Laughter The Best Medicine?

My hospital has recently introduced a weekly program whereby staff from every department put up a show...for the patients! Missed the inaugural concert today, but caught a junior MO lurking around in a deserted part of the hospital after the show ended. Couldn't resist this photo opportunity.

I wonder if the patients mind being hauled to the auditorium for a show they did not ask for. I was asked to sign a "certificate of fitness" for a patient to attend - fit i.e. not on oxygen supplement, not on an intravenous drip, not incontinent, not oozing secretions from any body parts etc. You get the picture.

Anyway, it was a good effort. I mean, bumping into a clown lifted my spirits today! I just shudder to think what my department will come up with when it's our turn to entertain. I can't sing and I can't dance, so I'll probably offer myself as the "official photographer"! Watch this space for more photos.

Dare To Fail

Still on the subject of exams, do you know that I sat for 3 mock exams before going for the real one? Surely this smacks of a certain degree of kiasu-ism, but it's nothing like that. I truly needed all the practice I could get. I wasn't comfortable displaying my clinical skills (or lack of them) in the full view of a disapproving audience. With some years of experience behind me I liked to think that my competence and skills are reasonable. Suddenly you have to sit for possibly the most stressful exam in your adult life (for me, that is) and you find yourself in a position to be judged and criticised. In my mind I could almost hear a senior colleague snigger, "you mean she's going for exams?" while I struggle to pick up the right murmur, determine if there's really a spleen or differentiate coarse crackles from fine ones! So there, the greatest hurdle for me was swallowing my pride - it's all right to look stupid if I can learn from my mistakes. The mocks were essential. The first I paid for. Dato Kew said that if we found it useful we should tell our friends about it! Well, it was useful for me. Watch out for the IMU-PACES prep course this September.

Participants of the 2006 IMU-PACES Preparatory Course

The second took place in my hospital. The third, in Kuching - I got to attend by virtue of having been one of them. Thanks, you guys in the medical department of SGH! And oh, I did not pass a single one, but what's more exciting was that my marks improved with each attempt. I thought that was the perfect run up to the actual event. I was so psyched by then I took to presenting mock findings in front of the mirror, in my suit - and I thought I made a handsome candidate too! Now I look forward to helping to organise a mock exam for the next batch of candidates from my hospital who are going for PACES, simply because I want to do my bit in return.