ELECTIVE ATTACHMENT AT HOSPITAL PULAU PINANG (HPP)

My Journey at Penang

(August, 2018)

*Sorry for late posting*

FYI, journey of a medical doctor, either with M.D. or M.B.B.S, are as such:-

1. Primary school : 6 years (UPSR)

2. Secondary schools: 3 years (PMR) + 2 years (SPM)

3. Pra-University: Either Foundation in Science (FIS) / Matrikulasi (1 year) or A-level (1.5 years) or STPM (2 years)

*STPM stands for Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia, equivalent to O-level at international level.

4. Medical Degree, either M.D. OR M.B.B.S for 5 years

5. Registration on Malaysia Medical Council (MMC) & Perkhidmatan Awam Malaysia (SPA) with 9 months-1 year waiting time before getting the job

6. Housemanship (U.S: Internship) for 2 years + 2 years [COMPULSORY SERVICES]

7. Medical Officer (U.S: Residents)

8. After obtaining local Master / Parallel pathway, Specialist / Consultant so on and so for~

Back to my stories...

At the ends of Year 4 of my MBBS degree, just like every university, we are required to have elective placement at any hospital, either local or oversea (General / District / University Hospital) for minimum of 3 weeks.

I would like to have exposure of how 'true housemanship life' are, hence we decided to choose 1 GH (General Hospital) in our country and as long as out of Selangor state, and my friend (Introduce Z.L, Ng) suggested Hospital Pulau Pinang, and... I AGREED. We decided stick with 1 posting rather than split into several different postings, in order to have maximum learning capacity and exposure. Eventually, we picked Emergency Medicine, simply because at that moment that's mutual interest among us.

Application have to be made early, at least 6 months in prior (If oversea: 1 year). Of course, application for GH are FREE. This can be done by email Jabatan Sumber Manusia (H&R Department) of respective hospital. Email address can be found on official website, although most of the time it is proven to be not user friendly and create lots of issue. Enquiry about available postings and required documents, usually soft copy are acceptable. Always check with them whether they received it. Tell you what, my friend have to resend the document, simply because only after 1 month he notice that actually they didn't receive his documents (Somehow). And keep in mind that government email have certain limit for documents you sent.

Throughout 3 weeks at E.D, we are honor to work with HO, MO and specialist along with few Penang Medical College (PMC) and University Sains Malaysia (USM) Year 4 medical student who I made friend with (Believe or not, they can perform procedure and document it on BHT (Bed Head Ticket), just like a HO!). And meanwhile they always blame us for not being competent and at the same time refuse to let us perform procedure at hospital during medical degree, NAH.

Procedures we covered are as such:-

Pulse Oximetry (Surprisingly USM student who doing training at India not aware of pulse Oximetri!)
Venupuncture (KIDNEY TRAY ARE PLASTIC-MADE!)
ABG
ECG
IV Cannulation
Transfering patients
RESUS, in short, CPR ... ROSC???
IN Drips
IV Drugs Administration
Red flow (What is that??? Basically..... Glucometer. HAHAHAHAHA)
Nebulizers

*LOTS MORE....*

Some interesting cases we experienced:-

9 y/o ACS
Violence behavior with Schizophrenia presentation (Speaking for all day non-stop, change story for every minute...)
Irukanji Syndrome
RBBB 15 y/o
Benign Early Repolarization (Not benign at all...)
Nystagmus Examinations - HEAD THRUST TEST
Postural HTN

There are moment where we are too busy and have lunch on 3 p.m, dinner at 9 p.m! (Surprisingly, not hungry at all). E.D life is about how to finish job efficiently when you have 10 patients and 3 ECG machine. And learning is about working, not just stand at corner and observing!

I also have opportunity to join ward round with specialist where he discussed dynamic and static parameter in determining patient prognosis. In critical care, one of the important concept is STATIC VS DYNAMIC.

Not to mention we are invited by HO to join CME and ATLS workshop! (As demonstrated on picture below)

Patients are generally nice. But to be honest, for someone who is not really good at Hokkien, communicating with patient could be an issue.There are 1 Indian who can speak Hokkien much fluent and faster than me! (Shame?)

I guess we are considered quite punctual simply because of punch card system, haha...

After working hour, obviously food! Since here is food street - PENANG.

[For more photo can browse my IG album]

CREDITED TO T.L, LEE [KAJANG] & Z.L, NG [SUNTEX, CHERAS]

August, 2018 ~ September 2018

MAHSA University

Crossing Penang Bridge and entering George Town, Penang Island

Arrival to Hospital Pulau Pinang (HPP)

My Pass Card Throughout 3 weeks Journey ~

Along with... Punch-in Card!

Triage Counter...

This once again remind me of one of my favorite Japanese series : コード・ブルー-ドクターヘリ紧急救命 [CODE BLUE]... In Malaysia we have for E.M.S are 'On-land helicopter'

Autopulse