Post intermission : e-HO

I don't think that I should be writing about how the e-HO system works etc because there are PLENTY of blogs out there that have entries on that. What I am going to focus on instead is about what happens before the big day. I was included in the 2nd intake of 2019 in April and the e-HO system for us was on Monday April 1st (which happens to also be on April Fools day) and I got the email on Wednesday indicating that I am included in this intake and that I can proceed to register an account on the e-HO. There were conflicting opinions regarding the kind of information that we have to fill in on the e-HO system..some said the address has to be filled in while others said it would just be the contact number. I got myself prepared for any possibilities and it certainly doesn't help to get myself entangled in all the hoohaa about the system when there's really nothing to get excited or stressed about. Take my word for it, e-HO isn't a big deal at all. Once you log in at exactly 12pm on the said date, most of your info including your address has already been filled up for you. Just fill in your contact number and the number of siblings you have (not including yourself) and then click for the next page that'll require you to choose your pre-degree qualification other than spm (for me it was stpm) and the year you got it and wa-la you're finally on the page where the list of hospitals can be found. Don't waste time clicking on the negeri. Just pick the hospital of your choice from the list as fast as you can and you are done. See? Absolutely nothing to be fussed about. I got my first choice and I don't know why I even racked my head trying to come up with a list of 2nd and 3rd choices when I easily snagged the 1st one from the list. The hospital that I picked at the time when I was about to click on it had around 30 vacancies so I guess it wasn't one of the highly sought after hospitals.. if you are thinking of choosing hospitals like HSA, HTAA, HTF (just to name a few), you will have to be a bit more quicker than the average e-ho candidate. After this ordeal, what's left to be done would be all the paperwork and other tasks that are required off of you before the orientation/ptm. A week later, you can expect to log into the e-HO system to find out where the location of your ptm will be. Besides that, you will also know when you are supposed to go and collect your mmc provisional certificate from the mmc website. Google up e-housemen blogs and you will be fed with an array of information on it including the documents that are required for mmc, ptm and your first day at the hospital. Do not believe people who claim to know best about which hospital you should choose because at the end of the day it is you who has to go through it all and you can't look for them when you mess up. As a Selangorian, I adamantly decided to do my housemanship out of Selangor. Although some 'experts' claim that family support is crucial around this time, I feel that even our beloved family will not be able to do anything when a BHT file gets thrown at you or you get cussed for the most minor of all mistakes so that's a whole lot of BS. What matters is being able to come back to your family once HOship ends and because that's when real life begins. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

7 months of waiting and waiting...

Hello and welcome to the tribulations of a Malaysian housemen to be with waning motivation and spirit. It has been over 7 months now since I applied for the contract ho post on the spa8i website and I am still impatiently (I think it's acceptable to be rattling the cage at this point) waiting in line for the intake which seems to take forever. The first intake in 2019 for the contract HOs was in the final week of February and a whooping 1200++ got their jobs while we just made the tapisan. Parents and even their children desperately still want to bask in the glories of doctorhood and let's not be bullshitting ourselves by saying it's not for the money because we ALL know that no other fresh graduate in this country could earn close to rm 3000+++ for their very first pay!! This being a noble job, bearing clinical interest, wanting to sacrifice for the benefit of others yada yada yada... these are all the safe and commonly cited reasons for wanting to be a doctor but you are a fool if you think nobody looks at the $$$ aspect. Despite the long hours at work and possibly heavy workload (can't be said for sure as I am yet to experience it for myself) and the anxiety cum depression that's well associated with it, we all know that a handsome pay check at the end alone is rewarding enough for us. Those colleagues of yours who have settled for less would probably have just reached your level after years of labor as compared to you who is just starting out. I actually wanted to get straight to the update but I ended up talking about some age-old range of answers about why being a doctor is cool no matter what some quacks are saying. If you have been following my blog, you would know by now that I have been keeping you updated almost religiously (for a blogger) on my journey and regarding the change in my spa8i status and it was on Feb 26th (or so) when the previous spa8i status 'melepasi syarat..' changed to 'tiada temu duga...' and this is completely different from what had been claimed by some of the seniors. The run down of the seemingly endless wait for housemanship is pretty straight forward and it's now safe to say that your waiting period can be as 'short' as 8 months to as long as 11months but rest assured that it would NOT be longer than that. This period is counted from the day you submit a complete application on the spa8i website to the day of your PTM (which is technically your first day at work). As long as you have verified that your application is complete and free from errors (I made the almost grave mistake of waiting for a week before calling up the kkm officer to verify on this thus costing me a week of 'late' submission but at least I didn't wait for half a year to pass by before doing this like some unlucky guy who is now still waiting for his housemanship) then you are good to go..as in you will just have to wait for your turn. Apparently, 5 months after the spa8i submission, your status will change from 'tiada apa2 urusan..' to 'melepasi syarat..'and then to 'tiada temu duga..' and finally to 'lantikan kontrak'. Following that, it will then be time to check your emails for the info on e-ho. Simple right? At least I am taking the time to let you newbies in on this because others wouldn't be bothered to do so and if you were in my shoes, you'd have to find out about everything the hard way. My next blog entry would be about the next e-ho session in March 2019 so don't miss out on that one! 🙂

Female moral policing

Having XX in your chromosomal set isn't always a blessing. At times, you get to be the centre of attention when you are the only girl among your siblings and the social century-old privilege that comes with being one such as being offered a seat and not being too hard on you simply because you are a girl. In spite of all that, as a girl myself, I think I would have much preferred being born as a male if not anything else but a female in this world that's gruesomely one sided. When a girl dresses a certain way or behaves in a certain manner, she gets chided for it, sometimes to an extent of being called a prostitute when she's probably not even seen a phallus before. I am not saying that if you have seen one (especially through unsolicited nude pics), you are considered one, but you get my point right? Even in downfall of marriages and relationship breakups, it is ALWAYS the female who is at fault despite clear evidence against it. A girl always has to watch where and when she goes out and who she is with and what she does but not one time do you see a guy being 'handled' that way. Is it because girls are physiologically weak and biologically preyed after or is it because they don't usually clap back at the threatening voices around them? Moreover, girls are always the object of scrutiny when it comes to attire even in this 21st century and don't even get me started about the common perception that girls are only fit to play the role as cooks and housekeepers while guys get to just pig out and make a mess. Curfews and word filters only apply to females and  some of our own kind are even berating those who go against it. If it's your own family who comes up with a set of rules, whether or not it is gender bias, then it probably wouldn't be right to argue about it but if some 3rd person tells you what to do or not do, I think it's time you shut them up and make it clear to them that their opinion, not a germ bit of it matters and that they should save it for their own family members and their ownselves. What seems right to you, may not be so for others and vise-versa, so stop getting overconfident that you are able to change people simply because you think you are above everyone else.

Spa update regarding tapisan

Guess there is some justification to being called a worry wart; woke up today and as usual I checked my spa online account application status for the house officer post and started freaking out when I saw the words 'tidak melepasi tapisan bla bla bla' on bil. 2 and 3 of the last semakan page. On bil. 1 it was just merely stated as ''melepasi syarat2 bla bla' instead of 'melepasi tapisan pada...' which I had been expecting all these while. Worst of all, I was all groggy and sluggish at that time (it was just 9am..what do you expect? 😅) and the 'tidak melepasi tapisan' appeared as 'tidak melepasi syarat' to me. Instantly I froze and ran my mind through the various possible errors I could have made during the application in July 2018. I mean did I just wait more than 6 months for this??!! I hardly finished my breakfast before I practically speed-dialled the spa number in order to confirm my doubts while praying that I was wrong. In these kinda things, I dread being told that I made a mistake because it would literally cost me my life. Fortunately, the spa officer answered my call after a few rings and after she told me that there was nothing wrong with my application and that it was supposed to be like that, that's when I finally heaved a thankful breath. Gosh. I think my possible cause of death someday is gonna be due to stress. Apparently, if you are waiting for your housemanship after applying on the spa website, you should know that roughly after more than 6 months, you will get the 'melepasi syarat2 etc' that I mentioned earlier and after some time, that status will change to 'melepasi tapisan..' and then finally to 'lantikan kontrak..' before you can finally get your hands on the e-ho system. No one told me this before and I had to find that out through an unpleasant cortisol raising experience. Being the doll that I am, I decided to share this with you so that you wouldn't go through what I went through and I sure as hell hope you would run into my blog. Cheers!

Visual versus plain alphabets

You may have noticed that my blog is devoid of images or fancy ads unlike those that you normally see on other wannabe blogs. The reason to that is simply because I am not a visual person (most of the time). Of course there are exceptions to that such as when I am out picking up things to buy or people to own 😅. Even as a medical student, I rather go through paragraphs after paragraphs of explanation than to brave through the tables or charts that were included although I know that they are there for a purpose (probably to summarize what has been lengthily written). Time and time again, I have had people who would preach about how effective studying using mind maps and tables can be and I don't exactly disagree with them but again being the non-visual persona that I am, I choose to do away with it. With class presentations however, that's a different story as everybody tries limiting the number of their power point slides in order to avoid out of the blue questions from the lecturers (especialy for those of you who just can't help plagiarizing) or having to keep going despite knowing that no one is listening to your extortionately long and dull presentation. I admit that even I subconsciously check the number of slides before deciding how long my attention span would be. In this world, nobody likes having to take the longer route unless it offers you something adventurous along the way.  My point here is that if you are as notorious as me when it comes to the way you say certain things either in writing or verbally, you will find that images or expressions aren't as necessary. Besides, Sidney Sheldon and Judy Blume sure as well know how to cook up a good story and they don't even need to worry about whether the cover for their novels is appealing or not because the content itself is attention-grabbing even from the first few pages so go figure!

Preps prior to housemanship

It has been more than 6 months since I submitted the SPA online application for the HO post and yes you guessed it right: I am still jobless and FOREVER waiting for my turn. Sob sob. Ain't nobody gonna shed a single tear of empathy for me so, moving on... what shall I write about today? Oh yeah..about the HO prep courses that are making headlines on social media these days particularly on Facebook. It is claimed by these so-called 'medical experts' that attending their 'value for money' courses gives the newbies the headstart that they apparently need in order to ace through their housemanship training period. Wow. Just wow.(note the cynical tone) Where do they come up with ideas like this? Not only is it highly profittable for the one who organizes it but it stands on its own because it happens that the current failure rate of housemen can easily be used as the supporting evidence to further harp on the importance of attending such training or coaching modules. I know of a fellow graduate who actually had clinical attachment done at several hospitals prior to her housemanship training and even she confessed to getting screwed all the same in the first week of her job. All the preparation in the world isn't going to save you from any of the toxicities that is expected of the training of junior doctors. Face it. That's just how it is. You could be a first ranker for all you might be or a highly dedicated lavishly spending course goer, but the reality would be just as sour for you as it is for others. Don't get me wrong; I am all up for getting prepared in advance on any way you can but why can't you trust yourself enough to do it on your own? The more support they get, the more easier it would be for them to turn something optional like this into something mandatory, thus further adding to the financial burden among the chronically unemployed grads..sort of like making observerships and/or externships  compulsory for the US residency training and they don't come cheap I tell you!!! Far from even affordable! I know I haven't been hitting the books as much as I used to when I was still preparing for the EPR but I have not neglected them either. I have been trying to coach myself before my intake which I think might be soon (hopefully!)..from recalling to adding up more knowledge on what one ought to know and to even tackling some calculations, I think I am doing myself more favor than any of those private courses could. After all, what's 5 years of medicine if you can't be your own tutor? 😇 It's up to you if you decide to go for those refresher courses because it is your money and your willingness but this is just something that I have an opinion about and hence have stated it here. If you think you would like me to start discussing (for free obviously, duh) about some of the medical stuff I have fed my mind with, let me know. 'When you share the knowledge you have with others, it helps you to gain more understanding of it'.