A Family Doctor's Tale - THE NEW DOCTOR

THE NEW DOCTOR
It was the first day of my life as a doctor.

It was exhilarating. It was exciting. 

It was quickly brought down to earth or hospital ward.
The head of Ear Nose Throat Department of Singapore
General Hospital spent little time to introduce his
consultants  and medical officers to me
(the only houseman and the most junior doctor
around to do all the ward work).

We then make a ward round of all the inpatients
to update the latest information on their medical
conditions and also which patient will be fit for
discharge on that day. 

The houseman (me) was of course supposed to do
these (so called red tape) as well as to take blood
tests and fill out all the information on new
patients admitted to the ward.

After the ward round I got around to do all the
paper work and blood tests.
It was a small department which was why only 1
houseman was attached to it. 

The patients were generally post-surgical recovery
cases who of course may need pain killers and
constant monitoring for post operation complications. 

Of course there were also the odd nasopharyngeal cancer
(A Simple Guide to Nasopharyngeal Cancer) patient
who were on chemotherapy because their cancer was
fairly advanced.

So it was work and work and work again as new cases
come and old cases had the usual pain and bleeding
after operations. 

I had never like the word "cases" because it was so
impersonal. 

I would try to know my patient's name, what sort of
work they were in. 

I also believe in helping the nurses and nursing aides
in their work as I do not consider myself superior to
them.
After all I had just started on my medical journey while
they had so much more experience in their many years
in nursing.

One of the many disadvantage of being a doctor was the
long hours we are expected to work.
When there is a night duty, a doctor has to work from
8am in the morning up to 1pm the next day.
Of course the main work was from 8am to 5pm.
From 5.01pm onwards we have to attend to the
new cases admitted to the ward as well as the
inpatients in the wards who has complications
like bleeding postoperatively or had severe pain
or unable to sleep. 


Because the Ear Nose Throat Department has less
emergencies, life at night was not too bad and
usually there was some time to sleep. 

However because there were fewer medical officers and
houseman in the ENT dept, night duty happened about
every 3 days including Sundays and public holidays.
Meals such as dinner and breakfast were served by the
ward assistants.

For me , I was allowed to see some outpatients when
I had finished my ward work. 

In addition I was allowed to assist in some operations.
I was lucky enough to be able to do  a tonsillectomy
operation (A Simple Guide to Tonsillitis) with

a trainee medical officer guiding me with instructions.