Monday, December 05, 2011

Surviving Nights in RPH

I believe this is my first posting about my job in Royal Perth. I''m sure there are people who goes through my blog and fb postings would have thought I;m on a long holiday in Ozzie land instead of working! hahaha Well, I don't blame them as I view myself an adventurer first, anaesthetist part time :)
I'm post night at the moment.( Night here means on call but you work in shifts, so no such thing as 24 hours thingy).In fact, as Senior Registrar we'll do Friday Saturday Sunday nights for the weekend night job, and during the week 2 nights only. My weekend was good; mimicking my on call trend back home :- tenang dan aman:) It was only last night that i had to sit in the whole night from 8pm to 5am for a spine case! He was stable however, the magnitude of emergency and adrenaline to be much less compared to Malaysia on calls.
RPH serves a similar system to my Masters days in UM. As Senior Registrar, we hold the DA ( Duty Anaesthetist) pager for the night. What does that mean? Well, basically we are the one in charge on behalf of the consultant for cases in OT for the night. The only main difference is the consultant is contactable and will be available when needed.Haha a different scenario back home.Both has its advantages but I guess as a COnsultant, one should always be ready because you  hold the highest hierarchy of skill and responsibility therefore must lead by example.
This job can be scary because imagine, being the one to be contacted of problems and arrangement of emergency theatres for a major state (Western Australia) tertiary centre! Traumas do happen but not so often; however the Royal Flying Doctor service is damn excellent as they will transport the injured ones ASAP with upmost care for intervention in RPH. Therefore last weekend i was in charge for major cases if brought to RPH! haha Wanted to blog this earlier but "touch wood" if i am to mention things earlier, habis la jonah!!
Otherwise, the job is similar to what i'm used to back home. But i guess, being in a different country and catering a different population and persona, it was intimidating at first. I was having palpitations before my first night duty! However, eventhough the attitude may not be that much of a difference from back home at least the system is there.Communication is also better where the transference of information do happen eventhough not as often as you would like to.
ANd somehow,as a Malaysian Anaesthetist in Royal Perth ; the expectation is high! Those who were here before certainly showed how our training ( mostly the informal ones rather than the formal) back home must have been really good to impress the Department. Which I am trying very hard to live up to that expectation!

3 comments:

LeenaSan said...

Not being aware of the medical field...I've got a few questions: I'm assuming the medical equipment there are amazing compared to Malaysia? And do you deal with different types of anesthesia medication in Perth or it is the same here?

mafeitz said...

equipment: there are variation of equipments here esp the simple gadgets.. in Malaysia esp gov hospitals its usually generalized and we make do as well as "McGyver" some things.. here there are specific devices for certain function which when i first tried macam wow.. but to them.. aik?
medication: variation n i get to try drugs which i've only read before.. also, the latest thingy pun, dah expert dah pakai when in Malaysia we're slowly(too slow) introducing it due to high cost..

mafeitz said...

Otherwise, don't think that we're that far behind. but their systems of organization is certainly very much superior.COmmunication pun clearer, close ur eyes dengar ozzie cakap slang baik punya bukak mata tgk abg myanmar cleaner.. haha