I am grateful for choosing this course for my EP project as I am confident that I will gain a lot from this course. I am excited to continue to learn more and master new skills in MS Excel through this course. I am very hoping that this skill will be a great help for me in the future.

5. Difficulties/concerns and how I coped
There are a few difficulties that I encountered when I was registering this course since I was not very familiar with Coursera.com and how it works. However, after spending half a day scrolling through some courses available in this website and information about the courses, I am slowly understanding the process of enrolling the course. I find the information for each courses which are provided in the course description very helpful for me to get to know about the course in general.

6. Two words to describe elective posting so far
Intriguing and rewarding!

7. My plan for Week 2
My plan for next week would be I'd like to continue learning more about another skills in MS Excel through this course. I plan to cover Phase 2 and Phase 3 of this course by the end of next week. Hopefully I can complete it in time!

Name         : Tan Zhi Xuan

Matric no  : A173570

Date           : Week 1 (27/6 – 3/7)

I am posted to Internal Medicine for 3 weeks at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH). During registration day with the elective coordinator, we had a brief introduction to the hospital. TUTH is a well-known public hospital in Nepal, which was established in 1982. It has 700-bed facility. 

I am expected to report for duties from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, Monday to Friday. We have the medical conference on the daily morning, where a resident presents a case that has been admitted a night before. I am then assigned to a doctor for ward rounds. I could appreciate how communication skills take place, where interns, residents and consultants discuss the management plan. After that, I have to attend the outpatient clinic. I am glad that I have the opportunity to perform hands-on procedures such as venipuncture and pleural and ascites fluid tapping. There is also an extra class given by the radiology professor at 1.00pm daily, where they teach about the basic interpretation of radiology imaging (CT scan, Chest X-ray). It is my pleasure to be invited to their journal presentation every Friday afternoon, whereby a resident presents a reviewed journal to the consultants. All in all, I would say it is a very fruitful week. 

Life is full of opportunities to step outside the comfort zone. Accepting the offer from medical electives in a the third-world country, Nepal, is not as easy as people think. Roads are in poor condition and lack basic safety features. The hospital in Nepal faces more challenges in providing healthcare services to the community. Hence, I step outside my comfort zone and put myself into their shoes. I aim to gain different experience in their healthcare system. In my opinion,grabbing a chance given to you is the only way to leave your comfort zone. 

I am thankful for all the people I have meet in the hospital. The interns, nurses, doctors and consultants are helpful and hospitable. Tensure I am always in the same direction aswith them during the discussion. I am also thankful for meeting super friendly medical students who translate for me in the ward. In addition, patients in the hospital are extremely cooperative. They are fine with foreign medical students to perform procedures on them. With that, I am super thankful. 

 

4. Your feelings & thoughts
I am excited and nervous on the first day. But as soon as I have adapted into the environment, I am beyond grateful for accepting the offer. Since TUTH is a tertiary referral centre hospital, we could witness many inpatients and outpatients everyday. I feel empathy towards the patients as it is very difficult to travel from rural areas to the capital. They have to take few days to reach the hospital. Besides, most of the patients are from low income family. Hence, they do not afford better quality of medical monitoring equipment such as home blood pressure monitoring. Therefore, they present to hospital with late symptoms. Due to the low health awareness among the community, there have been reported rising cases of cholera outbreak at the time. We were told by the doctors to take extra care while eating out in the restaurant. 

I think the language barrier is the main challenge for me. The language used in Nepal is Nepali language. Due to their low educational background, most of the patients only speak Nepali. Hence it is very difficult for me to understand the patient's concerns. 

I overcome these language barrier challenges by seeking help from medical students and doctors. I ask help from them to translate Nepali into English. They are very kind and helpful. They make sure I understand the patient's condition. In order for a successful history taking, the doctors and students help me to translate English to Nepali for the patient. I am truly beyond grateful for meeting them. 

 

6. 2 words to describe elective posting progress so far
Fruitful, Exciting

I plan to learn some basic nepali language so I could communicate with the people better. I am also planning to grab more opportunities to perform hands on clinical procedures. 

Name : Hanan Safiah Binti Suhaimee

Matric Number : A176993

Date : 29/7/2022

 
2. What have you done?

For the first week, I was still preparing for the medical elective abroad which include buying ticket flights, booking for accommodation, and preparing for the requirement to fly to Korea which include the medical check up, K-eta, and also contacting our supervisor. On the 29^th of July, I had the first orientation at SNU hospital. Together with Ms. Kwon and few other students, I was shown around the hospital site, there are total 4 hospital for SNU, which is the main hospital, Cancer Hospital, and Daehan Center. Aside from the hospital there were also the research center and a museum for history of healthcare in Korea. It was a huge hospital that I could get lost in it. Stepping my foot at the hospital make me realised that I am finally here for the medical elective posting. 

 

3. Points to remember from week 1!
Since i am still in the preparation phase, there is not much that I can share but what I remember the most from the first week was that the excitement that I felt during the orientation. I have yet start the posting and I really hope I can learn as much as I can here to bring back home the experience.

 

4. Your feelings & thoughts 
I was very excited and scared at the same time, as we all know the students in Korea are very  competitive and it was hard to get into medical college in Korea, so I was really scared about the expectation from my supervisor about me and I really hope that I can be a student that can impress him. 

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

Language barrier, I was very worried about the language barrier.  However, i was yet meeting the patient and my supervisior, so i can still cope with it and I tried to use the simple words that I know to ease the communication. 

 

6. 2 words to describe elective posting progress so far

Exciting, dreamlike 
 
7. Your plan for next week (Week 2)

To learn as much as I can from the attachment as it is starting for real ! 

I travelled from Prague to Olomouc before the commencement of my elective in Europe. After settling in, I noticed that my dorm's location was excellent because it was just 15–18 minutes from the main railway station and 5 minutes from the city centre. This is very convenient for me!

I spent 13 days doing my elective at the University of Olomouc's Department of Surgery. I participated in both the operating room and the surgical clinic, most of the time in the operating room. On my first day, I spent about an hour getting lost in the hospital because it is so huge and the majority of the staff doesn't understand English. Czech was a communist country, and only young people under 30 years old speak English widely. During that time, they would prefer German and Russian above English. Since everything in this place is in Czech, I eventually downloaded a language translation software to make my life easier. 

Along with three other local medical students, we were under the supervision of Dr. Risko. My schedule -  I would get up at 6am in the morning and travel 10 minutes by tram to the hospital and reached there by 7.30am , where later the department of surgery holds a quick meeting for 10 to 15 minutes each day to go over the schedule of all the surgeries. We have to get at the operating room before 8am because all surgeries start at 8am sharp, and in between the surgeries, I am free to enter any operating room whenever I want. I've seen a few fascinating surgeries like renal transplants, amputations, and colonic resections, among others. Around 12 o'clock in the afternoon, we will have a little break that will last an hour before continuing. Most of them are finished by 3 p.m., but Tuesday and Thursday have the least surgeries and the earliest time I left the hospital was 9.30am!

Besides, I take some time after class to explore this lovely city .In my opinion, Olomouc's cost of living is low compared to Prague, the Czech Republic's capital; after exchanging currencies, everything here is the same as it is in KL. Olomouc is only a little university city and is much quieter and is a very safe place to walk alone, but Prague is an innovative modern frantic furious metropolis and have a great system of public transit. Anyway, I love Olomouc more than Prague. 

- To be Brave: Don't be afraid to approach people and ask questions, even if your request is denied or you encounter discrimination. It's alright to step outside of your comfort zone because doing so is never incorrect. If you don't go after what you want, you will  never have it, and success won't come your way. I was initially hesitant to ask because I was worried that I would be ignored, but after giving it a few tries, I realised that asking for help wasn't all that difficult after all, and I had learned to be brave.

The people here are considerably nice and helpful – they love offering help and is much friendlier than in Prague. For a few occasion, my friends and I keep get scolding with unknown reasons by an OT cleaner. We were initially really surprised by what we had done since we were so unfamiliar to the environment, but once we adjusted, we began to think more positively. This is life and how it goes, there are always ups and downs and what you need to learn is to overcome both the feelings and also challenges. 

Anyway, focus on the bright side, the doctors here are incredibly kind and patient; in contrast to Malaysia, where the manner in which the doctors there speak to us is simply like a friend, and they are so charming! I was first continually worried that because I don't speak their language and what if I did not hit their expectations, any move I took would set them off and then I realized I was simply overthinking. 

The whole environment in clinic is different compare to in Malaysia, the atmosphere is so chill and they will turn on the radio and let the jazz music fill the space. The doctor, staff nurse in charge will greet each patients with “Dobry-den” which means Hello. Before the consultation ends, all of us will say bye-bye to the patients and wish them have a good day! I would be happy if I am the patient ! 

Second, I met another group of international exchange students that come from all over the world for their summer training at czech, like Malta, Taiwan, Turkey, Serbia, and Estonia. We enjoy interacting with each other and exchanging experiences on our healthcare system and common diseases in our country. I love how the way we support and encourage one another when we face challenges, it makes me feel like I am part of a family. I'm glad to have met them!

Language barrier. 

Language barrier is my biggest obstacle, because they don't speak English and I don't know Czech, so I usually don't understand what is happening. Fortunately, I have a Czech friend who enrolled in the same summer clinical training programme and he willing to translate everything for us into English. I now have a clearer picture of what the patient is going through as a result.

In addition, I find it challenging to adjust to their teaching method because they don't really teach or spoon-feed their students; instead, you have to take the initiative to seize any possibilities to ask! The same thing occurs in Romania as well! So I really appreciate the Malaysian doctors who are willing to put up the effort and offer up their time to teach us. I've always assumed that the grass is always greener on the other side even though I've never visited the European country. Following my elective, I am thankful for what I have and have learned to value my status as a medical student in Malaysia even more.

Excited, Nervous 

I plan to step out of my comfort zone and try to approach both the local students and also the doctors. Other than that, I would like be proactive to try to assist during the surgery to learn more. 

Matric Number: A174095

Date: 27^th July 2022

 2. What have you done?
It is the first week of elective posting and it mainly revolved around preparing for my trip to Seoul as well as gearing up for my medical elective there. Prior leaving for Seoul, it was quite a hectic period as I had to prepare all the required documents and also check off the requirements for entry into South Korea. I had to make sure my travel pass was approved and that the pre-departure COVID test was negative. A lot of caution was needed before flying off. I managed to find a good accommodation with the help of my fellow friends from UKM who were also attending SNU for their elective!

 

I left for Seoul on the night of 26^th of July and arrived on the morning of the 27^th. It was a mandatory requirement to get tested for COVID-19 upon arrival and submission of results within the first 24 hours. As soon as I landed and retrieved my bags, I went to the testing center right away located outside of Incheon International Airport to get tested. The medical staff were super friendly and they also spoke English to accommodate. Results came in after a few hours and everything was good to go! 

 

I had a few days before my orientation (29/7) so I spent the first few days after touchdown getting familiarised with the city. It was my second time being in Seoul and having the advantage of speaking conversational Korean, I settled in pretty quickly with the help of some of my local friends! A lot about the city has changed since I last came and it made me realise that the pandemic had a really big impact worldwide.

 

On the day of the orientation, the three of us who were going for the elective at SNUH were pretty nervous but Ms. Kwon Hee-eun, our coordinator was welcoming and had prepared merchandises on SNU’s behalf for our use (as in the picture above!). We gathered with three other students from Germany, Hungary and a native Korean who studied overseas and begun our orientation with a quick tour around the hospital. The hospital compound was very big and I was sure that I would still get lost once I start my surgical posting despite having a map of the campus. SNUH consisted of its main hospital, children’s hospital, cancer hospital and also Daehan Center which catered for its outpatient clinics. All the hospitals were connected by its basement levels so it was easy going around from one building to another. 

 3. Points to remember from Week 1!
I think the things I have learned from week 1 is that you have to be very open to interacting with new people when you’re in another country. One of the ways for you to gain optimal experience is by mingling with those who have resided there and or those who have more experience being there in order for you to gain the most out of the experience yourself. It was also really important to have your plans in order so you don’t get too overwhelmed because being in a new environment can be a lot to take in so if you readily have your plans set, its easier to carry them out systematically.

 4. Your feelings & thoughts 
It was nerve-wrecking at most even though this wasn’t the first time I was going overseas for an exchange. I think it’s the fact that it was a medical attachment that made me a bit nervous seeing as their healthcare system and how things work in the hospital is different from ours but reassurance from my supervisors, fellows and interns made it better and I felt very welcomed by the team. They were just as excited as I was to exchange experiences and I appreciated how eager the professors were to have me be involved in their daily activities. Overall, once I got there the feeling of nervousness was drowned out by how exciting everything was. I have my friends to thank for that because they helped me get used to the city and wouldn’t hesitate to help when I needed it. Seoul was definitely a breath of fresh air.

 5. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?
I’d say difficulties would be getting used to how much I had to walk around and use public transportation in Seoul. The roads in the city can be quite a hike and when I first arrived with my two big luggage, it was such a challenge to lug them around to my house. Taxis can be pricey in Seoul so using the subway was almost always the go-to transportation but I believe that I would get used to all the walking soon enough.

 

Next, would be time management and getting around the hospital. The results for our offer came out pretty late and the closest accommodation was around an hour away by train. We had to plan our time in order to get to the orientation and that also included the travel time by foot to the subway itself. The hospital had a very confusing layout so it took a while to get to where we needed to be but the map given by the international office helped a lot.

 

All in all, the first week was amazing.

6. 2 words to describe elective posting progress so far
Very exciting!

Seeing as my elective officially starts next week, I’ll be studying for case presentations and surgeries. My department is the colorectal surgery department which is under general surgery as well so I would probably be going through my surgical notes again as preparation.