I am a house officer working in a general hospital in the city of Johor Bahru, Malaysia. I don't know how's other places but life here is hectic.
During my O&G posting, I reached hospital at around 6.30am and I have to finish seeing my patient before my medical officer/specialist do their round. I started my day with hypoglycemia and high corticosteroid and adrenaline. It is very stressful because within 1 hour or so, I have to see about 20 to 30 patients. I magine the time I have for each patient. I have to finish my round before my MO/Specialist come if not I will get scolding. It is unusual if I don't get scolded by them. But I understand that's life and they have to be strict to house officers to make sure work is done. I continue to work and if I am lucky, I get to have my lunch. If not, I have to rely on gluconeogenesis and adipolysis until my dinner comes which is around 8 to 9 pm. We have to do round 3 times per day. If I am not on-call, I call it a day at around 9pm. Worse still if I am on-call. I have to work for about 40 hrs. from 6.30am to 9pm the next day. I got 10 to 12 calls per month!!It is very very tiring. Again, that's life. Our hospital has the highest delivery rate in Malaysia (and I heard even in the world). We deliver 50 to 60 babies per day and sometimes even more! I get to do procedures like manual removal of placenta, instrumental deliveries etc. I must say the training here is tough but is good. My medical officers and specialist are not very friendly unlike other department I have gone through. I think there must be due to stress that makes them like that.
My other posting were much better. My MO's and specialist ar friendly and the stress is less. This is most likely due to the fact that we they are handling sick and ill patient and the medicolegal issues are less compared to O&G. In my internal medicine posting, I get to do procedures like peritoneal tab, chest tube insertion, centra line insertion etc. And over here you must have the initiative to learn as our MO's and specialist are too busy to teach us.
Despite having a tough life here, I do enjoy my housemanship. I hope you will post here to share with me your working experiemce in your hospital.
Whatever it is, you must make yourself comfortable whenever you work. Then only you will enjoy your work!!
