Project option

The fourth year draws to an end with the completion of the 11 weeks project option period. Before I started the PO I was sceptical about it being something 'enjoyable'. I thought 11 weeks is a long time for such a small piece of work, and I would have loads of free time to persue my own things. Turns out quite the opposite really.

I must admitted that I have been extremely lucky to have found an extremely supportive supervisor who gathered a great team for me to work with (to be honest, they were so helpful that I felt like the only child). We started planning about 6 months beforehand and had numerous meetings before the start of the PO, and I started data collection on day 1 itself which is great and unusual for many students. I started feeling bored on the second day I started my data collection (staring at the computer all day!) and I asked if I could go onto the ward to do some practical things, and the answer was yes, of course! (or else, with my nature of favouring actions, I might as well be rotten) I spend my Friday on the ward and the odd days in the week observing speech and language therapist, videofluoroscopy etc.

As a result, I got to know almost the most people in the hospital that look after stroke patients. The research people, the acute and rehabilitation doctors and nurses as well as some of the therapists. My supervisor encouraged me to talk to many people, and I think was the best advice that I've ever received from the entire PO period. If I have been stuck in the office, I would not have been able to write so much on the 'Discussion' section about the practical difficulties of the screening test I was investigating. Who says research has to be for unsociable geeks only? Equally rewarding was that my findings have provided useful information for the clinical changes that will be implemented.

I also quite enjoyed the process of research. The unclarity of the objective frustrates me: I wasn't sure from the beginning that the way I collect the data was the best method to answer the research question, but I didn't know how to convey the doubt, until I went to see a statistician, and he just said it was a flawed way to answer the question, so we changed our research question, and I was much more comfortable since then. Research does made me think a lot, constantly I was thinking of critically appraising work of others and myself, which was quite taxing.

The doctors were too nice and I was given the opportunity to do loads of things (including written my first complete drug kardex in addition to many others like clerking in patients, bloods etc etc). I'd like to think that I have been a helpful member of the team. I feel quite sorry to leave (but yesterday I learnt that the junior doctors will also be moving on to other rotations soon after I leave, so I don't feel too bad now). But I don't think I'm completely finished with the stroke team yet. Still has this potential publication pending (although, now when I look at the way I've analysed my data again, I kind of feel it will not passed the peer review because it's just far from perfection), and I hope to be part of the discussion group as to how best to improve this screening test. And hope my abstract for the stroke forum gets accepted so I can go to Glasgow in December!


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Caricature 2

I like this one more!!!
If you want Yee Leng to draw you one, go to visit her caricature shop.

I'm worried...

because I can't seem to stop eating.

because I can't seem to stop messing around with facebook and wikipaedia and blogs, anything but not my report.

because I can't stop itching, which is a sign that I'm stressed

because I can't bloody concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing, which is my report!!!

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Me

This is supposed to be me. The artist is of course my artistically gifted sister Yee Leng. I love it!

On foreign maids

I am writing in response to your report: “Maid’s day off: Most against idea, govt wants more feedback” (The Star, 18th June 2009). I am quite disappointed with the results of the poll.

My background is in medicine and we are constantly reminded to treat others as we would like to be treated. But it doesn’t matter whether you work in healthcare or not, this principle should apply to everyone we encounter. How would you feel if you have to live in the place you work everyday with no day-off at all? We all appreciate our days off on Saturdays and Sundays, do foreign maids not need them too? If this is not good enough for us, why is it an acceptable practice for foreign maids?

It is nice to learn that some employers take their maid out for shopping, but would be apprehensive about letting them go out on their own fearing that they would ‘mix with bad hats’. My goodness, if I was a teenager and my parents were to use that as an excuse to not let me go out, I would be so annoyed, wouldn’t you? May I remind you that maids are fully grown adults? Who are we to assume that they lack the judgment to choose their companies? Outright cruelty with foreign maids may be rare, subtle restrictions in freedom like these can be enough to be mentally draining for anyone, I would imagine.

I would even go as far as to suggest that we stop calling them ‘maid’. They are not here for employers to slave around. They are helpers who are here to assist with our daily chores. Poor and uneducated many of them may be, they still deserve the same rights and respect as with everyone else.

Gandhi once said “The measure of a country's greatness should be based on how well it cares for its most vulnerable populations”. Foreign maids often cannot advocate for themselves and their jobs are lowly regarded. It does appear that some are taking advantage of this to exploit them further. We must take action to protect those who cannot fend for themselves, and I think the cabinet is doing the right thing to consider a mandatory day off in a week for all maids. Treat others as you would like to be treated. If not, it might be your right that would be denied one day.

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