Day 1 : Surgery Posting

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahim, today 11 th August 2008 is the day I blog.Yes, this is the day where I started blogging, pouring out my feelings, views, vent my anger or "ketidakpuashatian' etc.

The day started off by clinical briefing by Prof Latiff at the auditorium.The session started at 9 am and me being the smart ass came late.It was completely unintentional.I began my journey from home and I was caught in a traffic jam.Hang ni pun satu Nabil pasaipa hang pi ikut jalan tu kalau dah tahu traffic light situ mcm siput.The late is not like really late.It was only like 2-3 minutes late! However, I admit my mistake to prof.I know well that 1 minute difference can save lives in clinical settings.And so, dapatlah penumbuk gaban Prof Latif kat bahu tadi.After the briefing, we had sessions according to our respective group.The surgery posting group consists of 16 people and we met 2 of our professors of whom are experienced surgeon.They are Mr Ahmad Awil Adam ( aka 'Triple A') and Dr Ahmed Ali Abdullah from Yemen.We were given our clinical logbook , guidelines and other books.I must say that clinicals is about self-directed learning.There is nomore clear cut stuff like you learned during pre-clinicals.In pre-clinicals you can read, discuss and do the exams and pass with flying colours.During clinicals we have to apply our basic knowledge, apply and improve our psychomotor skills and most importantly improve in our affective domain ( communication skills, verbal/non-verbal skills)

Later in the afternoon, we went to Hospital Putrajaya.I had lunch at the cafeteria.Hanan didnt eat becoz she is puasa-ing and Odi, my senior who is currently doing her O&G posting were there also.She basically told me all the things which made me a little bit worried and afraid.At 2 pm, we went to the surgery ward.I must say that all the H.Os , M.Os, nurses etc were seen to be perplexed.It was as if they were invaded by a group of aliens.Serious sh*t I tell you, it was written all over their faces.That made me a lil bit worried becoz the reception was not really encouraging.But I still think positively, as the old Malay saying goes "Tak kenal maka tak cinta". The we were introduced to 3 lady surgeons.Yes, LADY.One was baik, one was tak nak tengok muka kami lansung, and one was garang.Again, I am not going to judge them becoz "Tak kenal maka tak cinta".

At 3-4 pm, we all gerak to our resource centre in Precint 9 Putrajaya.We waited for our Prof to come.One thing I would like to say is that our teaching and assesment is very much different from our pre-clinical years.In preclinical for example, I had SCTL, PBL,Clinical correlation sessions, OSCE, OSPE etc. But in clinical years, I will have to be accustomed with many new ways of learning and assesment.I am going to have TBLs( Task Based Learning), Seminars, CCP( Combined Case Presentation) , CPC (Clinico-pathological conference), short case presentation, long case presentation etc .Not to mention the ward rounds ( general, pre-op, post-op), clinics hours, operation theatre, bed side teaching etc. I am still trying to digest these new stuff.

One word that can summarise me for today."MIX feeling".I am feeling excited and afraid/worried at the same time.Will I perform?Will I able to meet the expectations?Will I learn things that will benefit me and ultimately to my patients? Only time will tell...