Pre-HO Crash Course 3.0

Assalamualaikum folks!

Alhamdulillah I was given the opportunity to join the Pre HO Crash Course 3.0 in International Youth Center, Cheras - organized on the 22nd and 23rd of November. 

I must say it was a good program, money well spent, definitely! A friend posted the ads on our facebook group and I took a peek at the page. At first I was like, mehhhh RM280 (RM 230 if you register in a group of 3) for a program that does not offer clinical skills slot? I'd pass. But one fine Monday morning I discovered that I got in for the December intake of housemen... I decided to go. After all, I am going to KL anyway for one last babysitting job before switching career!

Let's cut to the chase.

1. What did I learn in the Pre-HO Crash Course?

A lot of things I didn't expect to learn. Like, how to write in a patient's BHT (haha I've listened to my mom using this short form BHT or "ticket" a lot but I just knew it stands for Bed-Head-Ticket), how to draw your physical examination finding. How to clerk a patient the Malaysian hospital way, I supposed?

Definitely a lot of other abbreviations commonly used in local hospital - well, you might as well find this on the internet or other housemanship guide book but, this is where you'll find the motivation to take the time and actually do something with the list of abbreviations. We were also briefed about how to present a case the way our superior wants it to be presented, how to refer cases and a selayang pandang of the forms in the hospital. Also important lab values, and interpretation of other investigations. 

2. What was the most appealing feature of the program?

For me, it was the follow ups. You see, this is the only prep course I've attended pun, so I really could not compare. But I love that we have a facebook group where Dr. Iliana - oh, she's our main speaker cum organizer of the course - would discuss findings with us. She'd also post reminders, motivations and I believe the network we built from the program would make a good support system for future needs. 

3. Who should attend the program?

Any medical graduates from outside Malaysia who intended to work in Malaysian hospital. This program will equip you with a decent, if not sufficient amount of exposure of what to expect as a houseman officer. 

4. How did I feel after the program?

Excited and eager to learn and work! 

5. When is the next pre-HO crash course?

Lucky you, there is another round of pre-HO crash course this January!!! Even if you're not going to be posted in January, I believe it is best to attend this course as soon as possible. Because some extra time to do your preparation would be nice. Before attending this course I basically don't know what to do, where to start, but after the program, I go into this "Wahhhh so little time so much to do" mode. 

Basically anyone who had ever went through housemanship can tell you the things you'll learn in this prep-course. But no one would spend two days with you to tell you all these stuff, organize it in this manner, under the assumption that "Alah...this one you will learn during your tagging period..." and also "this one so simple and easy, no need to tell you lah.." 

By the way, InshaAllah I will be sharing my notes with you on my housemanship experience. Ye la I kan nak jadi the happy houseman and make friends with many other happy housemen as well! 

Ok lah, so if you're interested. Here's the link to the Pre-HO crash course for further details.

one of my favorite thing from the program. at first i thought of printing the oath and adding some of my own positive affirmations on it and i plan to recite it every morning before work. apparently Dr.Iliana had prepared this cute oath cards for everyone - i have 2 extras if you want one! ;-)

I also bought this Najibah notes. I encountered mixed feedbacks regarding the notes - and I have yet to go through them myself , so will see lah about that. RM 70 for 4 subjects. 

The participants received two RM15 vouchers to be used to buy books, tools or white coat from Hanz Med Shoppe and F.A Signature. I used mine to buy a coat and got my stethoscope engraved.

After the Pre-HO course.

I have been busy and also pretending to be busy with unimportant stuff. But I'm finally going out for a walk (well, I wish I could jog, but I have been severely inactive this 6 months, I don't think running would do me any good tomorrow). I'm starting slow. I am also going through the ultimate handbook we got from the program - which listed topics we have to master, and list of abbreviations. I'm going through the list and hopefully actually reading the topics soon!!! 

Disclaimer : This is not a sponsored post. I'm writing this because I think everyone should know about it, benda baik kita kongsi, tak gitu? 

Till next time, :-)

pre-housemanship MMC. SPA registration and interview [links included]

After finishing medical school [congratulations!] this is the step you need to take to become a houseman in Malaysia. Recently the Ministry of Health had announced the waiting time for housemen is between three to six months. I am one of those who get to wait for 6 months and I suggest you complete the necessary procedure ASAP once you have the required documents.

Registering with SPA.

This is a very easy step. Just go to Portal Rasmi Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam and complete the registration. Once you're done, call SPA or email them to book for your interview date. For an updated contact details, click here. 

1. Go to the post office and get RM20 money/postal order payable to The Registrar Medical Practitioner or Pendaftar Pengamal Perubatan.
2. Fill in the forms : also  available here  

• Tambahan : Borang yang perlu isi - it comes as a set from the link above, just make sure you complete all forms la.
• Borang 4 : (Peraturan 20) Akta Perubatan 1971
• Borang Pengakuan
• Borang Maklumat Tambahan
• Fitness to Practice Declaration
• Borang Pengakuan Pengenalan Saksi - Saksi isi

1. Get your documents certified.
2. Go to MMC or you can also mail it to them. Refer here for their SOP and timeline. (I was told you could get your MMC registration certificate the same day you hand in your application - well, this is defintiely not the case nowadays. Expect 1-2 weeks processing time. With the 6 months waiting time, no need to rush lah!)
3. Get your certificate by hand or you can also opt for the certificate to be posted to you.

Going to MMC by public transport?

Easy peasy. Take the train to Stesen Kuala Lumpur from Platform 1 walk to the right uphill until you pass a paid car park and you'll see an underground tunnel. Don't get confused as there's two tunnels, you're heading for the one AFTER the car park. Do not under any circumstances walk alone in this tunnel cuz it's super scary. Once you got out of the tunnel, tadaaaa MMC building is the one in front of you (opposite to the school).

SPA interview.

Now that you have the MMC registration number, you can now proceed to the interview. My advice would be to study the common diseases in the country. A good concise reference would be The Malaysian Medical Gazette, But really there's nothing to be afraid of, if your degree is acknowledged by MMC, you will get job. I got my appointment letter the same day of the interview but the group interviewing weeks after me did not get the letter and it was posted to them.

What to bring to the interview?

i) Kad Pengenalan ii) Sijil Kelahiran iii) Sijil SPM iv) Ijazah/transkrip penuh atau surat pengesahan tamat pengajian dari universiti v) Sijil pendaftaran sementara dengan Majlis Perubatan Malaysia dan vi) Gambar ukuran passport.

Interview questions?

You're gonna do well, don't worry about the questions. ;-)

Now that you have completed the 3 steps, you can join us in the waiting game. Enjoy the holidays!

p.s. Don't forget to send your your Borang Maklumat Diri to KKM. You can definitely mail the form as sending it by hand is quite tricky - and you're going to put it into a document tray je pun so no need to bersusah payah to go to Putrajaya.

Blog Rebirth

Assalamualaikum all you amazing people!

Alhamdulillah I finally got the blog up and running. My previous blog address onebonez has even been taken by other blogger. I am happy to start a new blogging journey using this new address. The name and the address of the blog had been changed multiple times before I finally decided happyhouseman.blogspot.com is the one. I've been blogging on onebonez for seven years and it meant a lot to me, but I'm taking my blogging activity to a new level and I believe change is good.

Why happyhouseman though I'm not even a houseman yet? Because I want this blog to be a reminder for myself - I want to be a happy houseman. To appreciate things I'm going to learn and people I'm going to work with. I don't want to be one of those grumpy doctors. I want a be one that makes people happy. Bear in mind negativity is not welcomed here. 

I will not share story about my future patients (I don't think it's appropriate) as the plan is to share notes on things I learn so my colleagues and juniors could benefit from it. Not to mention so many doctors have done that (sharing patient's story). For the time being, I'll just share some notes on my preparation (if there's any) and my life as a jobless graduate.

Note that the houseman stuff will be filed under "the boring stuff" tag.

Thank you for your time and I hope you would enjoy embarking this new journey with me.

Till next time,

XOXO.

soul mates

every time she worries, she'd asked him 'what was that verse you told me, about Allah being the best guardian?' and he would recite this to her and she would repeat after him. sometimes she gets it wrong, and he would correct her. again and again.

'your abah taught me this ayat, فالله خير حافظا  so no need to worry. inshaAllah everything will be alright.'

i guess that's what soul mates are for, to make you feel safe and secure. to remind you that everything will be just fine.  to remind you of God and His Glory.

Access Kindle Apps on Amazon in Malaysia

I recently got myself a new kindle fire HD for an extremely affordable price from Kedai Kamera SF. Even cheaper then some china tablet sold in Irbid!

I'm going home in 25 days and will be studying for my finals and carrying 567 grams kindle is definitely more convenient than carrying at least 15 kgs of textbooks. Okay I exaggerate je... takkan lah nak baca semua dalam 2 bulan ni kan? Kalau angkut bawak balik semua pun membazir kilo je...

The downside of using kindle ni adalah if you are outside of the US, you cannot purchase anything from the Amazon appstore - even the free ones! You need a U.S credit card and U.S billing address. Today I will share with you HOW to solve this problem step by step.

1. Create a generic email account on Gmail and set your location to the U.S.
2. Create a new amazon account using the email you just created and use to register your kindle.
3. Go to shopereaders.com click here . Choose  USA VISA pre-paid Credit Card + USA Address - 0 $ Balance for $5.99 . Kalau perasan ada lagi satu option lain yang kita boleh top up visa pre-paid ni, tapi untuk setiap tambah nilai you will be charged 20$. Beli duit dengan duit ni..ha.. takut terjatuh ke lembah RIBA' pulak kan. Visa prepaid ni sama je macam visa prepaid lain, ada card number, expiry date, CVV, billing address. Dalam masa 48 jam dari pembayaran kita akan terima maklumat ni semua melalui email. 
4. Dengan adanya kad dan billing address ni, set up 1-click payment option - masukkan maklumat-maklumat yang dah diberi. Now you can download lah semua free content on Amazon Appstore.
5. Try Amazon Prime - free 30 Days trial - buy books at waaaaaaaaay cheaper price and you can even borrow them for free!

Okay selesai dah satu masalah. Now, what if you want a content yang kena bayar? Buy a gift certificate. Untuk beli gift certificate, tak perlu US credit card, you can use Paypal ataupun guna kad debit biasa pun boleh. Gift certificate ni boleh beli serendah 0.01$ dan tak ada caj tambahan. Bila kita nak beli apa-apa dia akan tolak dari baki gift certificate kita.

I prefer buying ebooks on KOBO - sebab KOBO selalu ada discount coupon. So I got KOBO sideloaded on my kindle (next tutorial pulak) so now I can enjoy books from both KOBO and Amazon. Oh I am a happy reader these days! 

Rindu

Assalamualaikum!

Azam tahun baru 2014 masih dalam proses perangkaan... Speaking of which, sila la jemput baca my article on MMGazette.com - New Year's Resolution : A Clinical Approach .

Tahun 2013 diakhiri dengan pertama kali menyaksikan patient meninggal dunia, 3 orang dalam tempoh masa 2 jam.. Mudah-mudahan jadi peringatan untuk diri sendiri yang ajal datang menjemput tak kira usia. Sama-sama lah kita usaha untuk jadi hamba yang bertaqwa dan mendoakan satu sama lain.

Pernah dulu dengar di kuliah orang yang rindu pada Tuhan mengharapkan mati kerana ingin sangat bertemu denganNya. Ye lah kan, kalau kita rindu keluarga, mesti tak sabar nak balik kan?

Dalam satu buku lain pulak aku baca, kita mengisi hidup kita dengan kecintaan pada manusia, harta, dan kehidupan sebab kekosongan yang ditinggalkan bila kita terpisah dari cinta sebenar kita - Tuhan. Tapi sifat sementara dan tak sempurna ciptaan, menyebabkan kita sentiasa kecewa dan tak puas dengan apa yang kita ada. Sebab tu lah orang telah menemukan cintanya pada Tuhan akan segera mahu pulang. 

Tapi kan, kita pun banyak lagi lompong-lompang lagi. Tahu takut nak mati tapi selalu culas beramal dan berbekal. Allahu Rabbi... 

Yang kita tak tahu adalah kalau kita hidup hanya mengharapkan redha Allah, semua masalah akan jadi kecil. Cakap memang senang...

Syahdu-syahdu ni bukan apa... Hati ni rindu sangat nak ke tanah suci...Mudah-mudahan ada rezeki tahun ni. Doakan lah ye!

p.s. Semoga Allah merahmati awak yang membaca ni. :-)