Elective posting at SGH

It was an unexpected vacation.

And I came home a fruitful experience.

Now that so much of exciting and unforgettable memories that happened in Sarawak have replaced most of my memories as a bored medical student, I began recalling all the events that took place in the past 3 weeks.

If I were asked to describe the most memorable event that happened during the posting, I couldn't really think of a particular one because almost everything that occurred there were all so eye-opening. I expected to learn a lot of medical-related knowledge that would correspond to what I've learnt for the past 3 semesters but indeed it turned out that I've gained more knowledge on things that could not be learned from textbooks. In fact, I was so truly cheerful that almost at all times I was so looking forward for every event to come.

In the first weekend, I went for a rural clinic trip in a village called Nanga Sumpa which was at Batang Ai dam. The experience was great. If I hadn't joined the trip, I would not have come to learn that on the other side of the same country where I grown up, there is actually such a place so rural  and so inaccessible from the modern town. I did not believe in stories saying that people living in rural areas have to travel for hours just to see a doctor until the trip when all of us had to take a boat ride with no shelter for 2 hours to reach the village which is deep in the jungle in one of the islands of the dam. The experience wasn't bad at all. It was a wonderful ride indeed but it would be terrifying if you were sick and you had to travel on an unsheltered boat to reach the mainland. 

On the second week when I was supposed to stay at Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching, I decided with my 2 other friends that we follow Dr. Wong to Bintulu Hospital. He is a specialist there apparently. (It was merely a coincidence that we got to know Dr. Wong when we were looking for a place to stay in Kuching...and that when he offered to rent one of the rooms to us at Kuching...and also, that he told us about the rural clinic trip etc.) I would never want to miss a chance to go to more places although 3 weeks of posting is already short enough as compared to the usual 6 weeks ones. Here I'd really want to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Wong that all these unexpected changes of our posting had made our trip a much more interesting and worthwhile one.

I have no confidence to say that I have learnt a lot of medical-related knowledge as to compare with my other friends who had their electives done in other places. However, I have broaden my knowledge on so many other aspects of healthcare in our country. As Dr. Wong had been telling us since the very first evening when he talked to us at his home, that the most important parts of elective posting that a student should learn consist of social, cultural and economic aspects of the patients that we are seeing. After this posting, I've learned about so many other things that a doctor needs to take into account when seeing a patient especially if one is working in a place where there are rural areas.

Besides that, I would also say that it was a good experience to stay at a place far from home for a few weeks. You've got to solve a lot of problems that you might never come across when you're staying at home. First, you've got to find out the accommodation, how to travel around the place, other activities besides going to the hospital etc. It's great fun when you got to explore a new place especially you're doing it with your friends. Everyday you have to think of where you are going to have your lunch and dinner and perhaps because of this, you've got no time to be homesick. 

To me, who always enjoy eating, especially trying out for local specialities, I'd include gastronomic as part of the posting. It was so much fun to spend time researching on the best restaurants in town before catching a bus or a cab. It became part of our daily events indeed. 

How would I describe my posting? 

I certainly did not learn how to set an IV line, or how to perform a CPR...I probably forgot a lot of the medical knowledge that I expected to brush up on during the posting. But every other thing that I've seen here is more than enough to ensure that I've never regretted doing my elective posting here. 

Ah. Now that I'm back to the 'reality' at the campus, there are so many things to catch up and to learn. I've got to equip myself with knowledge before I can afford to help others.