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Visa Guidelines is back

Alhamdulillah, I got married to a lovely lady by the name of Sarah and we're enjoying our new phase in life since that momentous day.

And yeah, I graduated from the University of Nottingham and thus, escaping from the evil clutches of my medical school. woot2! probably needs a post on this as well but yeah, maybe later.

at the bottom of this blog, there is an article on visa guidelines for medical students graduated from UK medical schools under MARA scholarship who are planning to work as an FY1 doctor in the UK.

After all, it was my visa guidelines which i made 5 years ago that helped me to get to know a lot of people and for some, have now become my close friends. And it helped a lot of other people as well. So I hope that this guideline would ease your efforts a bit. Visa application is always confusing.

Scroll down to the bottom for the guideline

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

this is why we fight

I came across this status on FB today and it was really moving..

I myself was being frustrated as always at the moment because I haven't been a really good one throughout the years but this status was destined for me to read it, for me to become inspired again. So, I decided to share it with all of you hoping that if you ever felt low along the way, get back up cause there's a reason why we fight.

"Mengendalikan sebuah usrah, adalah seperti mentadbir sebuah dunia dalam kesenyapan. 

Tidak seperti dakwah umum; 
Membawa usrah tiada publisiti, tiada liputan, tiada ganjaran. 

Juga, 

Menjadi seorang murabbi, tidaklah sama seperti personaliti dakwah. 

Kita tidak akan punya page Facebook sendiri, status tidak akan menerima jutaan like dan share, blog tidak akan mendapat ribuan views. 

Tapi sebenarnya, 
Murabbi adalah kunci kepada perubahan dunia. 

Carilah satu kaedah yang mampu mengislahkan manusia dengan sudut sekomprehensif usrah, mampukah? 

Kamu tahu, 
Manusia ini cenderung untuk melakukan apa yang dia paling mahir. 

Mereka yang selalu melaungkan amal, mencanangkan kerja mereka, sebenarnya hanya mampu setakat itu. 

Tapi mereka yang fasih berkerja, mentarbiah seorang demi seorang, menyentuh hati demi hati, 
tidak akan banyak bersuara. 

Malah mereka akan terus bekerja, kerana itu yang memaknakan mereka. Itu adalah kepakaran mereka. 

Ah, dakwah sudah mudah. 

Ramai sudah yang mampu menulis kata kata enak, video video menarik, seminar dan dialog ilmiah. Ramai. 

Namun masih ramaikah yang mampu bekerja tanpa dikenali, membina manusia demi manusia, mengubah no body menjadi somebody? 

Menjadi seorang murabbi. 

Semua akh biasa berdakwah, menyebar islam dengan cara sendiri. 

Tapi hanya akh yang benar, mampu menjadi seorang murabbi. 

Kita naik, dengan mengangkat insan insan lain."

Click on the photo to go to FB

And I want to thank all 7 of mine who have helped me become who I am today & may we always be in Allah's blessings...

Friday, February 21, 2014

fear will find you

"...How do you remember these things so exactly?"

"I see them every night," he says.

I know what he means. Nightmares - now plague me whenever I sleep. 

Once upon a time in KMB

I'm making du'a that Allah will take my nightmares away..don't have much of them lately but I am now suffering from insomnia...

Thursday, February 13, 2014

circus

I've been so stressful but my usrahmates are making me feel much at ease alhamdulillah.


This is the story of #FebFinals.

I chose the name of this post as it is because that's what our OSCEs were described as in King's Mill Hospital, Mansfield.

Definition of circus
thefreedictionary.com

cir·cus (sûr′kəs)

noun
1. a public entertainment consisting typically of a variety of performances by acrobats, clowns, and trained animals
2. an oval or circular arena, usually tented and surrounded by tiers of seats, in which such a performance is held
3. a person or group of people whose behaviour is wild, disorganized, or (esp unintentionally) comic

I have to say that all of the above reflects what happened on Tuesday & Wednesday.


OSCE 1

Honours stations (well, I need to motivate myself after the tough 2 days):


DRE (Digital rectal examination) - perfection with a capital P
ABPI (Ankle Branchial Pressure Index) - finished in less than 5 minutes 
Abdominal - Got a pat on the back from the consultant and he said "Well done!"
Cardiovascular - my current future career aim, got the diagnosis

Blunder stations (the ones that I'm worried about):

I've done some editing because I need to stay positive. I put the reasons of why I should pass that station after my explanation in case my medical school finds my blog.


Source: here

Acute - Didn't give antibiotics, wasn't vocal enough BUT I was competent in a way that I did the ABC assessment, mentioned ABG and correctly diagnosed the condition. I even picked up the correct fluids and cannula whereas other people simply mentioned them.


Source: here

SBAR Phone call - No structure, lots of silence and "I'm sorry but I couldn't think of any right now" BUT I correctly diagnosed the condition, decided to give the right medication (diuretic) and proved to the examiner that I have AWESOME short-term memory which is going to be useful for real-life scenarios. You can't fail someone with a GREAT short-term memory okay!!



Source: here

IM injection - The most emotionally-challenged station, on the verge of breaking down BUT I showed my utter regret for doing the mistake, proved that I would start again, mentioned everything VERBATIM according to the mark scheme and didn't stab myself.



Source: here

Hand exam - I put this initially as a confirmed PASS but before I went to sleep that night, I realized that I didn't do enough tests, so I ended up being restless for an additional 15 minutes before I managed to fall asleep. And I had to wake up early for OSCE 2 the following morning BUT I was really confident, smiled throughout the process, did all sensorimotor assessments and the patient was happy to have me examined her. She even wished me "Good luck!".

Sorry for the capitalized words. I think I need to convince myself more than anything right now. Hard to focus when you have self-doubtism.

OSCE 2

I've already had my first nightmare last night and I hate it. Back in first half of 4th Year (before I had failures) after the end of Obs and Gynae OSCE, I had nightmares back-to-back in the first few weeks post-exam. It was horrible..I had to relieve the exams in my dreams and sometimes I woke up feeling restless. And these nightmares even happened when my mum came to visit in December 2012. 

This dream that I had last night was not really a nightmare but it showed me going back into my final station of OSCE 2 and did everything that I should've done - I did straight leg raise, said that it might actually be bony metastasis (cancer), it might also be mechanical back pain and I would do an X-ray, possibly MRI. And I saw the examiner giving me a PASS result. The reality - I didn't do the above and I'm marking that station as a blunder. Yeah, it's just 1 station but I already missed a HUGE thing on another station and this means that I have 2 stations that I'm worried about. And I know that these nightmares are going to haunt me over & over again until the next revelation...

Sunday, February 02, 2014

4 minutes

4 minutes is the amount of time per station which me and my friends have been practising for our OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) for the past I-don't-even-know-how-many weeks. In the real exam we will have 5 minutes to show off our skills and 1 minute to present, so it's nice to practice in a reduced period of time.

And tomorrow, is the beginning of craziness.

My blue stethoscope will be with me for the OSCEs :D

It starts with National PSA (Prescribing Safety Assessment). I really don't like any of the national exams. Just because the time pressure is heightened when I face them. Heh.

The following week is the Finals #FebFinals and it begins with the week of testing our skills via the popular exam method called - the OSCEs.

And the last week is the time for our knowledge to be tested via the online system which I've grown to love and hate throughout my 5 years here.

Statistically, this is my record:
  • My current pass rate is 100% for any exams which took place outside of Nottingham. Year 3 for Clinical Practice (Mansfield), Year 4 for Paediatrics (Mansfield) and Year 4 for Psychiatry (Derby).
  • My Skills marks have always been higher consistently than my Knowledge marks with the exception of Psychiatry. The smallest margin was 1 for Obs & Gynae and the biggest margin was 39 for Clinical Practice. So you can see why I'm usually worried about Knowledge exams.
  • I have failed more Knowledge exams than Skills exams in the past.
So yeah, initially I was worried a lot on Knowledge but now, I'm more worried about the OSCEs heh.

These are my weaknesses identified by various people throughout the ACE module (final year module):
  • Lack of confidence
  • My smile
  • English as second language
But I'm not worried too much about the above tbh. Cause my smile is going to win the patients over in the OSCEs and I can fake my confidence lol. 

These are my strengths:
  • Strong empathy
  • My smile
  • Realistic optimism
I think my smile is a strength for all of the stations except the one where the patient is crying/sad, huhu. 

And these are the Finals:

Skills 
Location: King's Mill Hospital, Mansfield the 1st placement where I was taught with love and care ;P
  • OSCE 1 - 12 stations of 6 minutes each. Allowed to fail two only.
  • OSCE 2 - 5 stations of 15 minutes each.  Allowed to fail one only.
Knowledge
Location: Nottingham
  • Online 1 - 200 marks available in 2 hours. God knows what the format is.
  • Online 2 - Same as above.
Ok, that's all for now and probably until the end of Finals unless if a rebellion begins and managed to cut off the electrical supply.

And for one last time, our marks are going to be moderated by comparing our performances with everyone else's in our year which makes me feel that my medical school is a real life Hunger Games.

Till then, let's think positively and pray that Allah will guide us..as always...