w.I.b:warung ikan bakar:
Harap-harap INI KALILAH !
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Stitching thoughts... I have shied away from publishing most of my serious thoughts on the web ever since starting work. Today, it felt kind of different. Today was one of the craziest day in the labour room, 100% occupied from 7am onwards, most of which are complicated cases. I conducted three primid deliveries and did three episiotomy repair today and supervised many others.
So there I was, stictching, with the curtain drawn, separating my patient and I from the rest of the labour room, having some good minutes for myself.
I think it is funny that when I chose to be a doctor, I had little idea that my major activities as a young doctor would involve teaching (or scolding) gravid females to push out their babies, professionally examining the female private part, stitching vaginal tears and also bearing the brunt of being scolded by bosses in front of patients. I am blessed I got to pick up these skills rather quick and I feel bad for some of my fellow colleagues who are currently having a much slower start.
These are 25 year-olds that I am talking about, and I wonder if they knew what they are in for, when they applied to do medicine, or do they know what is awaiting them when they celebrate the event of their graduation from medical school. I mean, these 25 year-old are not dumb ass-es, they could easily be well-respected and unquestionable had they chosen another career, like being a writer, an analyst, an engineer or whatever. I mean, at least in those jobs, the environment should be less hostile and easier to adapt to compared to the medical world, where things are very hierarchical, performance-based.
It is very apparent that those young doctors who are more 'cekap' in their work are better respected by the nurses and favoured by the bosses, while the weaker ones are always reminded that perhaps they should have changed profession.
On the other hand, I also think that perhaps in this country, enrolment to medical schools has become a rather clumsy exercise. It is highly probable the reason my alma mater used to produce excellent doctors in the past is because they used to take in the best, the motivated ones, the kiasu ones and those who know what they are in for.
With more medical schools around at present, and admissions becoming easier if one got the dough, there is a higher chance we are training the wrong kind of people for the job. They could have been talented writers or succesful entrepreneurs instead of being an unmotivated, slow, soft young doctor.
That is if you judge a good doctor based on his efficiency, his knowledge and his skills.
But then, if you judge a good doctor based on manners and attitude, then i would still think we are taking in the wrong kind of people for the job. In this country, with its rotten kind of education system, the top scorers and the brilliant ones may not neccesarily be the most ethical, polite.
Their etiquette and manners are in reverse relation with their capabilities. So, we take in these top students into medical schools, they did well, and moved on to become top specialists. And their attitude, arrogance, and kampung behaviour persists. So, they brought along such bad manners when dealing with patients and dealing with under-performing young doctors.
So, more often than not, the medical world in this country could be a very hostile place to be. It is sad, to see smart people with attitude problems thriving as doctors, while the softer, slower, gentler ones got lost in the profession that demands a lot but educates little.
The student nurses said goodbye yesterday. They have been a great help in the labour room and the maternity wards. Throughout their weeks of attachment with the Obstetrics unit, they showed much dedication, diligence and good skills. I am sure this bunch of students will be doing well as community nurses in the near future.
Hope I will work with some of them again in a health clinic somewhere in Ipoh in 2008!
*W.I.B is the personal blog of fooji. He works for the ministry of health seven days a week, skips his breakfast and looks forward to a good dinner at the end of the day.
w.I.b:warung ikan bakar:
