Life As a Houseman in Malaysia - part 1

this is just purely my sincere opinion. complaints regarding a tough life as a HO in malaysia has been going on for years. From degrading comments by the superiors in front of patients, long hours of working to low salary has been part and parcel of their life. Caffeine has been a close friend to this poor being. Some suffered emotional distress like anxiety attack and MDD, those known to them only as some psychiatric illness listed in DSM 4 criteria whilst a student.

i'm still a medical student myself. i've always wanted to be a doctor like probably most who decide to enter this field. i studied in both malaysian environment and western ( north american ). at the age of 24 where most of my friends are already graduated or in their final years, i still have a long way to go due to some unforeseen circumstances.

i did my 2 1/2 years at international medical university before transferred to Dalhousie University Canada for another 2 years. so basically my medical course would be 4 1/2 years in total. that's not uncommon, especially in north america where all of medical courses are for 4 years. in calgary, i heard it's only for 3 years! how on earth did they do that? the system in north america is completely different from probably the rest of the world. to enter a medical school you have to have a degree. So, it's not surprising that most of my classmate are 27years old in average. Some reached 30++ years. they are married and already working as a professional like pharmacist, emergency nurse even engineers prior to medical school. i'm not sure why they still want to pursue a career in this field when they already have a good lifestyle, good jobs and handsome salary.

to me, canada has many great medical school. their health system is also the best compare to their immediate counterpart, the US. the student to doctors ratio is small unlike Malaysia which i think is relatively huge. back in family medicine rotation, i was one-to-one with my preceptor. So, of course more attention are given to you! you are the only one who's there to answer all the questions! no chance to escape or hide behind your peers to avoid being asked. in fact, as i recalled, i was one-to-one as well in psychiatry rotation and medicine and emergency. Ummm.. that sounds like all isn't it ?

Canadian medical students have early exposure to clinical stuff. as early as 1st year, they were introduced to the working environment in the hospital with once a week compulsory attachment with the doctors in the hospital. to observe what they do, and even directly involve with the diagnosis process. it's not surprising that they actually treat 3rd year medical student equivalent to a houseman in malaysia hospital! we involve in most of the decision making if not all. we are the first line for admission process if the cases is not too complicated of course. we did a real on call. staying practically overnight doing admissions to the ward (taking history, do physical examination and even suggest a diagnosis). nurses, while we are on call asked so many questions about whether to prescribe certain medication to a patient. we even write a prescription ( but of course must be discussed with resident before the orders being carried out by nurses) Our paperwork is used as a legal document in the patient chart! So no need to do once a week case write-up or whatever, if you already are doing it everyday.

--> to be continued