Chan Weng Kit's Blogspot: DAY 429/430

Nov 3 & 4

1) Again, a very busy weekend for me. On Thursday night, I attended the Surgical Society Event - Life of a Surgeon. We had three distinguished surgeons - RCSI's own Prof Gillen (General Surgeon), Ms Carroll (ENT Surgeon) and Mr. Barry O'Sullivan (Plastic Surgeon). It was a huge coincidence that I got to meet Mr O'Sullivan, as he was the very surgeon who had performed that DIEP flap breast reconstruction surgery in Beaumont, when I shadowed him over the summer. Anyway, each surgeon talked about their pathways, the very high "ups" and very low "downs" of their field. One could sense the great moral burden they had to shoulder when determining the outcome of a critical condition. The talk gave me newfound respect for the enormous sacrifice these surgeons make on a day-to-day basis, which included blocking off any negative emotions on the outcome of a previous case, and instead focusing all remaining energy on each subsequent one. That, more than anything else, can make or break a person.

2) On Friday night, I had been invited by MMII to present my research experience in UCD, at the Charles Institute of Dermatology. Around 50 attendees were confirmed, with student researchers from RCSI, UCD, and TCD talking about their research. Each one of us had our own "booths" set up, where we displayed our posters. At 7.40pm, everyone was ushered into the meeting room. The President of MMII (Michelle) gave a short welcoming speech, and explained the flow of events. Participants were broken into groups, and each group would have around 10 minutes for each booth. At each booth, the researchers would explain their research projects, including applications, funding, grants, and reflections. So off we went.

2) Altogether, we had four rotations i.e. four groups came to visit my stand. I only had one poster available, so the other one was in my laptop. I talked about research in both areas, and how it gave me a better appreciation of the theory work we have in medical school. It was gratifying to see the large turnout and the enthusiasm that the attendees had towards research. It is, after all, a very rewarding and beneficial experience. After the booths, we moved back to the meeting room, where one of the UCD researchers (Eunice) talked about her experience in applying for external funding. Then the event was over, and everyone went back home. An evening very well spent.

3) The whole of my Saturday was spent attending the Crisis Event, organised by the RCSI Model United Nations Society. It was an extremely thrilling event, where each participant was assigned a member of the Turkish government, and had to come up with a directive (solution) to a zombie outbreak. I was assigned the role of Prime Minister, Binali Yildrim. It was crisis after crisis, as events developed throughout the course of the day. We had to deal with internal and external crises, as various ultranationalist parties, foreign intervention, and cults ran rampant. Nevertheless, I am sure everyone learnt a great deal from the experience, and I'm personally looking forward to more events in the future. The rest of my day will be spent desperately trying to catch up with my studies, as we move ever closer to our final semester exams. That has been my day, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks very much for tuning in, and have a good weekend. Cheers!