Hello, I am See

Hello,friends, phew... at last I am free to scribble something here. I have been working for almost 3 weeks, however, I still find it hard to adjust my status from medical student to house officer. I was lucky being posted to Paediatrics department where all the colleagues, MOs and specialists are nice. A gentle start for a 1st poster =)

The first few days of working life were difficult for me, tagged from 7am to 10pm, 25 mins drive from home (I don't complain much about it, as long as I can go back home everyday =p), and blur all the time. I was depressed not because of long working hour, but I felt that I am incompetent most of the time. Even worse when I worked around senior HOs, I was always wondering how can they be so confident or know so much or just so pro?!

I ended up crying at a dilapidated corner of hospital where I thought nobody would have seen me. Mana lah tahu, one of the Paed MO saw me. So, the next day, she approached me after round to ask if I was ok. The other MOs were very nice too, whenever they saw taggers, they will brief us on what we should do/should not do and teach us some basic and important knowledge to survive in this posting.

It's undeniable that I learnt a lot during tagging and done a lot of mistakes (not tracing result, forgetting to endorse medication in drug chart, missing out some points the specialist mentioned, etc) too.

Bad things happened, but good things too. I was thankful that my colleagues were willing to guide me during procedures despite busy ward work. The kind MOs will shower me with "See, have your lunch already? You better go and eat now." "See, you can pass over the case to people-on-call, go to eat or take a bath or do whatever ..." "See, you ok ah, got problem or not?"

I guess I am getting a little more used to my HO life now, and life gets better after off-tag. It's a different world when I can go back home at 5pm and work half day during weekend, the flower smells nicer, the zephyr feels warmer and even the ward seems more welcoming. There's still a long way to go, hope that I can pick-up things faster and do less harm to patient. Wish me luck , people, I definitely need that!