Category Archives: All in a days work

as a medical officer

Simple detective work – to look for people

Posted in All in a days work by

How do you find a particular someone in a sea full of people? Well.. I was put on a test today.

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A few weeks ago, a middle aged lady was referred to our centre from a private GP for subsequent management. After this lady was assessed by an attending specialist, Specialist M, at our hospital, it was decided that she needs further investigation at a tertiary hospital where the facilities were more advanced – in this case, they had a CT scan machine available.

After the patient was transferred there, I have quite forgotten about the case until Specialist M wanted to see her again – for educational purposes. *gasp*

I did the easiest thing I could imagine, I traced her Casualty card to get her number. I then met Panic & Horror as the phone number belonged to someone else. Patutlah tak angkat.  The first thing that crossed my mind was, “OMG.. do I really need to get the police involved in this – to track her down and get her number?!!!” That is like so dramatic right..

I suddenly remembered that she brought along a relative who happened to be working as part of the private cleaning company in our hospital. Too bad I don’t know her name since she is not working in our unit. I tried my best to describe this particular relative to the other workers but alas, they are unable to recall who this lady tembam2 with tudung is. I was at wits end, I even tried to google her name in case someone mentions her on the web. Or if she by chance has a Facebook account. kerja gila.. I know. 

After much silly effort within that long 30 minutes, HELP came in the form of a friend.

“She was referred from a GP right?”

“Yes”

“Why don’t you call the GP and ask for her details. When patients register for the first time, they usually get their contact number and all”

OH bless him! And indeed he was right. I spoke to the GP owner herself, explained my predicament and voila.. I managed to give the patient a call and confirmed an appointment. Now that is one way how you find a person in a sea of people.

Emotion overload

Posted in All in a days work, Good Things by

It was a bit of a roller-coaster ride this week. Mixed emotions of anger, despair and elation all rolled into one. Not knowing which had a greater impact to the physical being – just realizing that at the end of the day, the physical body succumbed to exhaustion drowning still, in adrenaline. Not even my usual cup of coffee helped to ease the tension. And an extra cup was not much of a help either.

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I never expect people to understand the tiredness that comes with working in the Operation Theatre (OT) or in Casualty. If my fellow colleagues in other departments couldn’t even get why budak2 GA penat onkol OT padahal duduk tepi mesin je.. how would I expect other people to understand. Or those who thinks us in Casualty just knows how to shout orders and sit at the desk writing case histories??

Well my dear.. if only you understand the gravity of an Adrenaline Rush. Its when the potential of all your 5 senses are heightened firing rapid, fast, continuous impulse to your brain. In a way, it prepares your body for a fight or flight situation. Imagine this happening for long hours everyday – inevitably the mental fatigue and physical weariness ensues.

percayalah.. even though the anesthetist looked like their just watching the vital signs monitor – a lot of things are racing through their mind.

What if the patient woke up

What if the bleed continues

What if this, what if that

haih. penat. 

So yes, sounds very negative right? Until something happened today. Dalam marah2, tak puas hati and kelam kelibut.. and of course the adrenaline rush..  God carved a way to forgiveness and redemption.

A colleague needed help today and like reflex, everybody put their differences aside and worked together as a team to stabilize the patient. And for a while everyone had amnesia of how much trouble some people caused some people.

Consequently? I felt less tired and happier. *peace*

A possibly tragic October

Posted in All in a days work, Everyday Life by

Just thinking about next months roster and added responsibilities are already making me an emotional wreck. Not to sound melodramatic, but family time would be affected and my son would probably not recognize me as Mummy. Maybe the mumia mummy. Huhu.. exaggerate lebih.

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But then again, who am I, a little medical officer in a district setting to complain? oncall sikit pun nak cakap banyak? yah yah.. Im sadapping. I’m sure my counterparts in the tertiary hospital are having yo-yo feelings regarding their job as well. Their job demands are tougher, they deal with more lives than we do.

Big, profound changes are coming my way soon. I would say most are half-baked ideas but then an orthopedic surgeon once said, if you can’t give a solution to the problem, don’t even think about raising the issue”

So yeah, keeping mum.

 

Of passing exams …

Posted in All in a days work, Everyday Life by

My colleague and I passed our skills exam recently. The questions were not leaked like the recent UPSR paper thus the success felt more sweet and deserving. We studied diligently for the theory and practical aspect of the exam – we pooled our resources and shared what we knew with each other. All this for an exam of a 1 day course. 1 day theory, next day exam. Ha ha. Even Mr Husband was impressed that I was reading something serious. LOL.

“Omg.. I can’t believe my wife is studying … you haven’t opened a proper book for two years!!”

Yes, his exact words in his sarcastic, sing-song tone. Ahem.. I have been opening my books in between traffic light stops okay..

terpaksa belajar takut fail then malu dgn haousemen

On my part I did not feel the need to hide any extra information – I never was the type who would do that anyway because I honestly think that there is nothing to lose by sharing the ‘extras’ that we have. In fact, the more we share.. the easier it is to achieve a certain goal  – in this case, saving a patient’s life – because we are all thinking along the same line of thought.

While some advocate for an exam-free environment, I for one is a strong supporter for the implementation of a formal exam to gauge one’s competence in skills and theory. An exam should not be the sole measure of one’s ability though, and should be supported by ongoing informal observation of one’s character and interaction with others in his/her daily duties. At least that is what Pan-Ro in Good Daughter, Hana (Korean drama) thinks. And I agree.

Nevertheless, the passing or scoring on an exam is not to give one a reason to gloat over the success. It should in fact serve as a reminder that many aspects come into play to get such good results – hard work, smart play and team effort. On top of reinforcing the knowledge that we thought we have and is doing it right and safe.

Now that I’ve passed – I feel more confident to guide my colleagues who didn’t have the chance to participate in the course. At least I can say without doubt,

” aku dah belajar canne nak buat from specialist – come I teach you and we learn the proper way ”