Optimizing patient care

Despite being held in a state so far from Batu Pahat, my friends and I decided to participate in the Annual General Meeting & Annual Scientific Meeting of College of Surgeons, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia held in G Hotel, Penang on 29^th -31^st May 2015. The theme of the conference is “Optimizing Patient Outcomes” which emphasizes a critical and fundamental goal of a surgeon.  

As this is an informal write-up, I will try not to sound academic but more to how I felt and what I gained from this conference.  But this may not be touching on the essence of this blog where we share our experiences during patient encounter in the ward. 

 

At the moment, I am interested in surgical-based specialties, thus hopefully I will gain some knowledge by attending this conference and have a bird’s eye view of a surgeon’s profession.  Maybe it’s still too soon to decide on should I become a physician or surgeon; taking MRCP or MRCS, but I personally think it will be beneficial to set a target in mind. 

The various topics scheduled in this conference were very compact and informative, so much so that some topics are too overwhelming and not for us to know yet such as the surgical procedures and techniques. Overall I think that when the speakers are explaining the basics of diseases, current updates of management and research findings, we could comprehend and acquire some simple take home messages. 

As two symposiums occurred concurrently, we could only choose one of them. The topics were: surgical trauma, breast and endocrine, urology, vascular, colorectal and upper GI. Another topic that I find it very useful is the talk on surgical education, which explained the entry to surgical training in Malaysia, formative and summative assessments of a Masters candidate. With this, I have a rough idea on what lies 10 years ahead of me if I decide to become a surgeon. It is certainly not easy and very much competitive. 

This is a long and tough journey requiring hard work, persistence, determination, great discipline and lifelong learning to eventually be near to the end point. From where I’m standing now, I am definitely lagging behind and there are so many potholes that I have to repair. Comparatively, I doubt my own capabilities and fear that I could not succeed. But I came across these inspiring words that strengthen me to believe in myself and stop comparing with others, I will keep on improving myself till the day I achieve my goal. 

"Life is full of disappointments, failures and setbacks. None of those things can permanently stop you. You have the power in you to overcome anything that life throws at you. There is nothing as powerful as a made up mind. Surround yourself with people who remind you that you matter, and support you in the ways that matter most to you. No person, situation, or circumstance can define who you are. Don't give up, cave in, or stop believing that it's possible. It's not over until you win." - Internet 

Before embarking on the journey to become a surgeon; I have to take the first step of becoming a safe and competent house-officer by providing optimal care to my patients and ensuring that they receive the best of care from me. And the next checkpoint soon we will pass, is our Part II Final Professional Examination. 

All the best to everyone! 

Another point that was conveyed in the conference is that medical care has been compartmentalize compared to the era before, and in modern medicine there are so many specialites, subspecialites and new technologies. However, specialists are restricted in their own specialites and tend to forget to treat the patient as a whole and addressing their basic needs. We tend to refer our patients across specialites and sometimes, patient care is compromised. 

There was once I encountered a patient in the surgical ward where he has uncontrolled diabetes, and the surgical MO referred him to medical for diabetes control. After a day, his glucose reading was still poorly controlled, the surgical MO then blamed the medical team for not doing a good job. From this, I reflect and think, aren't we supposed to treat a patient under our care, and do we lose our capabilites to treat medically when we are in surgical department? (I am not referring to complex medical diseases) Do we have to refer every other poorly controlled hypertension or diabetes and not managed ourselves? An elderly patient once asked me, "Why are there so many different doctors talking to me at a different time, who is the real doctor whom is in-charge of my well-being?" And at that point, I have to answer, they are all in-charge of you, but taking care of different diseases from different department. I understand that multi-disciplinary approach is very important but in that kind of situation I think we have the capability to manage the deranged glucose reading effectively and not put the blame or point our fingers at others.

That's all for now.

Lastly, photos from the conference with our IMU lecturers, Dato Kanda and Prof Lum :) 

-IngChing