Don't force your kids to become doctor

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and Merciful

Few weeks back I posted one of my concerns regarding modern parents in my twitter account, and looking at the comments, I can see mixed response concerning the issue that I posted.

“Modern parents please tell this to your kids. Doctor is not a secure job anymore in Malaysia. Tak ada lagi istilah, lepas habis medical school terus start kerja jadi doktor. The trend now is ada yang menganggur almost a year after getting the MBBS. -Dr Ahmad Khairul-

Some of the comments, accused me of trying to demotivate our students from pursuing degree in medicine, some accused me of talking b***s***. Nevertheless, there are others who agreed and understand the message I’m trying to say to current day parents and students.

First of all, I just want to clarify that I have no intention to discourage anyone from pursuing their dream to become a doctor. If you really have the strong desire to become a doctor and ready to face all the challenges during the journey, you are more than welcome to join the healthcare profession. However, if you feel ‘goyang’ after read my statement, I pray hard that God will guide you my friend.

During my childhood time about 20 years ago (I’m 30 years old this year BTW), we always get this kind of advice from our parents, teachers, aunties and uncles in the family, “jadilah doktor, lepas habis belajar senang terus dapat kerja kerajaan, gaji pun boleh tahan” or “ambillah Engineering, senang cari kerja, gaji besar” . Doctor was considered as one of the glamorous professions during that time (and today also I think?).  Those advices might be relevant during that time, but I don’t think it is equally relevant in our current day setting. This is the reality in our country nowadays either you like it or not.

Workplace Enemies

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and Merciful

Assalamualaikum people. Today I just want to share this thought of mine that has been bothering me once in a blue moon ever since the beginning of my career, and I just wonder if you ever feel the same in your life. I work in a medical profession, a public servant to be more accurate. As much as cliche it can be, I believe every person in this profession either the doctors, nurses, medical assistants have a strong genuine desire to help other people when they choose this path in the beginning .

If base on experience I am still green in this profession, but personally speaking I cannot denied that there are certain things in the system that bothering me, I called it workplace enemies. Things like bureaucracy policy and the blaming culture which somehow affect the way we deliver our service, and when we unable to deliver our service as expected by the public, there you go COMPLAINTS.

I'll give you an example, I was trained in tertiary hospital and back there we will try to finish our elective cases for operation even if it already passed our normal working hours (8am-5pm). I'm not talking about 1 hour extra, sometimes up to 5 extra hours. But in certain hospitals, it only 4.15pm with one simple case left they already cancel the case because of  NO OT TIME. One team say "It is not our fault for cancelling the case, you drag to much time from the previous case," another team say"I'm sorry sir (patient), it is not us who want to cancel your case today."

Another example, usually when a foreigner without insurance coverage come to government hospital emergency department, they need to pay first before any procedure can be done (x-rays, toilet and suturing, blood investigations). Just imagine if a foreigner came with multiple laceration wounds limb deformity from an accident, unfortunately there is no family members around and he had no cash with him. We can only clean the wound and cover it with bandage while waiting for someone to come and pay for the x-rays and other procedure. As a result, there is a delay in treatment and higher risk of infected wound.

These are some examples of emotional stress that the healthcare providers in government sector have to face every day. In the beginning we do have a great feeling of empathy to the patients, but when you do the "right" thing like doing the procedure even though patient unable to pay, later on when they do the audit, the respective doctor will be responsible for the treatment cost. When you have to face this kind of bureaucracy repeatedly, slowly the empathy inside you will die and after some time you become a robot in the healthcare system. 

We need to address this thing properly, because if those working at the front line become demotivated it will affect the whole system. If you ask me, I think the higher up need to listen to the front liner more often, and the front liner must have a positive attitude when delivering the service. As for me, I try my best to keep my motivation on the right path, if things become out of control that is when I will take a break and go for a short vacation or drive back to see my parents. I alone can't do much about changing the whole system. We need a significant paradigm shift from bottom to the top for us to become better at delivering service. Yes it is difficult, but it is not impossible.

Dr A Khairul

Going Freelance: SOA creativearts

Pada tanggal 13 January 2014, dengan lafaz Bismillahirrahmanirrahim saya telah membuka akaun facebook untuk kerja sambilan saya sebagai freelance graphic designer. Alhamdulillah setakat ini, saya telah mendapat beberapa orang pelanggan tetap disamping berjaya memenangi pertandingan rekaan graphic design pada peringkat antarabangsa. Saya melihat perkembangan terbaru ini sebagai satu peluang untuk saya memanfaatkan hobi saya dalam membuat rekaan graphic design, di samping dapat mengasah bakat dan merasai pengalaman menguruskan “perniagaan” sendiri. Semoga SOA creativearts bakal menjadi salah satu titik permulaan yang positif bagi saya dalam menjalani kehidupan sebagai Muslim professional. Jika anda atau kenalan anda memerlukan perkhidmatan graphic designer, anda boleh cuba menghubungi saya melalui facebook page SOA creativearts. Saya sangat menghargai sokongan daripada anda semua.

“Choose to be awesome. Whatever your talent is, pursue it relentlessly. 

Do something to make it work”

A. Khairul

Sakit Mental, Jiwa dan Stigma Masyarakat

Kelmarin terbaca di Sinar Harian 23 Jun 2012, tajuk beritanya RAMAI PESAKIT MENTAL DI NS.  Memandangkan saya ada mengaji sedikit tentang sakit mental (masalah jiwa) atau mental disorder izinkan saya berkongsi serba sedikit maklumat. Tidak dinafikan memang wujud satu stigma dalam masyarakat tentang penyakit mental. Apabila berkata tentang pesakit mental, perkara pertama yang akan kita bayangkan adalah orang gila, aggresif, pakaian yang comot, suka meracau dan sebagainya. Namun begitu masih ramai lagi yang tidak tahu atau kurang jelas tentang kes-kes lain yang boleh dirujuk kepada Pakar Psikiatri seperti masalah ketagihan (addiction), kerisauan (anxiety disorder), masalah tekanan perasaan (depression), dan juga bipolar disorder.

Terdapat pelbagai faktor yang boleh menyebabkan seseorang itu mendapat masalah jiwa, sama ada disebabkan oleh penyakit semulajadi (seperti schizophrenia dan Alzheimer), kesan sampingan pengambilan ubat/dadah, atau pun faktor persekitaran (tekanan tempat kerja, di rumah, trauma). Oleh yang demikian, keluarga dan rakan-rakan harus peka dengan beberapa perubahan personality yang boleh memberi indikasi seseorang itu mengalami masalah jiwa:

Kanser dan Ketumbuhan (Bhg. 2)

Mengenal pasti tanda awal kanser sangat penting kerana ia dapat membantu pemilihan rawatan yang sesuai sekaligus mengurangkan risiko sel kanser merebak ke bahagian lain tubuh badan. Terdapat beberapa simptom yang boleh dikaitkan dengan kanser. Suka untuk saya maklumkan di sini bahawa simptom-simptom yang dinyatakan bukan khusus untuk penyakit kanser semata-mata. Untuk sebarang kepastian anda dinasihatkan berjumpa dengan doctor.

Simptom
 
Darah, pendarahan semasa membuang air, batuk berdarah, muntah berdarah atau pendarahan secara tiba-tiba daripada mana-mana bahagian badan. Ketumbuhan, kebanyakkan orang kadangkala menyedari atau dapat merasakan sesuatu yang keras muncul dengan tiba-tiba pada mana-mana bahagian badan seperti leher, perut, lengan, kaki, dan payudara. Kenal pasti jika ada sebarang perubahan secara tiba-tiba pada tanda lahir seperti saiznya semakin membesar, berlaku pendarahan atau pun kemunculan  banyak tahi lalat baru sekitar tahi lalat yang sedia ada. Luka atau ulcer, terutamanya luka atau ulcer yang tidak sembuh-sembuh setelah sekian lama. Sebarang bengkak sama ada yang menyebabkan rasa sakit atau tidak untuk satu jangka masa panjang perlu juga dicurigai. Simptom-simptom awal lain yang boleh dikaitkan dengan kanser adalah:

Kanser dan Ketumbuhan (Bhg. 1)

Cancer dan tumor?

Pada asasnya cancer dan tumor adalah perkara yang sama, dalam Bahasa Melayu ia disebut sebagai kanser atau ketumbuhan. Pada saya penjelasan ini sangat perlu kerana masih terdapat mereka yang keliru dengan maksud perkataan tersebut. Apabila berbicara tentang ketumbuhan, ramai orang menganggap ia adalah sekadar penyakit biasa, bukan kanser.

Apa itu kanser?

Badan manusia terdiri daripada beberapa sistem (sistem saraf, sistem peredaran darah, sistem pembiakan, sistem perkumuhan). Setiap sistem terdiri daripada beberapa organ. Setiap organ terdiri daripada beberapa tisu badan, dan setiap tisu badan terdiri daripada beberapa sel. Kebiasaannya  pertumbuhan sel badan adalah terkawal, tetapi apabila ia sudah hilang kawalan dan tumbuh “sesuka hati” maka itu yang dipanggil sebagai kanser. Contohnya penyakit leukemia yang merupakan salah satu kanser sel darah putih yang disebabkan oleh bilangan sel darah putih yang melebihi  normal.

Medical Posting: On-The-Job-Training

Dengan Nama Allah Yang Maha Pemurah Lagi Maha Mengasihani. Perkembangan terbaru, kini saya sedang dalam fasa klinikal program MBBS. Fasa yang sering dinanti-nantikan, masuk hospital dan jumpa pesakit yang sebenar. Dalam fasa inilah segala pengetahuan teori yang dipelajari sebelum ini akan diaplikasikan.

Buka balik buku-buku teks lama anatomy, pathology, physiology, microbiology dan pharmacology. Kena cuba ingat balik apa yang dah belajar masa pre-klinikal. Dalam fasa posting ini penekanan lebih kepada interaksi dengan pesakit selain daripada kemahiran membuat general dan systemic examinantion, selain perlu mahirkan diri untuk berkomunikasi dengan pesakit. Untuk itu nak tak nak terpaksa juga la belajar bahasa tempatan “kannada”, tapi tak sesusah yang disangka *senyum*.

What's up: Cherita Khairul 2

Pagi tadi kawan ikut mak kawan bawak Danial pergi Hospital Sultan Ismail sebab Danial ada appointment doctor. Adik kawan memang kena pergi hospital setiap 6 bulan untuk buat pemeriksaan telinga, gigi dan speech therapy. Kitaorang pergi pukul 7am dan habis semua sekali dalam pukul 12pm. Nak kata penat menuggu tak juga la, sebab kawan memang dah bawa siap2 benda nak baca tambah lagi bila Danial masuk jumpa doctor kawan pinjam la dia punya IPad main Angry Bird. *sengih*

Floor tempat Danial buat checkup tu memang floor untuk ENT, Psychiatry, Paediatric, Bedah Mulut. Punya la ramai budak-budak main lari sana-sini dah tak macam hospital, jadi macam playground budak-budak. Kawan memang suka suasana “nakal yang terkawal” so takdela hospital tu macam dull je kan, ala macam dalam cite Patch Adams yang Robin Williams berlakon tu. Lagi satu benda best pasal Hospital Sultan Ismail ni sebab building dia macam hospital dalam cerita HOUSE. Kawan dah duk terbayang lagi 10 tahun nanti kawan akan berjalan guna tongkat macam House kat HSIJB, InsyaAllah.

Dalam tengah menuggu tu kawan tengok-tengok juga la cara staff-staff hospital tu bekerja, ye la sekurang-kurangnya boleh tengok cara diorang communicate dengan pelawat. Kesabaran tu penting yop, jangan ingat yang pergi hospital tu semua boleh cakap bahasa melayu. So far cara layanan staff Hospital Sultan Ismail yang kawan nampak semuanya ‘mesra alam’ je.

Masa Danial tengah check telinga, kawan ada berbual dengan seorang akak ni. Anak dia ada problem dengan telinga and pernafasan lepas buat lymph node biopsy untuk TB. Anaknya, Sufian dulu kurus je tapi lepas buat operation badan dia terus naik, tapi itulah kena ulang-alik hospital every 2 months. Masa kakak tu bercerita muka dia senyum je, tapi banyak kali dia cakap “nak buat apa lagi ye dik, sabar jela,” terserlah kasih-sayang seorang ibu tu. Betul orang kata, jadi doctor ni bukan setakat nak cegah/ubat penyakit tapi kita juga kena jadi pendengar yang baik sebab kadang-kadang mereka yang datang hospital ni tak ada orang teman. Sebab tu tadi kawan boleh nampak Melayu, Cina, India duduk bersembang pasal family diaorang walaupun baru sahaja jumpa. Agaknya bila bercerita dengan orang, terasa kurang sikit kerisauan sebab ada orang yang senasib atau lebih teruk daripada kita.

“Thank you Allah for today’s lesson”

Khairul

Criminal Minds: Part Deux

I already stated my view saying crimes can be nurtured. Now the thing that we don't know is, crime can happens naturally in the sense that the person have some sort of disease which he can't control. This is what I want to share with you people.

Medically there's a condition called psychiatry disease which can be cognitive disorder or conation disorder. Cognitive is more to disorders of thought and perception like for example schizophrenia when the person said there are voices telling him to do this and that, or he perceive something which is not there. Conation is like the person brings the 'imaginary' thought into action like an arsonist/ pyromania (irresistible desire to set fire).

In a simple word mereka ni orang gila (sorry for the word I'm using). You can't blame them for crimes because they're unaware about what they were doing. Even though they are aware about it, they just don't know if it was right or wrong. That's why many people when they got caught, they try to pretend having mental problem so that they will not be punished for the crime (dan-dan nak mengaku gila, time lain bila orang panggil GILA marah plak). Too bad for them we have experts to identify feigned insanity.

So that's pretty much about crimes that happen naturally. I know we have this central dogma bila jenayah sahaja mesti orang jahat, bila bunuh je mesti orang jahat, but try to give ourselves a minute or two to put some thoughts for other possibilities whenever this thing happens. Jangan melatah cepat sangat. The most important thing is to keep reminding each other to be aware of their safety and well being (solat dan keluarga). We can make a difference. *smile*

"Berilmu untuk Berjasa"

Khairul

Medic and I

There is a saying “prevention is better than cure”. I’m an undergraduate student doing my Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), so the past few years I had studied about some disease and the aetiology of it. As time pass, I would say learning medicine do help me to understand Islam much better. I began to realize why Islam forbid us from doing certain things, because all the hukum-hakam in Islam was nothing but to prevent mankind from getting any diseases, let it be sakit yang betul-betul penyakit, penyakit akal, penyakit hati or anything. So basically yeah, Islam adalah agama yang mengesyorkan prevention is better than cure.

One example that I can give is regarding consumption of alcohol. Ada orang kata alcohol itu ibu segala panyakit. I can’t agree more to that statement because medically, by drinking alcohol you expose yourself to the risk of having atherosclerosis, myocardial Infaction, pancreatitis, leukoplakia, gastritis, peptic ulcer, etc. These are all the initial stage of the disease, wait until it progress to chronic stage with other complications arise and by that time tak dapat den nak nolong ha~. That’s why alcoholic beverage is haram in Islam and with the help of modern studies and all the sophisticated technique it explains why arak itu haram.

Another example is good hygienic practice in daily life. Do you know that there are lot of bacteria around us and as what my lecturer said “we are surviving in the world of bacteria.” FYI there are small group of bacteria which normally colonize on the surface of our skin which we called the normal flora. Thanks to our skin, it acts as the first defence mechanism against bacterial infection. There is a simple way to protect us from getting this bacterial infection (diarrhoea for example) which is by thorough hand wash. Using my ‘logic mind’ (lol) now I realise the scientific rationale of taking wudhu’ (ablution) in Islam.

This is me try to relate the teaching in Islam with scientific evidence. You see, it is our responsibility to seek knowledge let it be medicine, engineering, law or arts and try to relate it with our religious belief, InsyaALLAH it will strengthen our faith. God is always there with us, I realize now there’s no such thing like ‘I want to find god’, it just we don’t see it.

“We just have to
Open our eyes, our hearts, and minds
If we just look bright to see the signs
We can’t keep hiding from the truth
Let it take us by surprise
Take us in the best way”

-Maher Zain-

Khairul

Sorry, No jokes here...

I feel really disappointed with myself. I can't breath. I feel like crying. I just want to go home.

Khairul

Am I Going To Be A Good Doctor?

Many times when I was waiting for the class to commence, I’ll be looking around watching my friends chatting with each other, laughing, eating, reading. And when the class is about to start, there always 2 or 3 person that will enter the class after that. We are lucky because all the lecturers here are nice and not that strict (although there are some that very strict). Sometimes I do wonder why they can’t be in class on time? During first year maybe they overslept since our class started at 8am but now in second year we start at 9am. I said this to myself, once the teacher is already in the class I’ll not enter the class. That I can promise.

Being a medical student is tough, I assure you that. We can’t help ourselves from being so sleepy in class sometimes. Even though I feel super-ngantuk­, I’ll try my best to get a hold of my eye to not fall asleep in class. How amazing some of my friends can just sleep through-out the lecture!! I can see the lecturers do notice them sleeping in their class. You can say “alah~ they sure understand. We study till late night, that’s why we were damn tired in class”. Again we are so lucky because some of the lecturers very understanding.

I asked this question to myself. Will all people be lenient like that? I mean I’m going to be a doctor in the future and people, patient, the community will observe every little thing that I do. How punctual the doctor is? Does the doctor treat the patient with respect or not? How does he communicate with the patient? Does the doctor talk bad about the patient when he/she is not around? So many times I heard my family and my friends complaint about their meeting with those not-so-polite doctors and they keep reminding me “ Nanti bila dah jadi doctor, jangan buat macam tu?”

You see it’s not just me, people are observing us Doctors and Future-Doctors!!! The career that I choose requires me to communicate with people most of the times, and either I like it or not ATTITUDE does matter. Of course we don’t want people to say

“Ceh, kalau orang cakap kat depan pun dia tak boleh respect inikan lagi orang sakit”

“Apalah Doktor ni masuk duty lambat. Ni mesti masa sekolah dulu pun kaki masuk kelas lambat”

“Hampeh punya doctor. Dia ingat dia doctor, aku nurse so dia lagi hebat!!??”

These are all the possible comments that me and my friends are going to get once we become physician. Bad comments obviously not good for business right!! So all of these are going to be a reminder for me and my friends who InsyaAllah are going to be doctors, to start training ourselves to be a good, humble and generous doctors. Brain and Heart if I may say are the most important organs in our body. To be a good doctor I believe we need those two also if you know what I mean.

Khairul