emPathetic

The two weeks of Empathy module is almost over; only two days left and it's currently interrupted by a string of holidays: Christmas and Hijriah New Year. Those two days consists of Patch Adams movie discussion, some more role play *yay!*, and the final exam. After that, I have several days off till the next Monday when the First Aid module starts.

Right now, I'm working on a fieldwork report covering my group's interview with the morgue's staff. And yes, we visited the morgue and saw its temporary dwellers. Certainly a unique experience which got the other groups so jealous. The visit was extremely interesting, although I won't write about it here since it's so hard to put the experience into words.

Tomorrow is the Patch Adams discussion. The schedule only said "discussion" without mentioning whether we get to watch it together  in the class or we have to watch it before class. Whatever the case, I don't have the movie with me and I don't have the slightest goodwill to watch it. Perhaps we should change the discussion to Grey's Anatomy or House. Now, that would make a bang of a discussion!

The role play? I had enough of it the last time we had another role play session. It was more like an acting class for brats. I had to give up my everyday candidness for an sickening dose of niceness. I realize that it is essential for doctors to be nice and understanding to the patients, but this stuff simply didn't work. Well, I can only wait to see what tomorrow holds.

My First Post - Finally

Hello world! I was kidnapped by tons of assignments in the last two week; hence I haven't posted anything since the introduction. Those terrible 14-days are spent on Research Module, and apparently, the devil's teachings called "statistics" got another chance to kick my ass. I thought I've waved it goodbye after my high school final exam. Boy, was I wrong!

There were several major (unnecessary) additions to my vocabulary, like cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies; or chi-square, t-paired, and ANOVA tests. You know, these words will probably sink into the part of the brain that stores sophisticated, yet nearly-useless vocabulary like supercalifragilisticyouknowtherest.

Anyway, let's snap back to the present-although I might write about my experience on Research sometime. For this couple of weeks, I'm doing another module affectionately called Empathy. Well, the real name is EBP3KH; just don't ask me what those letters stand for. In this module, we are expected to be "Mr. Nice Guys"s so that we will transform into better doctors in the future. *yeah, right* The way I see it, this module is a welcomed break after the torturous Research. For example, my facebook time has -at least- doubled after I finished that freakin personal research proposal.

Today, my discussion group of ten had hours of role-playing. We were paired: one played the exhausted-but-still-trying-to-be-nice doctor (which reminds me of the creepy Sidney Heron of Grey's) while the partner played the dirt-poor patient who hasn't pooped in about three months. Surprisingly, it was quite fun, pretending to be doctors while we're still idealistic. (Yeah, I'm idealistic).

I really want to share my Research misadventures and my role-play reviews. So guys, visit this blog again soon!

Hi There!

OK, I'm sitting exactly in front of my laptop-as all normal people do-with a resolute mind. To blog. To have a record of my life. Hey, what kind of "life", out of 6 billion or so in this planet, are we talking about here?

Currently, I'm at the very beginning of medical school, the first out of six long years before getting those oh-so-wonderful two letters in front of my name: "dr." -and then another few long years to get "Sp.Whatever" behind it. Whoa! That long? Affirmative.

To adopt a line from Obama, "I know the battle ahead will be long." Blurgh. Why did he have to say "battle" and "long"?

Which medical school? I'll tell you something: I'm an Indonesian, I live in Jakarta. This certain Faculty of Medicine I'm in is somewhat historical, not only in a local scope but also national. Moreover, the language of instruction is Bahasa Indonesia, not English, let alone Latin. That's all I'm saying now.

Why blog about it? Errm...I have tons of reasons why I blog about my journey ahead. Lots of them are the same old, same old so no need to waste our time on them. I do have another reason that might interest you. I want this blog to be some kind of an investment for my future. My maternal grandparents, yup both of them, are pediatricians and they love (and I mean luuurve) to share their amazing, sometimes hilarious stories while studying to become doctors. (By the way, their med school has become my school too; same alma mater.) I'd love to have an inventory of stories like that, so why not take advantage of this neat stuff called blogging?

At the end of this unexpectedly long introduction, I genuinely want to say WELCOME, enjoy your visit. However, considering that medical students are supposed to be busy as bees, most of my posts will be quit short. See you soon!