Surgery-An overview

Nobody wrote about surgery a.........aiz...

Surgery is one of the more "free" posting especially if you have been posted to Medicine before. The lecturers are fun and sporting.

Surgery department is located on the 8th floor (2 floors above the Medicine wards). You won't miss it, there's a big Jabatan Surgeri sign to tell you where it is. And their Lecture hall and tutorial room have special names, i.e. Stargate and Seagate respectively. Canggih kan :P

During my time, each group consist of 8 students with 4 supervisors. Each supervisor will supervise 2 students. They will grade your long case and PPD as well as continuous assessment. However you can ask for teaching from any 4 of the lecturers.

In surgery department, the specialists and consultants are called "Mr" or "Miss" instead of Dr.(except if they are Prof or Prof Madya,where you call them Prof). Example, Dr Saladina and Dr Lee are called Miss Saladina and Mr Lee respectively.

In Surgery, you will have to learn all the subspecialties, from General Surgery to Urosurgery. basically there are around 8 or more subspecialties(1 week each) and you have to learn them all.

There are only 4 surgical wards, only 2 of which is frequented by 3rd year medical students, Ward 1 and ward 2. This is because ward 3 and ward 4 are Urology and Neurosurgery ward which is too specialised to be appreciated by 3rd years. However you are allowed to go and have a look and clerk patients if you find 1 concious.

Going to the wards in surgery is less enjoyable because generally all the patients are either unconcious or grumpy due to the operation which have been or will be conducted on them. This is where you have to use whatever nonsense you have learnt in PPD. I would advice going to wards at night or on weekends where there are less Medical students and more new patients which is more willing to cooperate.

You do exactly the same thing you did in Medicine in the wards. However most of the PE is new. Respiratory,neurology and cardiology examination will rarely be used here. Only GI examination is used. Other PEs to be learnt in Surgery includes hernia, thyroid, breast, venous system of lower limb etc. It is not in Tally's so you must pester your supervisors to teach you.

Going to the Operation Theatre may sound glamorous but seriously, you cannot learn anything if you don't read beforehand. even if you have read you will realise that theory and practical are 2 very different things. There is not much thing that can be learnt in the OT, so just go to fill up what;s required in the logbook, and spend more times in the ward hunting patients.

Clinics MUST be attended because you can learn so much here. Differnet days are clinics for differnt subspecialties so you are adviced to go everyday to cover all subspecialties. Clerk new patients and present to the lecturer; you will be sneered at here and there but you will really learn a lot. Palpate and examine as many patients as possible in the clinic.

You must go and observe procedures like Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography(ERCP), fluoroscopy etc. Read beforehand and clarify all your doubts with the lecturers.

Out of interest you can also go to the Stoma care clinic, and Daycare surgery.

You must also ask your supervisors to teach you about Instruments. The box is usually in the tutorial room in the Male wards(1 or 2, i forget). This is important because one of the instruments will definitely be asked in OSCE.

There will be 1 workshop (we have suggested at least 3) on sutures and insertion of certain instrument such as venous cathether and Ryle's tube. Pay good attention to this as it may be asked in the exams. My exam, they ask us to insert urinary catheter and venous catheter.(on the mannequin of course)

you have a lot to read. I read Forsythe and In a Page but i find Forsythe confusing. Therefore i would not really recommend it.

Have fun in Surgery! It is the Direct opposite of O&G, i would say :)