Chan Weng Kit's Blogspot: DAY 1892-1913

Nov 7 - 28

1) Finally, a breath of fresh air. As the end of the year approaches, so too are the number of exams remaining in our penultimate semester. This week, Group B finished their end-of-rotation assessment for medicine. Basically, it's a continuous assessment where we have a 20-minute session with our examiner after clerking and examining a patient in the ward. Overall, it has been an interesting four weeks here in medicine, as we were finally allowed to return to the wards to practice clerking patients (before this we were only permitted in the clinics).

2) Returning to medicine (after our fourth year sabbatical in other rotations) reminded me of just how wide the scope of medicine really is. Each ward is specific for a particular system e.g. the cardiology ward for the heart, respiratory ward for the lungs etc. In addition, there are outpatient clinics for walk-in consultations and follow-ups, as well as procedure rooms for specific interventions. Case in point, in the cardiology clinics, we were able to witness echocardiograms being performed, as well as exercise stress tests, dobutamine stress tests, and ECGs. Simply reading about all these in text books is not useful, as only by seeing them performed in real time do we actually remember better.

3) The only two assessments left for this semester are the public health examination as well as the surgery continuous assessment. In the meantime, we have a dedicated week off for both self-directed learning (SDL) and a basic life support (BLS) course, the latter which we had already passed in our pre-clinical years but are required to attempt again before we graduate. Anyway, that aside, we have a further two weeks of SDL before our Public Health II rotation begins. That concludes the end of Semester 9, our penultimate semester in this course.

4) The final semester begins next year, and consists of "just" medicine and surgery, as well as pre-internship training. But we'll leave that for another time. For now, the public health module requires my attention. And with that, I'll end this edition of my blog here. Thanks for visiting as always, and have a great one. Cheers!

Photoshoot for the yearbook!

L-R: Helmi, Tenisha, Myself, and Angel

End-of-rotation assessment (EORA) for medicine - DONE!

L-R: Helmi, Shang Chen, Lay She, Nasuha, Tenisha, and myself

Exploring Penang - Hin Bus Depot (an art and events space located in George Town)

Granola and different organic nut butters on display

As you can see, it's a busy Sunday indeed :)

Stopped for our burger and kefir soda lunch

Tried Vietnamese egg coffee for a third time - still loving it!

Sounds like a weird combination but believe me it's wonderful

Cake and coffee - nothing else really compares :)

Chinese fan dance (left) juxtaposed with the kuda kepang dance (right)

Not sure what the bull signifies here - perhaps it symbolises the Year of the Ox?

Apparently the space behind me used to be a bus depot, now converted into a setting for indoor and outdoor exhibits, as well as a cafe and weekend market.