Kejap Ea- The Hospital Diary of Group 4

On the morning of 16.1.2013, SGD Group 3A waited in the lobby of the HUSM Medical Department along with Group 3B for their scheduled Hospital Attachment slot for the day. It was 8 ‘clock and round five minutes passed before Dr. Hanif came out to greet us, later showing us to one of the tutorial rooms where we were seated to wait his further instruction. After taking attendance, we were split into seven groups of two or three. We toured the wards, dropping of the small groups to their designated chaperone doctors as we went.

 Our little trio, consisting of Nuralia Najwa, Fadhlin Sakina and myself were left under the watch of Dr Azleena in the female medical ward, Wad 7 Utara. Dr Azleena was at that time also supervising a Posting Group of Fifth Year Medical Students on their ward rounds. After a brief introduction, we joined the group, observing the morning routine of a doctor , our white coats allowing us to fit in a little better, despite the fact that we’ve only been here four months. We observed for a while, taking in the atmosphere of what it must feel like to be a Fifth Year, or a house officer.

 Dr Azleena explained to us what some of the information on the charts meant, and also pointed out a few things that were common sense to doctors, such as drawing the curtains when performing an examination on a patient. She also told us that teamwork was important in medicine, from simple things like helping a patient up to discussing a case file.

 Approximately fifteen minutes later, we were joined by a specialist doctor, whose name seems to have escaped me, unfortunately. His arrival seemed to speed up the tour of the ward, as we scuttled from bed to bed, greeting and observing the patients in each one. We went quite swiftly, the specialist rapidly carrying out his work in fashion that only years of experience could produce, so quickly that we poor little first years had trouble keeping up with all the fantastical new jargon. He shot off questions to the students, and even asked us a few.

 He asked lightning-round questions about the patients to our seniors, and when he was met with no answers, he firmly told them off. I chatted with a few of our abangs and akaks,asking them if that was a routine event when you were lucky enough to get to fifth year. They laughed, and simply replied, “Biasa lah tu, dik.” We sped along. More questions. More diagnoses. We observed. The doctor talked to his patients. A houseman joined us. We looked at an x-ray. There was another team working parallel to this one, and it seemed as though we were racing them. At the final bed, the specialist rushed off, presumably to do some specialist-like things.

 Dr Azleena seemed a bit too busy at the time to babysit three first years, so she called a house officer, Dr Syurahbil to show us the ropes. He however, seemed no less busy, so he told us, “Kejap ea, nanti saya datang balik,” and sped off to attend to patients. So, we milled about, keeping an eye out for any interesting things along the way. He told us to wait in the treatment room, and there we remained, till he came back 10 minutes later.

 We chatted him up as he did his work. Sure, it was a little awkward at first, but eventually he got along to giving us some advice about being a student. He wasn’t as serious and uptight as I initially made him out to be, as evidenced by his advice to enjoy our time as students, and his off-handed little joke about it still not being too late to quit. (Haha)

 He took us around while he did blood tests, and asked us to fill out a few test forms and medication orders for him. He mostly did Arterial Blood Gas tests and Blood C/S tests for the duration we were with him. If he was tired or overwhelmed, he never showed it; just slapped on a smile and went back to work. Although, he was busy, as most of his replies were preceeded by a “Kejap ea,” prepare some instrument/samples/forms/ then answer the newbies. He asked us if we knew anything about the procedures he was doing, and we couldn’t answer. With a knowing smile he explained how the ABG was to test for respiratory gasses and why the blood C/S test was done.

 However, the day came to an early close, at about 2 o’clock as he had to attend a seminar later that day. He dismissed us, and we thanked him. So, that was our experience during our hospital attachment slot. It wasn’t as exciting as a first-hand look at a surgical procedure that some of the other students got, but we still did learn a thing or two.

The End