Sunday, December 17, 2006

The Angry Medic: Now With Twice The Crappiness!

It's a fact: medical school is crazy. Sometimes I wonder why anyone would want to slog their way through years and years of school, then go through the teeth-gnashing application process, during which half your hair is lost (someone please tell me this wasn't just me. right? RIGHT? Hello? --Editor) then get into med school only to slave away for over half a decade, worry about catching diseases from patients, damage vital body parts and keep slogging until you get a nice, comfy space six feet underground in which to sleep for all eternity (unless you're Hindu, in which case you've got about 10 minutes' downtime until the next incarnation, depending on how good you've been --Ed). And as a bonus, if you live in Britain, you get to graduate and take your place in a mess of a national healthcare system complete with nurses pretending to be doctors, managers who sit around in meetings discussing little more than how to make life harder for you, and crazy power-mad politicians intent on cleaning up said healthcare system by getting rid of your sorry arrogant doctor ass. Dr Crippen puts it nicely--be sure to check out the comments as well.

But I'll tell you this about medical school: it gives you loads of material to blog about. And whilst blogging on this blog may have slowed down a bit (thanks to no less than the Creator of the Universe trying to KILL ME! I've caught a sore throat and lost my voice now--does anyone else see a pattern here? --Ed) it's partly because I've also been writing my first few posts for The Differential, Medscape's medical student blog, whose editor (surprisingly) liked my writing so much she invited me to write for them.


The Differential gives readers all over the world an insight into the lives of medical students, and features some very good writing. However, it tends to be a bit serious at times, and I'm hoping that a diiference in tone (read: an idiot writing about his misadventures --Ed) may serve to lighten the mood a little.

My first post was on a topic I've moaned about here before: the lack of clinical exposure in Cambridge. Comments I got ranged from (a little paraphrasing here) "aww, you poor thing, I know just how you feel" to "be thankful you're in Cambridge, bitch. Shut up and get on with it" which is another reason I love blogging for The Differential. It's touching to know people out there sympathise.

Just a couple of days ago I got my second post up. This one's about the importance of patient confidentiality, a lesson I learnt both on my adventures as a bumbling first aider as well as during my attempt to be a heroic air-stewardess-impressing lifesaver on a plane. Do check it out and leave a few nice comments so the editor doesn't realise she's made a terrible mistake and fires me.

And in a few days my next post should appear; it's a rather passionately written yarn about the treatment of housemen, which was inspired by a debate breaking out in my local newspapers (to which I wrote a hot reply to, of course, which has resulted in the number of death threats to my house doubling). Enjoy the lack of profanity, folks.

On another note: does anyone know where HospitalPhoenix has run off to?

Someone tell me he hasn't gone the same way as Angry NHS Doctor (the second doc blog on my blogroll).

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

singh! after shamelessly popping your blog address on your doorbell, you're shamelessly promoting it on the cumas website www.cumas.org !!!! i cannot believe it!

slap slap slap

anyway, the next time you see someone in a seizure, just clear the way so they can trash it out in peace... don't touch them! (no wonder the doe-eyed girl was damn pissed off).. anyway, here's some links for you to read, just in case you encounter something like this, God forbid!

Seizure:
http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/firstaid.html

General first aid:
http://www.healthy.net/scr/MainLinks.asp?Id=170

on the other hand, if not sure, don't do it! you dont wanna cause more harm by doing something you don't know.

you can always wait till clinical school, then you'll learn real world stuff...

huajern said...

So, YOU are that Singh who wrote to NST praising the hell-hole that is housemanship in Malaysia. As a somewhat senior doc in Malaysian govt service, I think you better not comment too much on something you have not yet experienced. Though HOship is long past for me, I would not wish the same conditions on current and future docs; unlike some idiotic 'leaders' who think it is a 'privilege'.
Anyway, hoping you will come back soon to experience the wonderful HOship in Malaysia.

Medblog Addict said...

I was looking for HospitalPhoenix too. Did you ever find him?

The Angry Medic said...

No, Medblog Addict. I'm afraid he's gone.

Dr Hua Jern: thanks for dropping by. Do you have a blog of your own? It'd be nice to read your musings.

You're right, of course, I'm inexperienced and hence have few rights to speak on the topic. Which is why my letter was more of a calling-for-diplomacy thing. I did give the UK perspective on things, though, which is something I do know about. After reading today's comments on the issue, I tend to agree that the 'slavery' forced on housemen is too much. I was speaking only about the experience factor.

The Angry Medic said...

Anonymous: I know, I'm asking for it aren't I? Any day now people from the University or the Health Ministry will come banging down my door. If I disappear suddenly, you know what happened to me. I want to at least make the Daily Mail.

Thanks for the links. I will definitely bone up on them. The doe-eyed girl did come around with her mum later and thank me with wide-eyed gratitude :)

One last thing. Who are you? You sound REALLY familiar...

Nathan said...

Thanks for the link, by the way. And in case you were wondering, I didn't get HIV from a patient. Yet. Sigh....

Anonymous said...

singh... i am your father... *hiss.. wheeze..*

The Angry Medic said...

Dr Hua Jern: thanks for the link. Am already checking it out. I agree that housemen being treated like crap is horrible (and I believe every sane mind on the planet would agree with me here), but for the period I was on attachment in my local GH they didn't seem to me like slaves. Sure, they hated life, but I didn't know they were kicked around like livestock, as the papers seem to indicate.

Right. Um. Maybe I should look into doing my HO-ship in the UK instead...

Nathan: I WAS wondering actually. That sounded like something out of Scrubs (or House. In fact I think Dr Cameron had that plot thread). Nice to know you're still among the living. Ah, the dangers we med students face, all in the name of helping humanity... *waxes lyrical at random all Legolas-like*

Anonymous: NOOOOOOOOOO....