Anyway, went for a hospital attachment at Selayang Hospital last week. Urm, I can't say that I learnt alot since each posting at one department was only for 2 days. Departments that I was attached to were Emergency Department, Internal Medicine and General Surgery. Together with me throughout the attachment were CheeMei, KherDee and ChowChow :)
Summary of what we did for each department:
Reported ourselves to the Head of Department, Dr. Siti. A very nice and funny lady who knows how to take charge of her ED. Almost all the HoD said the same thing about us, 2nd year medical students- "2nd year only?? Just observe ok?" Right. We don't know many things especially when it comes to hand on stuff like drawing blood or inserting a branula. But we do know something about the cardiovascular system, the respiratory system, the haematology system and also the gastrointestinal system.
Felt abit like air on the first day because doctors in charge didn't really take notice of us. Everytime when there's a case, all of us would try to peep at what the nurses and doctors were doing to the patient. Haha! Shy kua.. but in the end, we got to observe something. Legs were so tired and pain because we stood all the way from 8am-5pm! Only time we got to sit was during lunch time! It's only right that us, students stand! :)
2nd day was much more better. Dr. Siti introduced us to the doctors during a short briefing in the morning and we didn't feel like air anymore after that. At least the doctors were willing to share their thoughts and knowledge with us. It was a really interesting day and I felt that I saw alot of things. Highlight of the day was a patient who came in with paracetamol poisoning (failed suicide attempt). Story too long to elaborate.
Note: ED is all about stabilizing a patient.
Also, got to eavesdrop doctors' conversation. I was thinking to myself if next time I would have this kind of conversation :) It was really interesting to hear them talk about their experiences. I actually looked up to one of the doctors at the ED. The way she carries herself, the way she treats and handles the patient. Wow! ^^ I wished I could have her confidence. one day.
stayed until 6.30pm on the 2nd day.. we called it over-time(OT)! Stayed later because we were observing how the doctors tried to save a little baby who has congenital heart disease. The doctors were trying to find a vein on the baby as most of the veins has already collapsed. They poked everywhere possible(even the head) but still none available. We stood there just staring at the baby. Poor thing :( I hope he's doing alright now.
That was the end of ED.
Internal Medicine(7th & 8th February 2007)
Stayed in the wards this time round. Managed to tag along a consultant while he was doing his ward round on the first day. He was questioning the house officers about the patients. Did feel abit like Dr. Tim's sessions ^^" The consultant even asked Kher Dee and I about the ryle's tube in a patient and both of us managed to answer! Luck I tell you.. We managed to answer because we saw the patient earlier in the ED(It was the patient who tried to commit suicide..) *phew* The consultants mentioned alot of familiar terms .. hehe.. tried to recall back but failed. Useless me.
After the consultant left, we went to read the patients' file. Very interesting especially the physical examination part. Wanted to check them out personally but we couldn't perform PE. Better luck next time.
Managed to see how a pleural tap was done. Nothing came out though.
Did nothing much on the 2nd day at internal med. Tagged along the house officers while they were doing their ward round. Looked at more files. Listened to how Chow, Cheems and KherDee talked to the patients. Yeah, I still lack communication skills *sigh*
There was this cute old lady who was in the ward. Quoted -"Lei hou mah? Ngo hai Ipoh lei ke!(Are you well? I come from Ipoh!)".. hehe.. she said it with the cutest tone.. even one of the nurses imitated her! :) She reminded me of my grandmother especially when she said bye bye. I miss my Mah Mah.
Oh well, that's all for internal medicine.
General Surgery(9th &10th February 2007)
First day was very "well spent"! Didn't do a single thing. We just sat at the Specialist Office waiting for the Head of Department to return from the operation theatre. There was some emergency that she had to attend to. Waited and waited.. went for lunch.. came back and waited somemore. Decided to go to the wards to check if there were any ward rounds. We were lucky as there was one ward round going on. Tagged along the surgeon and her medical officers. The funniest thing was we didn't understand a single thing that was coming out of their mouths! Jargons! Gave up and went back to the specialist office.
Thank goodness the Head of General Surgery was back from her operation! She gave us a lecture on how 2 days weren't enough for us to get a clear idea of what GS was all about. Four of us just nodded with agreement. Followed her to the ward to see how her newly operated patient was doing. Went back abit dissapointed that day. Rather foul mood.
Second day was a better day. Saw lots of scars from post operations! and at least we understood abit of what the on-call doctors were talking about. One of the doctors were nice enough to talk to us. We were pretty happy after the ward round :)
Went for a late lunch at Hartamas for a so called 'celebration'. Initial plan was to go fondue-ing at the Fondue House but turns out.. the restaurant wasn't there anymore!! Shuckss :( Ended up in an Italian restaurant. Wasn't too bad :)
So, 6 days spent in Selayang Hospital. Though the duration was abit short, it was all in all a great experience. Selayang Hospital was a total new environment compared to Hospital Tunku Jaafar or Hospital Kuala Kubu Bahru. It's a paperless hospital! For your info, YihSeong.. There's toilet paper in the washroom! Bwahaha!
Could have learnt more if we could do some history taking and physical examination. Maybe we could have learn to draw blood or insert a branula. That would be a very valuable lesson but we didn't manage to do all that. Ahh! but OBSERVING is very important as well. One can tell alot by just observing. So, I'm happy with just observing. Doing this attachment made me realised that I have many weakness! Guess it's time I brush up on these weaknesses!
Gambatte!
I can do it!! ^^