Another day at work

So work this week, it's somehow not so hectic. the lowest load we had was 9 pts to spread among us 3 interns. which makes 3 pts each, and most of them were just happily watching television. lol

Today i made a bad boo boo, with a bad bad IV gone wrong. Not that bad, but still i hit a nerve, and the pt was in so much pain she cried and cried and it's an elderly lady that usually has a good pain threshold. She said she couldnt move her hand after a while... I was there all the time beside her except when getting stuff to test and flush the IV. In the end i took it out and got my co-intern to do a good job with a drip. Went so well that i felt worse lol. Guess i need more practice.

My nights on Tuesday was nice and cruzy. only 2 pages the whole shift. how awesome was that lol. Hope things go well for the coming weeks.

my first night cover and my first week of work

Night Cover /naɪt ˈkʌvər/ (noun):

1. Time when Ker Fern has to work from 7.30 am to 5pm like a normal day then 5pm to 9.30 pm covering 2 teams of patients which is about 20 to 30 patients.
2. It is the time when he gets a bit flustered, when the Cover Registrar gets Ker Fern to do him so many favours including 5 x-rays that were urgent with ?perforation.
3. It is also where i did my first catheter on an awake female patient and wonder if i am going to give her an infection. I also had to assess a ?bowel obstruction with a guy in lots of pain.
4. Had 2x blood cultures (for septic screens) to do and had a difficult to bleed patient and had to do this at 11pm
5. All in all, i survived, thinking this is definitely so much better than what life would probably be in Singapore. But i still have lots to brush up on: i need to be faster. And i need need need to learn to hand over and present cases better. All over the place is not a good place to be.

I love my job, Especially when I manage to pacify a worked up family member, when i reassure the family after the patient comes out of surgery or procedure. And also it feels good when you actually know more about the patient than the consultant. (it is kind of expected but i was so used to knowing less about a patient than the consultant when i was a medical student).

Lastly, i am very thankful for the consultant who signed off all my overtime this week.

Also January is zipping fast quick, it's already 24 Jan 2011, cant wait for nikon d800 rumours to come true. Hopefully it will have the new SD UHS1, backlit or new gen of sensor and also new noise reduction capabilities. For those who missed an awesome post of a new compact camera here it is: http://hx9v.blogspot.com/2011/01/sony-hx9v-on-net.html#more

First day of work as a Doctor

another 4 months lapsed since i last posted and i promise more posts as i travel along my work life. to check that i have a work life balance.

Curently a general surgery intern with 2 other interns with about 25 patients. Cant complain especially with my friends in Singapore that are going to be much more busy. Those who already are doctors in sg are probably laughing ;p

Well it was busy 12 hours at work. Notice i still have lots of things i dunno. And shockingly some i cant look up and have to ask. Like the practical aspects of how much IV morphine to put under PRN (pro re nata, latin for administered as needed), how much fluid to order and how much antiemetics to give.

Other wise. the female Opthamology reg returned my call after a case as i was making a referral for a patient said, "darling, you have to do the visual acuity before u have called me." Well i did try but not hard enough, it was due to a language barrier that made it real tough. After the 'encouragement' from the reg, i spent like 20 mins doing the acuity properly and got the history of the eye problem. Wish i spoke cambodian.

And I think i say sorry too many times, for making people wait, esp discharging patients waiting for their paper work. Hope i say sorry less and get more efficient.

Wished i could have gone for spin class tonight. Probably should suspend gym membership till i get a hang of things. Wanted to do swing my 16Kg Kettlebell, but well too tired and i got to help my friend prepare for interview for tmr. Hope he gets the job =)

Things i want to read tonight: fluid orders, analgesia doses, antiemetic doses

haven't updated in 4 months!

Lots of thing have happened in the past 4 months.

I am still in love with my gf of more than 2 years, I got a job next year as a doctor in melbourne, I got a bit sick of shooting pics and had a nice hiatus. I have gotten more messy in terms of house hold chores, I am still proud of using my 5 year old laptop and not giving in to temptation to buy a new one. I watched sound of music, My fair lady for the first time.

My career path has changed or gotten a bit more hazy. Cardiothoracic surgery has fallen out of my list. And Radiology has gone into the list. And i still love radiology even after so many months from my radiology rotation.

Now I am on cardiology and it pains me to see a specialty i always like lacks diversity in patients. Maybe i cant take over specialisation. I may end up a generalist.

5th year

I realise there is so much i do not know. the more i inquire the more i realise that just scratching the surface of this insurmountable pyramid is a slow but sure way to tackling this whole entity of knowledge.

Expectations of the 3rd years have increased after meeting many that are really just bright and burning to learn. But i fear that my expectation become too high, and i communicate too much information, or that i demand too much.

A doctor, english for the latin doctoris which means teacher. And a good teacher has higher expectations of what the students can delvier, but not too high such that the students give up and not spur forwards. Motivation is key, but how do you keep people striving, hungry for more? is it to just keep having passion to deliver experience and knowledge? or is there someway else to keep the light burning, the attention undiverted, in this vast distractable world.

how education impedes creativity

watched a TED talk about just this topic and got me thinking to write it up.

Our current formal education with whichever part of the world has been developed by people at the epitome of acadamia. This has resulted in us modelling the peak of education is that you end up as some professor in the Uni. Little did we realise that the end point is not the same for everyone. What happened to the rest of the professions, be it skilled labourers and also people in the Arts.

Arts have been relegated to a lowly rank in our education since the start of industrialisation to give way to mathematics and science. This has led us to prosper, but also lead to the loss of creativity. We end up wanting to be ahead of others, end up fear failure. Fearing failure is the biggest flaw in the current education. With the fear of failure, there is no room for experimentation, for imagination, for we dare not take the step that is not certain, not definite.

Creativity stems from this willingness to take risks, and to accept failure as a possible outcome and learning through it. Innovation is but a win after the many losses.

So accept the fear of failure, but strive to take risks for innovation, for we cant stay stagnant anymore.

How i worry about Singapore's future

Today i met my 小姑 my dad's youngest sister, she was nice to come visit my place as dad's youngest cousin from Malacca is staying at my place for my cousin's wedding tmr.

She is a teacher in Singapore for the past 4 decades and what i heard instilled fear in me with regards to the prospects of Singapore's future. the problems can be summarised as follows, and can be considered general sweeping statements:

1. children these days are too pampered by their parents: they are no longer 'hungry' for success as parents provide them with cars, money, houses easily. This lack of 'hunger' has led to students not having the right attitude towards teachers
2. teachers of the newer generation no longer maintain the line between students and teachers. a likely cause for the teacher love fiascos, molests. Teachers start having physical contact with students even in conversations.

What this means for the future of Singapore:

1. the pampering and the lack of boundaries leads to lack of motivation. Students used to fear punishment by teachers, and the fear motivated them to study. I am not denying other forms of motivation. But it's so much harder to motivate students other ways.
2. Foreign students that come in are going to or rather already have superseded the locals. It's always the 'hungry' that will fight harder, and with other variables kept the same, the one that fights harder usually gets the prize.

i do not have a solution. But the way things are, if left to carry on. Will lead to the downfall of Singapore. The generation pampered, raised by maids.

My dad's studetns who came to visit

Here are pics of dad's students who came to visit my house.

Back in Singapore, the year is done

This year ended not so nicely. not as i expected. i borderlined my GP and Psych OSCE exam. So i had to sit for supps (supplementary paper). That in turn caused me to cut short my Sydney trip with the darling short and fly back 1 day earlier to study. Thank goodness and God that i have such a caring gf to support me as i studied.

Well out of the 4 stations, 3 went well. 1 was dementia ddx. and it was hard to assess the simulated patient as she kept trying to divert ur attention away.

anyways. back in Singapore now. playing with film =) started using mum's old 35mm film slr. it was the first Nikon to do TTL metering the FG 20 =) lol. may play with mum's old medium format twin reflex camera. it's a Yashica D. the lenses are a bit tarnished though will try cleaning it up first. Just learnt that it uses 120 film. and prob only can get it in peninsula plaza.

meanwhile go check out my latest Sydney shots =)

exams are looming.

exams are in like 17days. and i am just starting to study properly. was studying, but somehow doesnt stick in the head.

I noticed that i havent spent much time reading news recently, and it was reflected when i had a convo with some new people i met. Feels abit sad to be in the dunno rather than in the know.

I had fun so far this year. all the intensive knowledge acquiring and all the interesting people i met along the way.

I'm probably flying back Singapore 10 Dec, because i have to spend sometime on the photography club and some time with the GF =) before we head back to humidity.

good luck to studying guys. and remember to take breaks and eat chocolate.

That's Life

IT's been so long since i last updated. i apologise for the long long hiatus. HAd been preoccupied with little studying and a lot of photography.

here are some photos that i previously promised

Cheryl's Birthday




The Naked truth (Melbourne Spring Fashion Week)



And on a side note, I got elected as The Monash Caulfield Photography Club President =)
Really happy about it, but a little stressed, as exams are starting 12 NOV! Thank goodness the club doesnt need that much attention now.

here's the club website
and our sister club at clayton

back to studying now =) GP rotation sure is good for studying =)

And i realise something is wrong

Think for the past few weeks i have got my priorities wrong. Been putting photography way ahead of my studies. Resulting in me doing only mediocre =( Did well for my psych assignment though.

I wan tto do better than jsut mediocre! i promise to study harder for GP and VIA. at least 3-4 hours of work a day =)

Photography, wat have i done with u? Shot so many things and events. Shot 3 Fashion parades/runways/events. Then shot Andrew's 24th birthday and Cheryl Seow's 21st birthday. The editing of the photos is the real killer. Finished with the fashion stuff ,but not the birthdays.

Will upload all my photos soon. The Naked Truth event was really interesting and i got to shoot models in elaborate sets! Resulting in prob the best shots in my life man!

Had an aunt that had a recent Stent for Carotid (artery in her neck) stenosis and also one put in her MCA (artery in her head). She's doing much better now, but on the 24th September, she's going to go for the same thing again but on her right side this time. Hope everythign goes well!

Saturday i am organising a shoot. And i hope things go well. A druggie shoot. Weather looks good on Saturday so far.

I got to bark up with my studies. For sure for sure, i will.