up your log book. Having an empty log book is also grounds for extension. Not 1 week or 2, but a 3 month extension!

After 25 years of not paying taxes, living off parents, and generally just being a bum, I finally reported in for duty.

Everyone who knows me, even at the slightest of level knows how I tend to make fun of Klang and their inhabitants. I also over play the whole Klang is a deadly place with everyone chopping each other nonsense. As is the world of Karma, Lo and Behold, I was given Klang GH to do my housemanship.

Anyways, the journey from home is pretty far, all the way to Klang, but if I’m not going to be cheap and consider using the Federal Highway, it’s a smooth journey via the Plus highway, avoiding unnecessary aneurism ruptures. I left home at around 7 today and the journey roughly took 45 minutes, with all the traffic lights working against me and with moderate and controlled throttling of the accelerator (this proves to be the hardest task).

As excited as I was to get into the fray, the whole of today was for mere paperwork. Frankly, when I woke up in the morning, I was fairly certain I was ready to get my ass handed to me. As a matter of fact, I was looking forward to it, but alas, it has been pushed behind by a day. The whole of today was dedicated to filling up paperwork after paperwork. In fact, we only finished all the paperwork around 4 p.m.

Wonder how many trees were destroyed for all this paperwork!?

The forms were pretty repetitive and it was quite annoying that every form had to ask if I was married and had kids. Is this some kind of premonition? I took particular pride in filling up the asset declaration form, for rather obvious reasons .

Unfortunately nothing exciting happened. Actually something exciting did happen, I had dinner with Dato’ Seri Ashwar Kumaraguru. It’s pretty nice that he now stays rather near the place of where I work instead of the other end of the world as he previously did. Another exciting piece of detail is that there is a Shell right outside my hospital, which for some reason excites me rather tremendously.

This will be a short entry, as there isn’t much to report; so here’s to tomorrow!