People probably think I'm being selfish by saying this. I'm not trying to be mean, I just want you to know the reality of working as a doctor in Malaysia. Think of it as a favour - I'm saving you from greater harm.
Allow me to tell you about my day to day life.
I work 7 days a week, from one Sunday to the next. No, it's not considered overtime, it's your duty. If you want a weekend off, it's almost like asking for leave - you need to request for it and ensure other people will keep your patients alive and managed well while you're away. Which means extra work for your colleagues, so you feel kinda guilty when taking a weekend off. Itupun you're only limited to two weekend days off per month. For example, I'm off today, which leaves only four of my colleagues to cover two wards (i.e. anywhere between 50-80 patients). I would never survive if I was one of those four, so I still went to take the morning bloods and now I'm taking the rest of the day off. Sad innit?
Oh, and you only get 8 week days off per posting (4 months), with a maximum of 2 per month. May I remind you that this includes sick leave, because it's a known fact that house officers don't deserve anything, including being ill. My friend was admitted to hospital for 12 days for a bad lung infection and she now has no days off for this posting and has the remaining 4 days deducted from her next posting's allocations.
You do 6-12 oncalls per month, depending which department you're in (in some hospitals, it's up to 15/month). So on weekdays, it means you'll work from 7 am on one day to (at least) 5 pm the next. To make it slightly worth it, you get paid RM100 for all those hours of work and sleep + food deprivation. I've survived many times of working for more than 24 hours without food (only sips of plain water), once to the extent that I almost fainted while assisting an operation. I don't see how RM100-RM110 is worth the trouble.
And you know how 'appreciated' doctors are at work? I'm not even gonna go into the frequent scoldings/rude remarks and behaviour from patients and relatives.Let's just talk about parking. Everyone knows how bad it is to get a parking spot anywhere in Malaysia, but for doctors (maybe just in HSNZ, I don't know), it's even worse. The only parking spaces allocated for the hundreds (more than 1k maybe?) of doctors are the spots for specialists and 5 parking spots for the berpuluh2 doctors that are oncall each night. So dari pegawai perubatan UD41 (i.e. house officers) hinggalah kepada pegawai perubatan UD54 (senior medical officers), kita semua kena berebut tempat parking with all the staff in the hospital + patients + relatives, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Sweet! Itupun tempat parking yang 5 bijik untuk oncall doctors are sewenang-wenangnya taken by staff nurses, patients and relatives, without any consideration for the poor souls who have to work from 7 am till 5 pm the next day. And guess what? What I fail to fathom is how an admin officer who's my age can get a designated parking spot opposite the spaces allocated for two heads of departments, whereas medical officers who are really senior and are grade UD54 have to berebut just like anyone else!
Oh, and don't forget the daily upset and disappointment with the system, the society and so many other things - e.g. the education level of patients and parents, the horrible number of teenage and premarital pregnancies, the difficulty in getting help for those who really need it etc. Try explaining to a 15 year old mother about how to care for her premature baby who was born at 29 weeks and weighs less than 2 kg. Or discussing + consoling a mother who has been brushed off by the shariah court and police when reporting the abusive and paedophilic behaviour of her (ex)husband. Or persuading a young couple to keep their baby (who is critically unwell) in the ward despite their misguided belief that their child is well (and then having to deal with them again when the baby is readmitted).
Career-wise, you have to work really hard to prove yourself or in any way get yourself noticed/heard/appreciated. A lot of times, the principle is "you're crap until proven otherwise". And sometimes, once you make one simple/foolish mistake, that means you're doomed for the next 7 months (4 months + being extended for 3 months) - you'll kiss people's feet to get redemption. For some house officers (usually senior), they have the skill of looking good in front of more senior doctors, and it seems to work for them to get through each posting. But I personally prefer the hard way - you earn your merit by striving for it.
Despite all of the woes of working, it's not all gloomy days. You have to strive to be happy and try hard to look for blissful moments that can be enjoyed. You also need to find things to take your mind off work during the few hours a week that you're not at work, like swimming, the movies etc.
So, like I said, you gotta really think about it. I don't want you to become a doctor and then just regret it for every day of your miserable life. And then end up taking many days off because you can't cope, or coming to work but not performing up to par and compromising patient care.
And to those who have the misfortune of ending up as my patients, I beg for your patience and understanding when I'm being sarcastic or impolite. I may have been working since 7 am the day before with little sleep, so I really cannot be all smiles when you come in at 2 am in the morning for something minor, only to request discharge at 7 am. And I cannot be attentive when you want to ask me about something if it's disrupting me in the middle of something more urgent. We house officers have to work hard all day so it really is slightly annoying when we have to deal with petty things - it really isn't an emergency when your baby's wrist band tertanggal!
Allow me to tell you about my day to day life.
I work 7 days a week, from one Sunday to the next. No, it's not considered overtime, it's your duty. If you want a weekend off, it's almost like asking for leave - you need to request for it and ensure other people will keep your patients alive and managed well while you're away. Which means extra work for your colleagues, so you feel kinda guilty when taking a weekend off. Itupun you're only limited to two weekend days off per month. For example, I'm off today, which leaves only four of my colleagues to cover two wards (i.e. anywhere between 50-80 patients). I would never survive if I was one of those four, so I still went to take the morning bloods and now I'm taking the rest of the day off. Sad innit?
Oh, and you only get 8 week days off per posting (4 months), with a maximum of 2 per month. May I remind you that this includes sick leave, because it's a known fact that house officers don't deserve anything, including being ill. My friend was admitted to hospital for 12 days for a bad lung infection and she now has no days off for this posting and has the remaining 4 days deducted from her next posting's allocations.
You do 6-12 oncalls per month, depending which department you're in (in some hospitals, it's up to 15/month). So on weekdays, it means you'll work from 7 am on one day to (at least) 5 pm the next. To make it slightly worth it, you get paid RM100 for all those hours of work and sleep + food deprivation. I've survived many times of working for more than 24 hours without food (only sips of plain water), once to the extent that I almost fainted while assisting an operation. I don't see how RM100-RM110 is worth the trouble.
And you know how 'appreciated' doctors are at work? I'm not even gonna go into the frequent scoldings/rude remarks and behaviour from patients and relatives.Let's just talk about parking. Everyone knows how bad it is to get a parking spot anywhere in Malaysia, but for doctors (maybe just in HSNZ, I don't know), it's even worse. The only parking spaces allocated for the hundreds (more than 1k maybe?) of doctors are the spots for specialists and 5 parking spots for the berpuluh2 doctors that are oncall each night. So dari pegawai perubatan UD41 (i.e. house officers) hinggalah kepada pegawai perubatan UD54 (senior medical officers), kita semua kena berebut tempat parking with all the staff in the hospital + patients + relatives, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Sweet! Itupun tempat parking yang 5 bijik untuk oncall doctors are sewenang-wenangnya taken by staff nurses, patients and relatives, without any consideration for the poor souls who have to work from 7 am till 5 pm the next day. And guess what? What I fail to fathom is how an admin officer who's my age can get a designated parking spot opposite the spaces allocated for two heads of departments, whereas medical officers who are really senior and are grade UD54 have to berebut just like anyone else!
Oh, and don't forget the daily upset and disappointment with the system, the society and so many other things - e.g. the education level of patients and parents, the horrible number of teenage and premarital pregnancies, the difficulty in getting help for those who really need it etc. Try explaining to a 15 year old mother about how to care for her premature baby who was born at 29 weeks and weighs less than 2 kg. Or discussing + consoling a mother who has been brushed off by the shariah court and police when reporting the abusive and paedophilic behaviour of her (ex)husband. Or persuading a young couple to keep their baby (who is critically unwell) in the ward despite their misguided belief that their child is well (and then having to deal with them again when the baby is readmitted).
Career-wise, you have to work really hard to prove yourself or in any way get yourself noticed/heard/appreciated. A lot of times, the principle is "you're crap until proven otherwise". And sometimes, once you make one simple/foolish mistake, that means you're doomed for the next 7 months (4 months + being extended for 3 months) - you'll kiss people's feet to get redemption. For some house officers (usually senior), they have the skill of looking good in front of more senior doctors, and it seems to work for them to get through each posting. But I personally prefer the hard way - you earn your merit by striving for it.
Despite all of the woes of working, it's not all gloomy days. You have to strive to be happy and try hard to look for blissful moments that can be enjoyed. You also need to find things to take your mind off work during the few hours a week that you're not at work, like swimming, the movies etc.
So, like I said, you gotta really think about it. I don't want you to become a doctor and then just regret it for every day of your miserable life. And then end up taking many days off because you can't cope, or coming to work but not performing up to par and compromising patient care.
And to those who have the misfortune of ending up as my patients, I beg for your patience and understanding when I'm being sarcastic or impolite. I may have been working since 7 am the day before with little sleep, so I really cannot be all smiles when you come in at 2 am in the morning for something minor, only to request discharge at 7 am. And I cannot be attentive when you want to ask me about something if it's disrupting me in the middle of something more urgent. We house officers have to work hard all day so it really is slightly annoying when we have to deal with petty things - it really isn't an emergency when your baby's wrist band tertanggal!
