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Medicine is still a beautiful profession
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LETTER | The medical profession in Malaysia has been tarnished by incidents of bullying and harassment in the recent few months on top of the ever-recurring issues with house officers and housemanship training. However, this noble profession is not all about doom and gloom. For every negative encounter or unfortunate incident reported, there are millions of positive ones albeit not announced nationwide.

I underwent my housemanship training in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah from July 2013 till July 2015, a defining two years with plenty of positives and fond memories. I started out with beaming enthusiasm, just like many other junior doctors. However, with universal stressors at work such as long working hours and an overwhelming number of patients, tensions arose inevitably.

Some went down the dimmer path of exhaustion, frustration, anger and apathy. On the other hand, I was blessed to cross paths with countless role models in the fraternity who pointed me in the right direction from the very beginning.

The first physician that I worked with in my medical career was Dr Giri, an ambitious and knowledgeable doctor who always encouraged us to learn and improve ourselves. There was homework assigned by him every day back then i.e. to study guidelines on various medical conditions as part of his continuing efforts to ensure that we, the junior doctors, learn it right the first time and to cultivate the practice of evidence-based medicine in us.

Upon learning that I was (and am still) interested in neurology, he even took the initiative to bring me around to see patients with neurological conditions during his lunch hour. Along with Dr Giri were Dr Reena and Dr Benjamin in the team with exemplary teaching spirits who would willingly stay back after work just to guide house officers through core procedures in the ward. In addition, Dr James, who worked from 7am till 8-9pm every day, was a living example of diligence and dedication.

A few surgeons had also contributed greatly to our housemanship training. Mr Chan would dedicate his time on weekends while being on-call to conduct teaching in the wards, to teach house officers on physical examination techniques, clinical signs, fluid and electrolytes management and treatment of common medical conditions frequently encountered in wards.

Kindness and empathy were part of his teaching as well. There were times when he generously parted with some of his own fortune so that financially-challenged patients could afford simple equipment to facilitate recovery after operations or to pay for the transportation back to their home a few hundred kilometres away.

The Obstetrics & Gynaecology Department in Hospital Likas was equipped with praiseworthy senior doctors as well. Specialist Dr Liew made it his mission to safeguard the rights and well-being of all house officers, to ensure that all house officers be treated fairly and none would be extended (in the rotation) unjustly through inappropriate assessments in an unprofessional manner by a few particular medical officers.

Dr Liew’s noble cause was upheld by many other medical officers (Dr Fuad, Dr Jeriol and so on) in the department who were always ready to offer their helping hand to house officers, willingly and unconditionally.

The Paediatric Department was full of brilliant minds as well. Dr Vasant constantly came up with creative and effective ways to impart his bottomless knowledge to the new generation of young doctors whenever the conventional ways failed to deliver. Dr Tan constantly challenged house officers with endless “Why?” questions to sharpen critical thinking skills so that we would not become mindless mechanics in carrying out our daily duties.

I am currently serving in Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) as a medical officer, still relatively junior in the service. There are challenging times when I stumble upon the edge and spiralling down the path of exhaustion, frustration, anger and apathy. However, whenever I look around, there are unwavering inspirations just around the corner always.

I’ve had the privilege to work with an accomplished yet down-to-earth nephrologist (Dr Yee) and neurologist (Dr Hiew) who started helping patients eagerly at 7am every day even when the medical officers were not in the hospital yet.

I’m also blessed with the opportunity to work with a dedicated consultant neurologist in Dr Shanthi who incessantly encourages the interested junior doctors to be proactive in medical research, who sacrifices her own time and resources to guide and mentor junior doctors so that we may excel in our work as well. Not forgetting also the wise senior consultant neurologist in Dr Santhi with her infinite words of wisdom for all future neurologists.

In addition, I have witnessed other overwhelmingly inspiring role models in action as well. Dr Thomas, a consultant in acute medicine and deputy head of department, is always ready to roll up his sleeves to help junior doctors in carrying out ward works till well beyond 5pm despite his significant superiority and busy schedule. In doing so, he has educated the whole medical profession that leadership is not a license to do less but a responsibility to do more.

Returning from work feeling inspired, safe, fulfilled and grateful has become so natural in every day that I work with him. Dr Ong, a consultant rheumatologist, stays in clinic till 7pm at times to go through all the patients’ folders and medical records even after a whole day of long, exhausting clinic hours to pinpoint the possible room for improvement in our patient’s management, all with the ideal of upholding the standard of care and service.

I believe every junior doctor starts out being enthusiastic. Everyone gets tensed due to the common stressors at work. How a junior doctor responds and progresses from there on is profoundly influenced by senior doctors in the team. The types of junior doctors whom we end up working within any ward, clinic, department and hospital depend on the possible differences that the senior doctors can make in these junior doctors’ lives. With clear communication of vision in providing world-class healthcare service and timely inspiration by setting good examples for junior doctors to learn more, do more and become more, our (the junior doctors’) passion in medicine will be further enhanced through blood and sweat and tears.

In dealing with the current generation of junior doctors, merely informing what to do may no longer be sufficient. Instead, making junior doctors understand why we do what we do and demonstrating through good examples how we do what we do can be the keys in moulding competent colleagues capable of sharing the burden of the world.

The medical profession in Malaysia is not perfect. The medical profession in Malaysia is not flawless. However, the medical profession in Malaysia is not all about doom and gloom too. A short five years into my career has convinced me that medicine is not just about the bullying, violence, hostility or harassment. It’s much more about dedication, inspiration, encouragement, hope and optimism. With this, I express my utmost gratitude to this profession, a beautiful profession.


The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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