Students' Take: The elective experience in Singapore

LKCMedicine Year 5 students usually begin the academic year with a combination of local and overseas elective postings to experience a different healthcare environment, on top of a home-based Selective where they can further their experience in a specialty of their choice. However, with the Covid-19 outbreak and travel restrictions, the Class of 2021 had to undergo all their elective postings in Singapore. They talk to The LKCMedicine about their experience. 

Nadia Nasuha Binte Mohammad Nazri

I completed my electives at TTSH Palliative Medicine, TTSH Urology and NHCS Cardiology. With a mix of medical and surgical postings, I saw a wide spectrum of patients and learnt much about various medical conditions and how to manage them.

One of my most memorable experiences during electives was attending to a patient who was near the brink of death in the Palliative Ward. Accompanying someone nearing his end was humbling yet rewarding, as I realised that being free from pain and having one's loved ones by your side are among the most important privileges at life. 

While I was unable to head to Imperial College London for my overseas electives, the electives in Singapore made up for this lost opportunity.

I am thankful that my electives gave me a chance to explore my interests and gain further clinical experience. Armed with the knowledge and soft skills gained, I hope to become a better doctor in the future. 

Ashwin S/O Singaram

Over the course of 10 weeks, we did three two-week long selective postings and had home-based learning for the periods in between.

Students used the opportunity to explore specialties that they had not encountered before, learn more about specialties they might be interested in pursuing after graduation, or make up for clinical exposure that they had lost in the previous academic year due to Covid-19. 

I chose to do the following selective postings: Diagnostic Radiology at KTPH, General Medicine at SGH, and Neurosurgery at NNI-TTSH.

Doing a posting in Radiology gave me a chance to see how radiologists went about interpreting the plethora of scans that are ordered in a hospital each day. It also helped me improve my skills in reading X-rays and CT scans. I had never done a posting at SGH.

My General Medicine posting served as good revision of important topics and allowed me to explore SGH as well. A posting in Neurosurgery is not part of the regular curriculum. I chose to do it to learn more about how the surgeries are performed and I was not disappointed; I witnessed gruelingly long operations to remove skull base tumours that required finesse and patience.

All in all, even though I am slightly disappointed at not having the chance to experience healthcare in an overseas setting, the local selectives were meaningful and worthwhile. Now that the selective period is over, my peers and I are hunkering down to revise for the final exams in January.

 Louise Lo

The Year 5 Selective programme was the last big hurrah before we put our noses to the grindstone in preparation for our MBBS examinations. Despite the cancellation of our overseas Electives, the Selectives were still an excellent opportunity to explore our interests. I spent two weeks each at Tan Tock Seng's Otolaryngology and Emergency Department, and Singapore General Hospital's Orthopaedic Spine team.

The Emergency Department (ED) was a wonderful opportunity to practice procedures and observe how ED physicians managed multiple patients level headedly in the resuscitation room. I am also appreciative of the Ear Nose & Throat surgeons, who tried their best to supplement our learning with photos as we were not allowed to observe surgeries or scopes. Thankfully these restrictions were lifted during my Orthopaedics posting, where I was given the valuable opportunity to scrub in and assist for every surgery.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the operating theatre as it gave me a better insight into the thought process behind the various surgeries. Above all, the Selectives allowed me to meet incredibly friendly, hardworking, and inspiring doctors who taught me not only about their specialty but also how they care for their patients. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful doctors who took me under their wing throughout these six weeks. 

Zenneth Lim

It was a bittersweet moment when I first stepped into the wards for my first selective in late July, knowing full well the uncertainty COVID-19 has brought to Singapore and the world.

The original plan for a six-week elective to Imperial was unfortunately cancelled in March. Though disappointed, I was cognisant that having an extended selective in these challenging times allowed me to experience how Singapore's healthcare landscape responded to this unprecedented crisis.

I experienced a multitude of settings, from the wards in TTSH General Medicine, to the challenging yet exciting environment in TTSH Emergency Medicine, to exploring unfamiliar yet intriguing experiences in SGH Radiation Oncology.

Being embedded closely in each speciality, I have witnessed difficult yet enriching experiences, such as counselling patients about their cancer diagnosis for further management and explaining fully procedures and risks in a clear manner.

Beyond the technical details which I've had the wonderful privilege of learning from the doctors, nurses and allied healthcare staff, the greatest takeaway was seeing how the entire healthcare fraternity responded to Covid-19 with unity and strength, and allowing the same level of professionalism and care for each and every patient.