The Beginning of My Duty as House Officer

Working life... have been tough for me. N i think for everyone too. Currently im working in Sandakan, far far away from my home, a place i never come n never thought would stay for years.

19/5/2014, i started my induction, which marks the beginning of my career. although that one week only sit, eat n sleep, but my salary started from that date. before that, i wanted to stay unemployed as long as i can, because i knew working life would be shit, n i wanted to chill n enjoy first. but i cant escape from reality, the medical degree im holding, means i have to go through shit. on the first night of induction, i got the letter of my posting. Sandakan. since then i had been busy searching for accomodation, because the hospital got no hostel or quarters for us.

24/5/2014, my whole family sent my youngest brother to his further studies. UNITEN doesnt look that bad, so he surely can do well there.  n thats also my last time i see all my family before i came to Sandakan.

25/5/2014, i came to Sandakan via MAS. i met her family, they were all good, n asked me to take good care of her. n i met my soon-to-be colleague Farid too. the journey was long, almost as long as Jogja journey. Sandakan airport is a small airport, n lousy as well. expected thing. we went to our own apartment, n i had to help her carry her heavy luggages up to second floor. n my own to first floor. Our apartment was just beside the big main road. so we could clearly hear all the cars n motorbikes passing. seriously annoying noisy shit. n there i met with my housemate, an indian lady, houseman too. she spoke of her 6 months experience here, a bit. apparently, we dont need to wear doctor coat, n during weekend just wear anything we like. we went Giant to buy some stuff, by public bus, n by the time we finished, its already quite late, n no more bus available. we had to call taxi, n the taxi charged per person, ridiculous thing.

26/5/2014, our first day in Hospital Duchess of Kent. total of 4 houseman entering this day, me, her, farid n nadiah. our pengarah gave us 2 choices for our first posting. O&G n medical. so me n her chose O&G. n since then...

for every new posting, we will undergo at least 2 weeks of TAGGING. while on tag, we need to work from early morning to late at night, everyday without rest. for O&G, its 6.30am to 10pm. for Paediatrics, what i heard is 6am to sometimes 1am. while on tag, we are supposed to learn everything, so that we can off tag n start operate, start on call. the first few days working, i didnt even know how the system work, things are so much different from my Koas time. n the short forms, seriously killing newbies. almost everyday i was scolded, from my MO n my specialists. from small minor things, to some quite serious mistakes, they would just scold in front of patients. until i had patient telling me that im very kesian kena marah in front of patients n she felt bad for me. i just smiled n said biasalah, memang i salah.

I finally off tag after 3 weeks, yeah got extended a bit but its ok for me, because i got more time to learn before i on call. my first on call was still 2 ho in antenatal, 1 in labour room, 1 in gynae. those in antenatal will take care of new admissions and the ward, those in labour room will take care of all the delivery, n gynae will take care of gynae, n go to OT if there is any case.

as more n more ho leaving O&G, n no new ho entering, after my 3rd on call, we only had 1 ho each in antenatal, labour room n gynae. n after that, on call no more from 2pm to next day 2pm (24 hours), but from 6am to next day 12pm (30 hours). i must say, working for 24 hours is tough, working 30 hours is tougher. n if there is any funny strange cases, or red alert, its hell.

we work more than 80 hours a week. compared with a teacher, who work less than 40 hours a week, n comparing our salary, seriously doctors are not that rich. n the amount of stress, between life n death, medicolegal n stuff, its challenging n scary. i have seen the one of the worst things in O&G, n that case stuck in our minds, even after almost or more than one month, i still can spell out the patient's name correctly.

there have been some patients telling me life as doctor isnt easy after seeing me working for long hours. those are good people, at least they are understading.

i try to mix well with the nurses. because i know i need them to help me most of the time. although sometimes they appear to be annoying, like asking me to pasang branula as if they cant do it n i have a lot of free time. but i just do it, because i depend on them a lot. they take vital sign, do pad charting, n measure urine. n clean shits. which i feel blessed they never come n say to me: doctor, patient itu dah berak, tolong pergi bersihkan.

i have time to write this entry, because i just finished my 30--hour call yesterday, n slept from 4pm to this morning, n im off today.