Housemanship was not an easy path
for me, and I believe it was the same for most housemen. Yes, we have heard
many have quit halfway for many reasons, in fact I was almost one of them.
Housemanhip for me is about survival, thus I may have not learnt much, but hey
I SURVIVED!!
Here I would like to share some
tips to survive housemanship J
· Prioritize you work – Make it a habit to list
down your job list for the day and prioritize work that need attention , eg:
radiology imaging request, referral, important blood taking. You’ll learn by
time which are important.
· Team work – Cooperate with your colleagues,
share the workload
.
· MOs and specialists are always right – Of course
their knowledge is superior to yours, and even sometimes you might not agree
with them, they are still your superiors. All you have to do is nodding your
head. Remember, just to survive! J
· Just do it! – Don’t think too much. Just come to
work, do your work and go back. Let the cycle continue and get used to it. Try
to reduce the time you think about how pathetic your life is, how are you gonna
survive the day, or why did you choose to be a doctor...you are jut adding the
stress. Make yourself busy, and you won’t even realize time is up.
· It’s okay kalau kene marah, bukan mati pun –
This is something you can’t run from, so be prepared. We are still learning, so
yes we are going to do a lot of mistakes. Getting scolded from your superiors,
nurses are usual and mistakes are your teachers. Even if you are getting
scolded, worst is you get feel ashamed, you are not going to die!
· Find your own time to eat, pray, pee, or rest –
Remember, your work will never be finished.
Don’t sacrifice yourself to be starving, lost track of time (this
happens a lot), hold your bladder and end up with UTI, etc. Always bring something in your pockets, energy bar, chocolates, buns. Pandai2 curi masa for yourself. TRY to be healthy. If you are not healthy, how to advise and take care of patients right?!
· Ask! Ask! Ask! – Housemanship
is your time to learn (even though you are supposed to do that during medical
school). Most of us will forget what we have learned during medical school,
mostly because we learned the theory and some of us did not have the chance to
hands on during medical school. Sometimes, what we have learned in theory might
be a little different with real life experience. Sometimes you feel like a
fool, you don’t know what you have learned in school. Use your housemanship to
ask as many questions as you can, even a silly one! If you don’t know, not sure
of something, having doubt of doing things, ASK!!
Plan your time off/break - I don't know how the system or the schedule works nowadays, but during my time housemen's schedule was made by one of us as well. Most of the time, since it was a 3-shift system, about 2 weeks before the next month, the so-called 'leader' will put up a blank schedule and gave chances to us to make any preference. For example, you want to plan for a vacation, then plan to take night shift and time off closer to the planned date, and then take annual leave a day or two afterwards, so you can have longer break. Plan your off day well, so you can spend quality time for yourself and with your family. Remember that housemen are entitled to annual leaves as well. (Tips!! Be smart to take your annual leave on a public holiday or weekends, because later after housemanship, you will have more annual leave balance because those we take on public holiday or weekends are not counted :))
These are only some that I can
think of. It was quite a battle for me
since I don’t have much passion. Hence,
I merely think how to survive this period. Those who really have the passion
for the profession, you should enjoy the time as a houseman, learn as much as
possible to be a better doctor. Yes, housemanship was a torture sometimes, but
it gets better when you are a medical officer, so try to bear with it! Again,
this is just my personal humble opinion.
== any inquiry can email me at nukezonne@gmail.com ==
== any inquiry can email me at nukezonne@gmail.com ==