O & G: Experience in Perspective

Hm, after the hell of the busy New York City that is Obstetrics and Gynecology, I'm now in the peaceful meadows of Pediatrics. That's a picture of me at the beginning of Ped's, which is ≈ the end of O & G. Misery is an understatement.

But I like the training program in O & G. I think it employs the better methods of clinical training (Surgery is another) suitable for my personality.

1) No discrimination between Year 3 or Year 5 students. There is no topic for which the Year 3 students are excused from learning, just excused from exams. That's a good thing.

2) You learn to be independent. In surgery, you are constantly pressured & monitored by the lecturers. In internal medicine, you are left alone, but you have lots of bedside teachings. In O & G, you are not monitored by the lecturers, and you have no bedside teachings. None at all. The only exception are those conducted voluntarily by the lecturers themselves (thanks to Prof. Murad, Zalina & Hamizah). The only way to learn in the ward is by following the ward rounds, going to the clinic, labor room, screening room, etc. The formal CP's help, but only about 20% of knowledge at most. Added with the responsibility of presenting 10 CP's (sorry Ped's, but 1-2 is way too little), and you end up going for on-calls even when it's not your turn. You know that you can't run away from not going to the wards, not a single bit. The only difficult part is balancing between doing ward work and studying for the theoretical components.

3) You are really trained into becoming housemen. When presenting cases, we have to know everything: history, examinations, investigations, management, progress. Presentations are expected to be as "complete" as housemen's during ward rounds; specialists plan patients' management based on those presentations. If specialists decide to not listen to your presentations, and ask the houseman to present instead, that means that you really sucked.

I liked the training, but I don't like the field. So sorry Dr Azha, until I suddenly become disinterested in Emergency Medicine, or something else supersedes it as a speciality I'd like to be involved in, O & G will only be 2nd choice at most.