Why medical students SHOULD get involved in extra-curricular activities

Many of you will know that a majority of us third years have been through an interview that will decide whether we can stay in college or not next year. Why are we going to these interviews in droves, you ask? Doesn't UPM medical students automatically get to stay in their hostels (K17) despite the level of extra-curricular involvement? A big reason this happened would be because we had previously thought there was no point in collecting merits as we had thought we would be staying in the KL Damai hostel next year when we have our postings in our 4th and 5th year. Because of politics and a lot of red tape, imagine the surprise, the slaps on our unsuspecting faces when we hear that there will be no KL Damai hostel and there might not even be a renewed contract with HKL as a teaching hospital for UPM anymore as of 2012. That's another story, and the issue is far more complex, but let's talk about the merits and staying in K17 part.

Medical students used to be priviliged enough to be able to stay in college without having to collect merits like other students, the cream of the cream syndrome if you ask me, so the few of us that do join these activities were seen as fools, and some were even advised by colleagues to quit medical school (with good intentions, of course) *ahem ahem*. Most of us won't even go out of the college to have a jog, preferring the creature comforts of our dorm rooms, let alone become chairperson of an event! So one wonders why should one get involved in these silly activities that nobody remembers in a few years time? I've heard of people saying medical students are so busy, they don't even go out to buy their own dinners! I've also read newsclippings relaying the opinion of some nerdy med student saying there is no enjoyment when studying medicine, only hard work and duty. Those "facts" are only true if you want it to be.

I have had the best time possible, and have learnt so much from being in UPM, and I've only gone through third year!  I never would've thought it would be possible since I honestly hadn't even known UPM existed before I searched it up to fill in my UPU form. I tell this to so many people, but it bears repeating: even if I could re-wind time, my first choice in the UPU form would still reflect that I want to be a medical student in UPM. Had I joined UM, UKM or USM I wouldn't have been able to join debate, I wouldn't have learnt the stuff I did, I wouldn't have been able to form the great relationships with the medical students, the staffs or the students from other courses. I would've never been able to gain working experience with my employers, some nasty, some nice. In short, I wouldn't be the person I am today .

Kem perkasa!

I think if I was to tell the kids about my time in UPM, the best thing would be about the fun I had joining the UPM debate team. (Of course, academically, clinical year was the best fun I've ever had learning.) It wasn't even hard to join debate because all you needed to be able to do was to speak "Yes" and "No" and you're in. Read the news and humanities journals? Learn economic/political/social theories? Um, yeah.. not really. I met with people I would've otherwise never did in K17, law students, fine art students, from Sabah, from Kyrgyztan, from other UPM colleges, previous medical graduates of UPM (hi Sooch!) Finally, it feels like I don't have to commit suicide by slitting my wrists with all my medical notes. I hadn't been able to join more tournaments since clinical year due to financial problems but I should hope that's about to change in 4th year.

Likewise, there are many seniors that's been vice president of the college MTM, MPP representatives, AIESEC members, thoose active in religious societies and so forth. Some can sing, dance, act, or all three and they do it well! Some have organized several big events and made it into the news! Some of them have their own side businesses and are able to afford cars on their part time jobs (hi Kak Ikin!). Some are married by their second, third, fourth year (hi, um.. nevermind). Don't think that a medical school limits you from having a life, because only you can decide that for yourself, not other folks propagating "truths" like to be a good doctor, one must study 24/7. Your life and how you balance it is up to you, so take control of it. People do ask, "How do you balance your studies?" I have no answer for this because I'm still not good at it even if I'm not active in extra-curricular activities, I make do with I have and I'm always improving my time-management.

Third Malaysian International Medical Student Conference 2011

Dear fellow colleagues,

The SMMAMS's very own annual medical student conference - MIMSC (Malaysian International Medical Student Conference) 2011 is now opened for registration. The 3rd MIMSC 2011, with the theme of "Trauma: Constructing the Future, Growing from the Past" is going to be held at Melaka-Manipal Medical College, from 2nd - 5th June 2011.

For further information about the conference (e.g. program, registration, fees, accommodation), please kindly visit the official conference website :www.smmams.org/mimsc or follow this link :http://mma-medicalstudents.blogspot.com/2011/01/3rd-malaysian-international-medical.html.

For those who are interested, please contact Jayanthi by 30th April 2011.

Thanks ya buddies! :)


Jayanthi, 3rdyr 2010/2011

Good news, slightly bad news, and even worse news:

GOOD NEWS:
1. I am in the process of extracting information (not through inception) about our medical undergraduate course alumnis (basically find out whether they have blogs and linking them, or find out whether they're interesting people with interesting achievements, generally being a busy body).

The slightly bad:

1. Yes, if you were the observant type, we have changed our website name into Putra MDs due to all the possible nonsensical red tapes that Putra Medical Club (PMC) might face were we to put this under PMC since that's all under the faculty. Urgh, who wants to deal with that? But it will still report all the events that PMC will be organising, hopefully, especially the upcoming Annual Dinner and the Orientation, amongst other things. There's also a very big possibility that batch 13 will organize an upcoming Anak Angkat (Homestay) program next year as well as the Sunathon program. In any case, thank you so much for any support given to this website, and the strange traffic from foreign countries it's been getting. I'm sure it'll grow to be something more.
2. We also have to change our profile picture. So, um I'm not sure if we should hold a design contest with no prize but gratitude or whether we should randomly take a Google Image picture. Thoughts?


The bad:

1. To those lacking college "merits" (which have nothing to do with university "merits", apparently), we might be moving to 13th College, which is really nice to sleep over at, not sure how fun it'll be compared to 17th College though. The good news is, because a lot of medical students apparently feel strongly about this, we have decided it'd be fun to start an internet debate, (how exciting!) part 1 consisting of why the merit system should be supported, part 2 why it shouldn't and we'll have a neutral conclusion part 3 afterwards. Why bother gossiping like old men over at facebook, when one can have a systematic, mature discussion over a blog with which to propose one's view? Am I too much of a nerd? Probably.

What do you think of the current situation? Do you support the merit system? Do medical students deserve to be kicked out of the college built to alienate them from the rest of UPM? Do you even care? Send us your thoughts, people! E-MAIL at putramediclub@gmail.com! Hmm.. perhaps I need to change the e-mail too..

Nazirah, 3rdyr 2010/2011

P.s: Good luck to those resitting Professional Exam 1! You can make it!

Good Luck, 5th years!

From all of the juniors, we hope all of you pass with flying colours and become the awesome housemans signing our logbooks next year. All the best with your 3rd Professional Exam! You can do it!

Sorry for the demotivating picture. It was the only one I could find.

Nazirah, 3rdyr 2010/2011

Random Articles in the Internet: For Future Doctors: What if …?

For Future Doctors: What if …?

 First of all, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year 2011. It has been a while since I last posted anything on my “For Future Doctors “series, the last being on “Housemanship Glut”. I have been observing all the comments and enquiries that were posted in my blog regarding my articles. I had many interesting questions by medical students as well as houseofficers regarding their future prospect in medicine. I thought of answering some of these queries’ in this posting.

 What if I quit Housemanship?

I had a couple of housemen who asked me what will happen to them if they quit housemanship and what the other options are. According to Medical Act 1971, a medical graduate has to complete 1 year housemanship in order for them to receive their full registration under the Malaysian Medical Council. This has been increased to 2 years since 2008 (officially). I am not sure whether it is legally binding as the Medical Act 1971 has yet to be amended.

What will happen if you quit housemanship? The answer: You will NEVER be able to practise as a doctor anymore. If you quit housemanship, you will not get your full registration which means you will never be able to practise legally. Thus, whatever you have studied over the last 5-6 years is just a waste. It would have been better if you had decided much earlier that medicine is not your field and switch course during your undergraduate period. There are 2 parties to blame here, yourself and your parents.

Basically, you need to find another job or undergo another undergraduate training in another course. One of the person who wanted to quit housemanship asked me whether she can do Master’s programme in preclinical studies such as Physiology (Master’s in Medical Sciences) or Anatomy and subsequently become a lecturer. The answer is yes and no. Of course you can but in order for you to get a place for Master’s programme in Malaysia, you must be in service. You must have undergone at least 3 years of service with full registration and need recommendations from Head of Department as well as good SKT marks before being able to apply for the programme. As such when you quit housemanship, this is NOT possible especially when our Master’s availability is very much limited with high demand. Probably you can try overseas universities but however, the degree offered must be recognised in Malaysia as a postgraduate degree.

 Can I join Pharmaceutical companies? Again it is a possibility. In fact, with oversupply of doctors in Malaysia in a few years’ time, we might be seeing a lot of medical graduates joining pharma companies to get a job. Sometimes, pharma companies also need you to have full MMC registration in order to join them.

 Can I become a Lecturer by just holding a MBBS? The answer is NO. As I have said before, medicine a very peculiar field. If you are an engineering graduate, can’t find a job, you can be made as a lecturer if the university wants to. Of course an engineering graduate without field work is going to be a useless teacher but who cares in this Bolehland. I have seen so many engineering graduates who have become lecturers the day after they passed out! No wonder we have so many buildings collapsing. I also have seen many engineering graduates becoming school teachers. But for medicine this is not possible. Only doctors with postgraduate degrees are allowed to become lecturers, internationally and of course you will never be accepted as school teachers. But, who knows………………… in Bolehland anything can happen.!

 Usually, my general advice to whoever decides not to continue as a doctor is to at least complete your housemanship, whether you like it or not!

What if doctors become jobless in the next 5 years?