No pain no gain trainning...

After 12 hours of strenuous event, I had seen 30+ food poisoning patients. There event took place 60 kms from our unit, in the mountain area where I visit from time to time during my Friday specialist clinic. The crowd of 70+ had eaten bento (a.k.a lunch box with rice and dishes) provided by a local supplier after the church gathering at noon.

6 hours later some of them had started to have crampy abdominal pain associated with vomiting and diarrhea.

There was no night clinic and the ED was packed with non-emergency patient….

I managed to manned the scenario alone and got half of them admitted to the ward.

Lem had told me that another 10+ came in the day shift and the total victims had summed up to 45.

I was glad that I had a good training during my day as an apprentice as I am able to manage such scenario without difficulty.

I had read a lot regarding the housemanship in Malaysia, unfortunately most of them are negative one. I was surprised that a HO is being paid up to RM5K per months… 2x to what I get during my days and the working hours had been shortened to 60 hrs per week. Boy, I remembered Mama Ng, the 1^st pakar perunding kanan(Senior Consultant) I had met. She is very senior in the field and during one of the meeting she told us that House officers are not allow to go home… house=in house = in hospital, she said that she would check from time to time to see if we stayed in the hostel. ( I skipped and never put up a night there, and never get caught...)

We worked

Mon -> Fri 7-6= 11x5 = 55hrs

Sat half day 7-12 = 5hrs

Sunday rounds = 3 hrs (yes… SSSSUNDAY)

Total hours = 63 hrs (without night shift)

Averagely 2.5 night shifts per week = 13x2.5 =32 hrs

Total hours = 95 hrs per week….

The experiences I gained during the 4 months proven to be so valuable during my practice. For medical officer and house officer during those day, the day shift is working under direction of specialist and the night shift is where one got more exposure(in the day 1->20 pts, in the night it is 1->150 pts) and learn how to make decision and manage patient themselves…truly it is that kind of exposure and work that make a doctor learn and advance in his/her skill…