House MAN
–
Fire Man
–
Police MAN
–
Super MAN
(by Dr. Roland Victor)What do they have in common? The 24-7 nonstop duty.
WHERE AM I?:
I have been posted to Hospital Teluk Intan which is my 3
rd
choice. It’s still much of a challenge (being a KLcitizen). However, I thank God for not being sent “across the seas” since it’s just 2.5 hours drive back to KL. It’s a peacef
ul townsimilar to Kursk 5 years ago apart from having McD, KFC n Pizza Hut!! Everything is just a stone throw away, ideal for a H.O tosave money since things are cheap here.
MY JOB:
I am currently in Pediatrics ward. Nothing much on the first few days beside paperwork and assimilating to the Malay-sian hospital management. Working is a bit stressful, starting from 7am till 5pm. There are ample of wardrounds (H.O rounds,M.O rounds and Specialist rounds). Be prepared to clerk continually to the point that you feel like a secretary. It seems that the
paperless system is not succesfully implemented. You’d be surprised that you have written about 50 sheets of forms and papers
with your name chopped all over the place from the time your patient enters the ward to the time he walks out. The irony of doingthis in a high-tech ICT country.
“ON
-
CALL” basically means 36 straight hours of work. Dream off the days of REM sleeps because patients will pop
-up at
2.50am, and another by 4.00am and another at 6.00am. The good part is, we now do less “on
-
calls” due to the increased numberof doctors in the country. The bad part is, the lesser calls, the lesser RM100 you earn. However, I’d still pick sleep over t
heRM100. A good sleep is undeniably PRICELESS.
MY SOCIAL LIFE:
Other Housemen have claimed that I am a Martian trying to fit in all the things I used to do back in univer-sity. Squeezing time late at night for EPL matches, cooking, fulsal and a bit of socializing. As a doctor, you should be completerole model to the society and avoid the unhealthy lifestyle. I stand out among the obvious. Trust me, people do seriously look up
to you. So don’t be like the rest, OUTSTANDING is the word.
Last but not least is this advice to those who are graduating soon, or to those who would like to start early:If you wish to have a flying start in the Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (KKM) system, do download the Malaysian protocol
from the KKM website from each department and read it up. A simple and easy way to manage patients in Malaysia. Don’t waste
your time. The Russian and Malaysian system are different. What we have to do as foreign grads be it from Russia, Ukraine,Egypt, UK or anywhere around the world is to adapt as soon as possible.Wishing all of you the best of luck in the coming exam. Congratulations to KMSA for living up to the dot com age.
Dr. Roland Victor(Former President of KMSA)
LIFE AS A HOUSEMAN IN SIBU
by Dr. Benjamin HoHouseman life practically begins with tagging for 10-14 days, depending on the department you are assigned to.Surgery-taggingfor 10 days.7am till 11pm everyday. After the tagging period, working hours will be as office hours (7am till 5pm). The best on-calls would be on Friday , leaving office by Saturday 12 noon. Do try to brush up on all your practical skills, anatomy and physi-
ology. Remember how to handle “fluid and electrolyte balance” in patients. (Eg: How to manage hypokalemic patients in terms o
freplacing, maintaining their fluids etc). Try to learn as much as possible from the senior House Officers and Medical Officers. Getas much rest as possible. Stay strong and NEVER GIVE UP.
Dr. Benjamin Ho(Hospital Sibu)
HOUSEMANIN ACTION
by Sherlyn Marcella.
What can you expect after 6 years of stuffing your nose under those thick medical books? Relief? Joy? Excitement? HOR- ROR? 2 of our seniors took some precious time off to reveal toour editor-in-chief, to be shared among us, the present stu-dents, the topsy turvy life of being a House Officer in Malaysia.
Here it goes….
Anesh says……
Many of us
Kurskians
are bogged down by depressing issues these days, be it exams,pending
atrabotkas
, post-
holiday depression, but the winning trophy has to go to the MMC‟srecent decision about our summer practices. Don‟t even think I‟m going to talk about this
matter. I myself self-admittedly am indulging in denial, and still picture myself going back tothe Land of
Nasi Lemaks
in July, as usual, without problems…
But anyway, we all need a break from this issue. I wanted to touch on something thathas been very close to us since the day each of us landed on Slavic soil. It has been creepinginto every aspect of our lives; it can make our mundane life here interesting, but also can ruinlives for some. All of us indulge in it, it is, the one and only, GOSSIP!
Gossip can be defined as rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature. I‟m not
going to broach into celebrity gossip and what not, but about personal, everyday gossip, thekind which deals with your family and friends.Why do we gossip? To make life more spicy I guess, like the curries we love so much.So there you have it, the recipe of good gossip. You get a juicy, meaty piece of informationabout someone, then add some curry powder by twisting some facts, and then add salt bymaking your own wild deductions about the person, and voila!It is undeniable that within the Kursk Malaysian community, gossip is a major issue.
Every one indulges in it I‟m sure, except for handful I guess (really
ar
?). But why do we do it?
Simple. It‟s too BORING here. Entertainment in Kursk is almost non
-existent. Some peopleindulge in excessive consumption of a certain type of beverage,
ehem
. But otherwise people
can‟t seem to entertain themselves enough. So, people resort to one of the liveliest forms of
entertainment since the origin of human speech, GOSSIP.We gossip about who coupled with whom, who broke up with whom, who fought with whom,who moved to apartment with whom, who moved back to hostel because of what, who went to
Switzerland with whom, who is rich and loaded, who isn‟t sitting in lecture with whom, whogot so drunk on New Year‟s Eve, who did this, who did that, who this, who that, who how why
when
arrrrrrrrgghhh
!!
There‟s just too many. But things do really get a bit ugly when a person‟s reputation is
tainted. And the way stories get twisted and turned is simply unimaginable. You can experi-
ment. For instance, let‟s say you make up a story about someone to your group mates. Let‟ssay you tell them that „A‟ slept with an
Evropa
cashier. Give it a good one week, and don‟t besurprised if by the end of the week a friend comes up to you and says, “Eh
macha
you heard
about „A‟
ar
, it seems he slept with a
Gastronom
cashier in
Gastronom
itself and people shop-ping saw them and our dean also was there and he saw and expelled him on the spot la
macha
!”
Notice in between the excited yells of “
macha
”, the basic fact remained, but wastwisted and spiced up. This is a very wild example, but sort of encapsulates what I‟m trying to
say.Word here in Kursk spreads like wildfire. There are no secrets. The moment something leaves
the cavity of your mouth, it‟s a matter of time for the whole community to know about it.
I guess indulging in a bit of „small talk‟ or „
cakap kosong
‟ among friends is acceptable.
But if it involves facts about other people, sometimes even people you are not even acquaintedto, then its best to mind your words, especially if the information is not verified. Because re-member, when you tell Ali something controversial about Lim, and Ali tells Muthu the same
thing, and Muthu asks Lim about it directly, and Lim asks “who told you?” And Muthu says
Ali and later Ali says you told him in the first place, Lim might want to kick you in your
glu- teus maximus
.
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