1) After the brief but much needed reprieve from our CNY holidays, it's back to business as usual for us. The last two weeks in Penang General Hospital have been quite pleasant, with bedside teachings in the mornings, and online tutorials / presentations in the afternoons. Of course, that was until multiple wards in both PGH and SJH closed due to an influx of COVID-19 patients. Thankfully, they reopened a few days later, thus allowing us to continue examining patients in the wards rather than the clinics.
2) As we inch closer to our finals, it seems that surprises are lurking around every corner. Immediately after coming back from our CNY break, those in the medicine rotation (myself included) found out that our short case examinations (which were originally scheduled for May) had been brought forward to the the first week of March! If that wasn't enough, the entire format was changed as well, from short case to OSCE stations, and the time for examination was cut from 10 min to 7 min. As if our finals weren't already challenging enough without the constant change to our exam schedule and formats.
3) Nevertheless, I am very grateful that this really is the last semester. After finishing our OSCEs for medicine (in March), the medicine group would switch to surgery for another seven weeks. That will be followed by the surgery OSCEs, and finally the written papers and long cases for both medicine and surgery. All of that will happen in May, assuming no changes to our current schedule. If things go to plan, that will be the end of my time here in Penang, and then the next chapter of my life begins. But I'm getting too ahead of myself.
4) For the next two weeks, my sub-group (A7) will be based in Taiping. We have a week in sub-internship and another in the wards / clinics in Taiping Hospital. While I would have preferred to remain here in Penang, I do appreciate the opportunity to experience teaching at different clinical settings. Looking forward to starting tomorrow, and with that, I'll end my blog post here. Thanks very much for visiting as always, and have a great week ahead. Cheers!
If time + effort = results, I wouldn't be worrying so much about our finals
My third BLS course certificate.
In my humble opinion, the advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) courses should be made a pre-requisite for medical students instead
Miss the good ol' Sepoy Cafe!
(it's now permanently closed)
(it's now permanently closed)
L-R: Olly, Sagar, Mariss, Myself
Back at Kim's Korean Restaurant
Thank you so much Rach for the super-belated / super-early birthday dinner!
Ah Gu Pan Mee for lunch today
(starting to wonder why they call themselves pan mee if their specialty is clam noodles...)
No comments:
Post a Comment