DAY 212

Apr 1

1) Today has been a really tiring day, but no less exciting for it. The main itinerary of the day was the "Time Bomb Conference", organised by MMII (Malaysian Medics International Ireland). For this, I was up by 6.30am sharp, to ensure I reached Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) by 8.00am. We attended a short briefing, to ensure that we knew each of our roles inside out. Our schedule was fully packed for the day, so there was not much room for delay.

2) So in total, there were four talks by Dr. Ignacio, Dr. Little, Dr. Khoo, and Dr. Flannagan, respectively. In between each of these talks, there was a lot of interactive games to be had. The first of this was the "debates" segment, which was actually a Crisis event taken from a MUN (Model United Nations). Essentially, participants role-played as ministers of WHO in tackling a bio-war crisis, which had a certain "Professor X" who had created a "Virus X" and was threatening to unleash it upon the general public. The general consensus for the session was that there was a lot of active participation, with some groups actually able to cast suspicion on who Prof. X was.

3) In the afternoon, over lunch, the participants had the opportunity to visit various booths set up, which all had the common theme of "Time Bomb" or "emergency situation!" written all over them. Among this included sessions on Emergency First Aid; everything from DRABC's (first-aid procedure) to performing CPR and using AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillator). It was really fun and interactive throughout.

4) The last event I was involved in was the Forensic Games. Participants were broken up into groups, and rotated across four different stations, where they had to investigate the death of a certain "Uncle Soon". Afterwards, they had to piece together all the clues to formulate a prognosis as to how the victim died. There was a short quiz afterward, designed to test the knowledge and understanding of the patient's disease. I was particularly impressed by how fast everyone was able to answer the questions. Although some of them were quite straightforward, some required ample in-depth knowledge and the participants certainly didn't disappoint.

5) By four plus, the last event had ended, and everyone went back. Everyone except us, who were involved with the event. We had a semiformal feedback session, where we got a chance to voice our opinions on the event, and suggest improvements for the future. By 5.30pm, everyone was completely drained, so we called it a day. Yours truly still has an exam to worry about this coming Tuesday, so it was back to Mercer Library for another round of study. Of course, it is quite unreasonable to think that my brain will last long after what has been a hectic day, so I packed my stuff early and went home to take a well-deserved rest. That has been my day, and hopefully you enjoyed reading about it. Thanks as always, and have a great day. Cheers!

P.S. Do scroll down for many pics of the event. Enjoy ^^

Group Photo with the Street Doctors

The Stanley Quek Hall

TCD

Biscuits and fresh coffee/tea - who can resist? ^^

Conference set up, sans the participants XD

Chicken fried rice for lunch

CPR session

View from the second floor of TBSI (Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute)

Group photo with the Street Doctors of Ireland

TIME BOMB!!

Me and "Uncle Soon"

Yes, that's all that was left of poor Uncle Soon

MMII 2017 :D

Dinner in Mercer Cafe

DAY 211

Mar 31

1) So finally, we had our Anatomy Card Signing today. To be frank, I didn't prepare much for it, instead focusing on the Histology Quiz due next Tuesday. At least, I did spend the previous day revising all of the previous lectures. That would have to suffice I guess...

2) Card Signing started at 2.00pm. Essentially, it is an oral exam where the examiner asks you questions about whatever you have studied on that region, and you don't have much time to think. Grades are divided between an A, B or C. Some examiners choose to use "+" and "-" to further separate the grades. So today, we got Dr. Farrell for our group. What I didn't expect was for him to ask us about the lower limb - this was supposed to have been covered in the previous test.

3) When it came to my turn, he asked me a lot on the lower limb, the muscles, vasculature etc. It took me all my effort to remember what some of these structures were called, and I kept confusing names up. Fortunately, I still managed to pull through, and felt really happy when I saw the "A" next to my name. To be honest, I feel there's an element of luck involved in getting good grades, as I remember toiling for days on my first card signing and still ending up with a B.

4) The rest of the day had me in the library, taking a nice (albeit short) break in the afternoon. Woke up from a short nap and started studying for the Histology Quiz. In the evening, my friends and I met up at the Coffee Doc, to prepare for tomorrow's event - the MMII Time Bomb event, at Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute. My friends and I are in charge of facilitating some sessions throughout the event, so there's plenty to discuss and coordinate among ourselves. Hopefully everything goes smooth sailing, and the event turns out to be a great success!

5) That has been the gist of my day. Hopefully you enjoyed reading about it. I'll be ending on this note. Thanks for reading as always, and have a great weekend. Cheers!

A very sunny day at St. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre ^^

Pasta carbonara for lunch today

DAY 208

Mar 28

1) Today has been a long day for me. As it was anatomy today, I made it a point not miss any lectures. Anatomy lecture was followed by our anatomy practicals immediately after. We learnt a lot today from our surgeon prosector, Mr. B. E. Lane, retired Consultant General and Gastrointestinal Surgeon at Beaumont and Conolly Hospitals.

2) In the afternoon, I stayed back as we had our first tutorial on Evidence Based Medicine, which will become one of our main modules next semester. I find it interesting that we are covering all aspects of medicine, from the actual "meat" of the subject, to the other no less important aspects of medicine. I was also in a bit of a dilemma as I didn't know we needed to know our passport number today for our "Garda Vetting" session.

3) Thankfully, after a long time searching, coupled with a bit of ingenuity, I managed to find out my passport number from one of my old emails. Problem solved, then. "Garda Vetting" comprised a form which we had to fill in if we wanted to be given clearance to do our clinical component at the teaching hospitals. Luckily, everything went smoothly from then on, and we finished our lessons.

4) I returned to the library, where I've spent the rest of the day. Later that day, I went to Dunnes to do some grocery shopping, in preparation of my cooking tomorrow. Card signing this Friday, Time Bomb event this Saturday, and Histology Quiz next Tuesday. Then a brief respite before the final exams, starting end of next month. Time is passing so fast, sometimes I wonder how I'm coping with all this haha. One step at a time, I'd say. Anyway, that's the end of my blog today, and thanks for reading. Cheers!

Horse-drawn carriages are not an uncommon sight in Dublin ^^

National Garda Bureau form

Fried Rice for lunch