Deena Priyanka Edwards A/P Roger, A181019, 31/7/23 - 4/8/23 

For week 2 of my elective posting, I have started to do some cleaning and treating of the animals.  I cleaned the eyes and ears of the dogs and cats, applied iodine on the wounds and applied tick medication for the puppies. I was more comfortable to deal with the animals. I am brave now compared to the first week in dealing with animals. Even if the animals were resisting me from touching them, I was able to calm them down and treat them. I was better in communicating with the members there and was able to complete the task assigned by my supervisor successfully. 

The saying 'practise makes perfect ' is so true. By continuous effort since the first week, now I have better skills in giving animal care. This is so applicable in my personal life as by continuous effort I am sure I will have better skills in providing competent health care to my patients. 

Communication skills plays a pivotal part in our lives. I have learnt to be bold and confident in communicating with people.

Moreover, I learnt that time management is also important. There are too many animals at the shelter that needs treatment. I made sure I am always punctual and manage my time well in order to be able to treat all the animals there. 

 

I felt really happy to be a part of SPCA as it was one of my dream since childhood to care for the animals. It was truly heartbreaking to see the condition of the animals there. They were in pain and discomfort and need continuous treatment. I wish more people would volunteer to help in treating and caring the animals. I am also thinking that I should start donating for the shelter to help them financially.

I also feel satisfied as I used my time wisely because I learnt a lot of things here. I was also glad that I made new friends there. 

I am able to practise the animal cleaning and treating skills to my own pets.My pets have ear and eye infection so I am using the skills I learnt in the shelter to everyday clean, check and apply medications to my pets. 

One difficulties I faced is I was not sure about which medicine to use, dosage and the way of administration of the medications. I asked for guidance from the members and they taught me. I learnt that ticks medication needs to be applied at the back of the neck of the animals.

 

My plan for week 3 is cleaning the shelter. The shelter is a very big space with more than 400 animals. So, cleaning is a pivotal task there and I will be helping the cleaners to clean animal cages.

Lee Kar Yen

A182043

31/7/2023 - 4/8/2023

 

31/7 - 4/8

 

 

 

Kan Yi Jie
A181529
31/7/2023 – 4/8/2023

2. How is your progress? 

In this week, I started to do some works under the guidance of a pharmacist. With this, I learnt to become a retail assistant in the pharmacy store. For example, I would help them to take the medicines or health supplements on the rack that they needed for the customers. Besides, I helped to manage if there were some parcels of medicine stocks. For this, I helped to confirm whether the parcel was sent correctly to our pharmacy, confirm the correct amount of the stocks, put the price tags on the stocks and arrange them on the racks. Apart from managing parcels, I learnt to use the computer system in this week. I used the system to help customers checking their buying history as many of the customers would forget the brand of the medication that they wanted to buy. Besides, I also helped to collect payments by using the computer system. As a retail assistant, I helped the customers to find out those things that they wanted to buy, helping them to check the medicines’ expiring date and the prices. If there were elderly that unable to carry heavy things, I would help them to carry those things to their cars. In summary, I learnt the job scope of a retail assistant in a community pharmacy in this week.

3. Points to remember from week 2! 

In week 2, I realized that it was not easy to be a retail assistant in a community pharmacy. The job scope was very wide and busy. As a retail assistant, I must know some of the pharmacological knowledges so that I can answer the customers’ questions. Before my posting in pharmacy, I never knew that a retail assistant also needed to learn the pharmacological knowledges. I thought that consulting customers was only in the pharmacist’s job scope. However, after posting at here, I realized that all the workers in the pharmacy whether pharmacist or not, they needed to have the knowledges to help in serving customers in a better way.

4. Your feelings & thoughts 

In this week, I felt a bit tiring as the pharmacy was so busy. Before this, I never thought that it will be busy to work in a community pharmacy. However, this pharmacy was busy especially in the early morning as there were many of the elderly who came in the morning to buy their medications. Besides, there were many of the things that I still need to learn. The scope of learning was wide for me as I was weak in pharmacological knowledges. It is hope that I can do better and better in the next 2 weeks. Although it was tiring, but I felt more adapt to this environment compared to last week. There were more communications between me and the staffs. And with this, I felt happy as I was able to make new friends with the staffs.

5. ONE good thing from what you did that you can practice now! 

Learn to ask proactively. From this week, I found that I should learn to ask questions proactively as I am lacking pharmacological knowledges. If I do not understand the details of the medications clearly, I may give a wrong information to the customers. So, I have to asking questions proactively from the pharmacists.

Throughout this week, the difficulty that I faced was I was lacking pharmacological knowledges when serving customers. For example, I was unable to answer when a customer asking me the difference between two types of medications. In this situation, the only that I could help was helping the customers by asking the pharmacists. I felt so sad when I was facing this kind of situation in the beginning. After this, I learnt to ask questions actively when there was something that I do not know. Besides, I studied the details of the medications and supplements when I was free. It is hope that I can do better in the next week.

7. Your plan for next week (Week 3)

I plan to learn more of the skills from the pharmacists in serving customers such as become a pharmacist assistant so that I can help in drug measuring and packaging. Besides, I hope that I can promote some medications to customers by myself after this.

     CHUA KHAI XIAN, A182187, 5/8/2023

2. How is your progress?

3. Points to remember from week 2!

4. Your feelings & thoughts

5. ONE good thing from what you did that you can practice now!

6. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?

7. Your plan for next week (Week 3)

Chan Hui Ying

A181362

31/7/2023 - 4/8/2023

During Week 2, I successfully organised and conducted clean-up activities together with the elderly residents in the old folks' home. The progress was positive, and the elderly residents actively participated in order to maintain their living spaces clean and comfortable to live. 

Firstly, I had a discussion with the caregivers to identify the areas that required cleaning, then we divided the tasks based on their abilities. It included cleaning up the common area, kitchen, cleaning the windows and drying the bedsheets. The elderly residents not only cleaned up their own living spaces but also worked together to clean up the common areas such as the dining room and recreational room. The atmosphere was filled with laughter and they were really happy that they could do something meaningful. 

a) Teamwork: Working closely with the caregivers was essential in planning and organizing the clean-up activities in order to ensure a smooth and efficient process.

b) Encourage Elderly Residents Involvement: Engaging and encouraging the elderly residents to actively participate in the clean-up activities fostered a sense of ownership and pride in their living spaces.

c) Tailor Tasks based on Abilities: Assigning tasks that aligned with the residents' physical capabilities allowed everyone to contribute meaningfully to the clean-up efforts.

d) Promote Safety: Prioritizing safety measures and providing assistance as needed to ensure the residents worked in a safe environment

I feel a deep sense of fulfilment and satisfaction in being part of Week 2's clean-up activities. Witnessing the residents' enthusiasm and smiles as they took charge of maintaining their living spaces made me feel happy and satisfied. The sense of community and collaboration among the elderly residents and caregivers was heartwarming and strengthened my belief in the value of volunteer work in elderly care.

One good thing I can practice now is teamwork. Working closely with caregivers and elderly residents allowed me to experience the power of teamwork in achieving common goals. This valuable skill will undoubtedly benefit me in my future medical career, as healthcare professional often involves teamwork for the best patient outcomes.

One concern during the clean-up activities was ensuring that residents with mobility challenges could participate safely and comfortably. To cope with this, I provided extra support to those who needed assistance and modified tasks to accommodate their abilities. For example, there was an elderly who was in a wheelchair, in order to make sure his safety, I assigned some simple tasks for him such as cleaning the table. Besides, clear communication and empathy also helped to address any difficulties and ensured everyone felt included in the activities.

I would like to focus on promoting the overall well-being of elderly residents. I will organize some light exercises and recreational activities that encourage physical health and social interaction. Due to their sedentary lifestyles, which I took into consideration when thinking about the elderly residents, some light exercises can help them become healthy as well as relieve their boredom. 

Teoh Qi Wei

A182051

31/07/2023 - 4/8/2023

 

 

4. Your feelings & thoughts 

 

 

 

Fiona Cheong Shoon Jenn

A183585

31/7/23-04/08/23

So I successfully completed week 2 as well!

On day 1 of week 2: We continued the IBN task, comparing and analyzing data from various domains, from IBN 2015-2019. We tabulated the data, and color coded them to make the report less boring! 

On day 2: We joined a taklimat/ bengkel on Dasar Semasa Kementerian Belia dan Sukan (KBS) to further understand the roles of IYRES and KBS - Model Pembangunan Belia Madani 2030, Kod Sukan Selamat, Visi Sukan Negara 2030

On day 3: We had to key in data for the research department, that they were going to use for collecting data from the community. It was a lot of data, so we had to use 3 whole days to key in. My Excel skills definitely excelled after this experience. 

On day 4: We continued to key in data. We were then told on day 3 to prepare a health talk for the IYRES workers that was to happen on next Tuesday (8/8/23), so we discussed on what topics to present and the contents to be included in the presentation. 

On day 5: We started to gather contents for the presentation from reliable sources, such as information disseminated from the Ministry of Health. We also started to prepare the slides as creative as possible for easy understanding. There was also a KBS open day, where we helped to prepare and attend the booths. It was a day to promote what KBS was all about to the general public. 

Firstly, would be excel skills. I believe excel skills is something that will be needed in my work in the future. So to be able to practice them now in a practical way is definitely useful! 

Secondly I realised preparing slides for IYRES workers versus for doctors or Profs is definitely different, as I had to learn how to explain concepts in an easy way and add loads of pictures for easy understanding. I realise that this is how I should present information to my patients as well in the future. 

I also learn how to work with others, as the research department had to teach me how they wanted me to key in the data. Listening well to what they wanted is definitely essential in making the shared work, work. 

Also, communicating well to my group mates is really important. This is because there was actually a miscommunication among me and my groupmates, which led to me making a huge mistake when keying in the data. Thankfully, my group mates were willing to work together to fix the mistake that I did. But to avoid this from happening again, I realise the importance of communicating well and double confirming that the point was gotten across, rather than just assuming that they understood what I was trying to say. 

So far I’m glad that I am learning new things and also interacting well with my groupmates and IYRES workers. I am also excited to pick up Excel skills because I wouldn’t have trained myself to use Excel if it weren’t for this program! I am also improving my soft skills such as communication skills among team members and higher ups, to which I feel is such a priceless skill to develop!

I learned how to listen well when others are giving instructions so that the task that is given can be done well and with as little mistakes as possible!

I think this is a good skill to have as I will be receiving lots of instructions in the future as a doctor, from my professors/ nurses/ higher ups etc. Listening well and unassumingly can ensure that the task given can be done satisfactorily. 

When the research executive asked us to assist in inserting the data for the research project, she introduced a systematic way to key in the data into the excel sheets. Initially, I couldn't understand what she meant, because the systematic way was quite complicated. At the same time, I was zoning out a few times when she was explaining because of how unfamiliar the whole thing was. My friends were also confused. We had to ask her to demonstrate to us a few times and with a few examples on what she wanted us to do. We also had to constantly go up to her in her office to clear up any doubts we had. It took a while for us to understand what she wanted us to do. 

We were able to finish up the task well and satisfactorily in the end, and this is majorly due to the research executive’s willingness to patiently teach us on how and what to do. I was also eager to learn and excel in the system so I tried my best to keep pushing through despite the frustrations, and kept asking her questions, to ensure the work was done accurately in the end. My friends and I also helped each other out, where we explained and taught the other person on whatever we knew better about the systematic method and Excel. 

Present our health talk slides, observe new research projects, participate in new projects assigned by Dr Vella and Prof Rosnah.