Community Health posting and looking forward

9 weeks of Community Health posting. Now in week 7th. Week 8th is Raya Haji break aka mid semester break. Week 9th is end-of-posting exam.

Flashback 7 weeks ago, freshly walked out 2 months end-of-year 3 holiday. Freshly escaped from the smell of lemang and rendang during Eid, I was so glad I had CH posting first! Whilst another half of the class started to worry thinking about nightmares of meeting Mr. Ragu in HOSHAS and unexpected so-called high demanding patients in Ampang Hospital.

Tampin is a nice small town. Because dad is from Negeri Sembilan and I have relatives there anyway, maybe that was the reason why this heart didn't feel too heavy leaving Ampang to start a nomad life as a clinical student.

Community Health is considered a laid back posting, more relaxing compare to surgery or other disciplines. As I was unloading my luggages a few days ago at Sri Pandan, a senior saw me and we had a short chat.

'Banyaknya barang. Dari mana ni?'

'Baru balik dari Tampin sebenarnya'

'Oh baru balik dari bercuti la ni'

In Tampin, we live and do things like a boss.

CH posting has 2 main divisions;
1. Fulfilling all the attachments and visits
2. Conducting a research and organizing a health intervention day

And unofficially we added another; Jalan Time!

It's not always stress-free though, the atmosphere became tight and solemn when it comes to  meeting for almost every night discussing about research and 'decoding' statistical components using SPSS, worrying and thinking about back up plans when things went wrong with our surveys, dealing with a lot of people to raise funds and organize our health intervention day. Politicians, government agencies, public citizens. And that's about all. Other than that life is heaven!

Melaka Wonderland

True enough. Life in Tampin revolved around attachments at Pejabat Kesihatan Daerah, visits to all the clinics; Klinik Kanak-Kanak Keperluan Khas, Klinik Warga Emas, Klinik Desa, a week or so doing case study at Tampin Hospital, home visits. The rest of it we spent times going back and forth our research area.

If I were to enter data on our hours spent in Tampin into SPSS, computing output of variable with highest frequency would be

40% on the road
30% doing attachments
30% working on our research

The 40% on the road covers the to and fro journey from Tampin to our research area at FELDA Pasir Besar which is 45 minutes away, travelling from one small town to another to visit other Klinik Kesihatan or Klinik Desa, plus our Jalan Time to Melaka Wonderland, hunting for the best coconut shake in Melaka, lepaking at our friend's, and also wandering around Melaka to search for potential sponsorships.

Being in Tampin, reality struck me!

Malaysia is so hot! Gosh I missed Aussie! (only in winter heh)

Here, everyday is a free tanning session. Especially when things revolved around our fieldwork. Walking from houses to houses when the UV light is at its max! There was not a moment my transition glasses did not turn black when we were outside! My advice to dear surgery friends who'll start CH posting in another few weeks:

1) spare sunscreen in your bag
2) umbrella or a cap could be helpful
3) don't take for granted even though it's said that you'll only have questionnaire pretesting session, don't always expect it to be short and shady!

But don't worry guys, apart from your complexion would get a few tones darker, CH posting is fun!

Charcoal Mask

I missed my preclinical years. The eight to five schedule Monday to Friday. The same routine might bore me but the temperature makes me feel like I'd rather stay and sleep on campus not wanting to even step outside the building!

Our dean's office at level 13 holds the lowest temperature that's 16 degrees. And the rest of the floor stays at 22 degrees most. I missed my white fluffy sweater, something to cuddle underneath while taking a nap in the recreational room.

Comfy sofa in the recreational room

I missed my very own space in the lecture hall, my own locker to properly place all the textbooks.

In the clinical phase, the wards are generally where you should be in. Books? It's whatever you can fit into your white coat pocket.

Since we'll rarely be on campus, there's no usual lepaking place in the lecture hall like we used to have. Even stepping into the recreational room, the place is always filled with new faces I've never seen before. As if I'm a stranger. But somehow, some handsome looking juniors can brighten up my day.

I might have not yet experienced how bad it is being the low of the low in the ward (this reminds me how hard my surgery friends trying to cope), but imagine being a bimbo both at the hospital and campus. Ouch!

Nevertheless I believe clinical years will be awesome! And adventurous! And challenging! And maybe a little bit tiring! And torturing, a little bit mentally exhausting, and demoralizing. Erk.

I'm so anticipating to start my surgery posting! (Fingers crossed)

Ok. Maybe not so anticipating for now. But I'm pretty much sure I'll keep my fingers uncrossed in no time.

Sometimes I really need a smack in the head, a hard one! As a reminder that whatever I do, I do it for Him.

And they were not enjoined anything except that they should serve Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience, upright, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, and that is the right religion {98:5}

I am too weak and small to survive the hereafter with my own effort. So I am hoping and begging that a little contribution I'd do as a Muslim doctor would be my best investment.