My Five Cents: Clinic Visit to Cheras Baru

I think the clinic visits that IMU have, are really awesome. It never occurred to me how realistic medicine was, until today. You get several clinics like DBKL, Jinggang, Nilai, Dato Keramat and Cheras. My group were instructed to go to the Cheras Baru Clinic which happened to be the nearest. We got slightly lost halfway but thankfully, we managed to get to the right building. It was so small though. I felt a pang of sympathy for all the old patients who had to slowly climb up the steep steps to the top of the hill, to get to the clinic. There was another entrance where cars could enter but it was narrow and difficult to maneuverer.

I think it only hit me when an old man suddenly started conversing with me in Cantonese, while we were huddled outside the clinic, waiting for one of our group members. He was speaking quickly while pulling up his sleeve to show me this right arm. I was so stunned I couldn't speak at first, but I couldn't reply either as I only speak 3 languages, Cantonese not being one of them. It was after that when I realized that everything I had been studying was related to REAL life.

I mean, obviously, I know that medicine is about helping and treating people but because of the simulated patients that IMU has for all our clinical practice sessions, I sort of forgot the whole patient part. These were real people, with real illnesses and real symptoms. It was all so REAL.

Then, I felt terrified for a moment. Was I capable of taking their history? Was I qualified enough to even have the indecency to ask about a patient's condition?

Overall, it was a very good experience because I learnt lifelong lessons today. I learnt how to communicated with different people with different backgrounds, religions and races. I also realized how useful it was to be able to speak Mandarin fluently. I should definitely learn to converse in it fluently before I graduate. It's such an embarrassment to be a Chinese but not speak it, especially while studying abroad. People would definitely look to you if they need a translator and it's just really lame if you shake your head and say 'Sorry, I can't speak Mandarin.'

You know, my first patient was this middle aged woman who was lying down on a bed. Her left leg had a huge open wound where I could see blood and flesh. The nurses were changing the dressing. However, the woman only spoke Cantonese so she was telling Steph about what happened. According to her translations, she had been bitten by a mosquitoe and it got swollen a few days later. It got so bad, they had to operate on her leg. The most heart wrenching part of the day, was watching her face distort with pain as the nurses cleaned the wound and placed the gauze on it.

I felt such a yearning to help her but obviously, what could I do? I'm just a measly second year medical student which no qualifications whatsoever. It's really amazing, that few minutes made me really consider returning to Malaysia to work after I'm done with my studies. Just looking around the clinic which was overcrowded with people waiting for their turn, I just felt like helping them. There's no reason why someone should ever wait so long to get treated.

I just really felt like helping them, but I didn't know how.