My New Experience as a Medical Student

I am a third year student of Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga. In my faculty there is a block called the Elective block. In this block, all 7th semester students are required to do learning outside the Faculty. There are so many modules offered, there are modules that are in Airlangga University but different faculties, and there are also modules that are outside the city of Surabaya. However, I chose to do my elective at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. This is because I got a lot of information related to electives organized by UKM. In UKM we are free to choose the department we want to join, I myself chose the pediatrics department in the first and second weeks, while for the third and fourth weeks I chose the emergency department.

During the first and second weeks, I got to experience how doctors deal with pediatric patients in Malaysia. I had the experience of attending rounds every morning and afternoon in the pediatric ward. In addition, I also attended rounds in the PICU. This made me know how the service procedures in Malaysian hospitals, especially in HPKK. In addition, in the pediatrics department I also had the experience of attending clinics so that I could learn about the correct way of taking history in pediatric patients.A few times I only participated in discussions conducted by pediatric specialist students at UKM. This greatly increased my knowledge about diseases that often occur in children.

In the third and fourth week I moved to the emergency department. In the emergency department a lot of things happen, this is because the emergency department is the first line to receive patients when they arrive at the hospital. The patients who come are very diverse, ranging from green triage, yellow and there are also red. Here I learned a lot about the procedures when first receiving patients. I also saw how to install IVs, draw blood, and also install ECGs. On my first day in the Emergency department, there was a very severe trauma patient, then I saw how the nurses and doctors treated the patient, to see how severe the trauma was, X-Ray was done and not forgetting CT-Brain to see if there was any injury in the brain. This was a very valuable experience for me.

In week four, we had a patient whose leg was punctured by an electric toothbrush. This patient as usual had blood drawn which was checked, and then this patient also had an X-Ray to see how deep the object went and if there was any severe damage. After the X-Ray was found to be fine, the doctors and nurses performed the procedure to remove the toothbrush and treated the wound, which was also the first time I had seen a patient come in with such a complaint.

Malaysia is a very convenient place to study and also vacation. In Malaysia I have gone to some of the recommended famous places, such as KLCC park, Suria, TRX, Bukit Bintang, Jalan Alor, and most importantly Genting.The atmosphere here is very different from Surabaya, my hometown. In Malaysia the air is very cool while in Surabaya it is very hot, this makes me and my friends feel at home to walk where I am, especially to the hospital. I have also bought some typical Malaysian souvenirs for my friends and family in Indonesia, such as chocolate, key chains, and also some drinks. Doing elective here is very enjoyable, both from the learning, the area, and the atmosphere. This makes me want to return to Malaysia with my family to enjoy the beauty and comfort of Malaysia again.