Finished!

Last day of attachment to trauma team (TT). Next week I'll be doing Anaesthetic for a week.

I'm actually quite relieved it is over. Setiap pagi pergi just to attend ward round for sole purpose of showing my face so that they might give me good marks if they have to fill in an assessment form. I finished my discharge summaries in the second week so there was really no other reason to attend except to make a good impression.

And after all that 'hard work' (ha ha) these 4 weeks, they still treat me as if I were invisible. They don't know my name and they look through me as if I wasn't there. This morning was the first time the registrar actually said good morning to me. On the last day! I bet you he doesn't know my name.

Haven't had any formal teaching during this attachment. They never let us do any work which I think is pretty stupid of them (5 weeks to get free labour from medical students???? tak nak ke??). The only active involvement I've had is to be part of the 3 people logroll. THAT IS ALL.

But hey, takkanlah I didn't get anything from this rotation kan. If not learning by osmosis, observation and listening repetitively, then at least graphically. I think the skill I've grasped most in this rotation is how to describe a motor vehicle accident victim after having listened to it at least 4 times a day for 4 weeks.

1. What vs what e.g. truck vs car
2. What speed
3. What happened e.g. T-boned, side collision
4. Extrication time and extent of cabin intrusion (car)
5. Restrained (seatbelts on or not), airbags deployment (or not)
6. Any other passengers and any deaths of them
7. Loss of consciousness/head strike at the event

And these are things I've been seeing for the past 4 weeks ad nauseam:

People with stitched faces, bruised eyes

Everyone is in these cervical collars

Lots of patients intubated like this in ICU

Unfortunately, TT is a specialised surgery team, not general surgery. So much of what I've learnt is not useful to me in this short term i.e. final exams. Too bad. At least the ample free time given has allowed me to study a bit. Frustrating though.. coz no matter how much you study from books, it's not the same as seeing it yourself.

I am disappointed with my clinical school for the past 3 years. It's not very good.