From Bad to Worse

Medicine is a highly regarded field. The stakes are high. The demand is always overwhelming. When they tell you there is surplus of doctors, they are actually talking BS, at least in Malaysian context. This created a demand for youngsters to go into medical field. Many parent send their children to medical schools, be it local or abroad, self sponsored or scholar shipped. Many graduated. Some are knowledgeable and willing to endure the workloads. Handful are not very intelligent, but able to carry out the job. Yet a small portion are neither having the marble nor the right attitude for the task awaits.

Sometimes, I encountered a few special cases that worth mention:

The Troll

This type of people are born with a very thick skull bone. They cannot follow orders. If I give them plans of management, they will not give me results. If there are 10 plans, probably 1 or 2 were carried out. Sometimes poor time management are to be blamed.

The Escapism

These people usually less equipped. When given the task beyond their capability, they are at lost. They would not know what to do. The solution is to run away from the trouble. There are also a mixture of laziness in these people. They refused to learn up new knowledge and skills, despite how much I try to guide them.

The Fierce

Conflict of ideas are common when you are dealing with matters. Some when confronted, will over react and snapped back immediately. They take every comment as a negative thing. Some forgets their position as a junior staff. Some just forget how to respect other people. Some don't have manners.

The Fart-and-go

At times, I met some junior doctors that always looking at their watch whenever they do round with me. When given a job to do, they do it half-heartedly. The case summaries needed to be summarize again. The referral letter most of the time are plain useless. In the end, the ministry decided that these people are not up to the task of doing these things and the medical officers have to take over.


Despite all this, now they are cutting down the working hours for junior officers to 60 hours. I sincerely hope these doctors can absorb the needed knowledge or skills. It is also my duty to guide the young doctors so to make them a better person. Well, I will always teach whoever that wanted to learn.