Comments on: For Future Doctors: Good Doctoring……….by Dr Milton Lum

By: Pagalavan Letchumanan

Pagalavan Letchumanan — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:08:38 +0000

Indian education system emphasizes a lot on memorizing. It is a well known fact. You can see the movie “Nanban”

By: soulmate

soulmate — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:20:41 +0000

We are not expected to know the dosage of all the drugs except the common ones. Since TB is very prevalent in India, there a specific treatment regime to follow and so all medical students should know it by heart. But most of the university exams are conducted in subjective style, so it is like “the more you know, the more you score”, the examiners mark the papers based on their impression on the answers you present, so students who want to score well have to study more and memorize more facts.

By: Ranji

Ranji — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:20:19 +0000

Dear enthusiasm,

I am surprised that you are surprised that a student does not need to memorize the dosages of anti-TB treatment.

For the young doctor, dosages should not be the most important thing he/she needs to learn. The most important should be the recognition of side effects of the drug, the typical duration a drug is given, the usual regimes etc.

Knowing the dosages of a non-emergency drug does not provide any benefit to the young doctor. In the new age with the advent of technology, I would encourage all young doctors to DOUBLE CHECK the dosages first before prescribing, and not to rely purely on memory work – especially when one is post-call and have a dropping GCS.

Do medical schools in India emphasize a lot on memorizing dosages?

By: Pagalavan Letchumanan

Pagalavan Letchumanan — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:42:36 +0000

MMC comes under Ministry of Health. The DG becomes the MMC Chairman. It is a non-independent body!

By: karen

karen — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:00:11 +0000

In this case, MMC is the main culprit for the glut of houseman. They should do something to scale down their approvals on the no. of students.

By: Nav

Nav — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:06:44 +0000

Even without the international students, they are struggling to keep up with enough internship positions. But yes, the international students are the ones that are being placed at the bottom of the list. They are after all just a cash cow for the universities.

By: Pagalavan Letchumanan

Pagalavan Letchumanan — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 10:54:51 +0000

Australian medical schools takes in a lot of foreign students unlike Malaysian medical schools which is almost 100% Malaysians. Previously most of these foreign/international students stay back in Australia to complete their internship. This could be the reason why they do not have enough internship places. If they stop giving internship post to international students, they will have enough slots for their citizens and PRs. Atleast 20% of their graduates are international students.

By: Pagalavan Letchumanan

Pagalavan Letchumanan — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:14:20 +0000

Nope. The colleges apply to MMC for the number of students they are going to take. MMC usually approves the number based on lecturer:student ratio.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:11:49 +0000

Dear Dr, I heard that the number of students is not up to the colleges or medical schools. It is decided or allocated by the government. This is to ensure that there will be enough places for the students during their clinical years in the hospitals. Is it true?

By: drw

drw — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:40:09 +0000

Malaysia is a developing 3rd world country whereas Australia is a developed country. So obviously Australia is expected to have a much more developed health infrastructure/healthcare system/management, etc (the status of being a developed country). So why compare them?

…….. and yet Australia still have the same fiasco of not enough places for internship. They should have planned properly before taking in more medical students but not at last minutes trying to accommodate them.
Due to the glut, will there be enough qualified trainers? Will the training be compromised?