Don't feel like studying or doing anything productive now, so decided to blog a bit, especially since I have not been updating this space for quite a while.
Honestly, paediatrics posting has not been as scary as what I expected in the beginning. Granted that the learning curve is super steep and we are fresh to the max in the wards, somehow the motivation to keep going to the wards has not waned despite being already 4 weeks into the posting. I think the kids must have some magical powers that repel the sian-ness which tend to grow stronger the longer you are into a posting.
"We are doing our first posting in our first clinical year." This disclaimer has been repeatedly mentioned to all new tutors I have met, and it worked most of the time. Mind you, they say if you throw a stone in NUH paeds dept you will almost always hit a dean's lister. Their expectations are higher than normal average people to begin with, and we were the first batch to students to enter paeds as the first posting. Hence I find it particularly important to make that disclaimer right from the start - to keep their expectations in check. Otherwise they might misunderstand that we are either total noobs or super slackers who have slept through all our previous years of medical school, though I admit that I am guilty of both haha.
I was expecting a very tough time during my first week of posting, but I guess I was fortunate to meet many nice seniors in the ward, whose much-needed help guided me through the initial difficulties. The two HOs in ward 45 were super nice and friendly, so were a group of M5s who gave us impromptu tutorials. I found what one of my group mates said was inspiring - "I shall be a nice and helpful M5 next time!" Indeed, meeting helpful people really made the difference in our approaches to paeds. Not to forget that some of them have truly brilliant ways of classifying the mountain of knowledge we are expected to acquire. I guess that is the standard that I shall aspire to achieve one day!
Portfolio review (part 1) was honestly quite stressful for most of us. It was our first time writing portfolios and we did not have a good idea of what was expected of our reports. Perhaps I should thank my tutor for setting an early deadline which forced me to complete my write up earlier, which allowed me to offload this burden earlier. CEX was a mix of good and bad. The tutor commented that my history taking was OK but I flunked my physical examination. The case was a pretty straightforward GE, but I failed to examine any of the signs for dehydration. As expected, I was heavily penalised on that component but I fully deserved it. =(
Now something about hall life. As Gavin aptly described, I guess there are quite a few of us suffering from the third-year syndrome now - we have become foreigners in an environment which we have been very familiar with in the past. There are just too many faces that we do not recognise in Hall nowadays! Dinner has also become a big problem. I am getting really sick of chicken! Suddenly I really begin to miss the Hall caterer's food. It might not be the best food I have tasted, but I truly appreciate the convenience and the free flow of rice. Oh well, I guess I'll have to endure about 2 more weeks!
OK, now it's time to bathe. Tomorrow still have to be at the Children's Emergency for the whole morning. Hopefully I'll get to see some interesting cases so that it will not be a wasted effort!
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