Stage 1 Hospital Visit

Stage 1 Hospital Visit 

By: Sonia Susiman

On the 24^th of October 2012, the Stage 1 students made their first visit to Hospital Sultan Ismail. There was a lot of excitement in the air as this was a chance to communicate with the patients and the feeling of walking into the hospital as a medical student for first time was even more exciting and encouraging. The main purpose of the visit was to introduce Stage 1 students to the hospital and the ward environment as well as interviewing patients on the ward as assigned to each group. Furthermore, it was a requirement to be able to describe a patient’s experience which includes their illness and experience of being in hospital. Another essential learning outcome was to apply communication skills knowledge in the real atmosphere.

All students gathered at Medical Student Office (MSO) at around 7.45am, the stage 3 seniors recorded attendance and groups got into their respective buses. Leaving NUMed at 8am allowed the buses to arrive at our destination, Hospital Sultan Ismail (HSI) at around 9am. Upon arriving, all NUMed students were given each a tag which was stated “pelatih” which means trainee and every Stage 1 student assembled in the auditorium of HSI. At around 9.45 am, the stage 3 students were assigned to identify suitable patient on respective wards. The orientation was done by the HSI management. At 10.15, the staff nurse assigned to each group took all the groups around the hospital. Then at 10.30, all students were allowed to start a 1 hour interview with a patient. In total, all the students were divided into groups which were assigned to different wards as follows:

Group 1: Paediatrics, involving children with many medical complications.

Group 2 and Group 6: Medical, involving patients with general medical complication without surgeries.

Group 3: Surgical, involving with patients who have undergone operations.

Group 4: Orthopaedics, involving the human musculoskeletal system.

Group 5: Obstetrics and Gynaecology, involving maternity and babies.

At 11.30am, a feedback session was scheduled in the respective wards. The Stage 1 students managed to share their first-time experience while the Stage 3 students reciprocated with feedback on how to improve communication skills with patients and other health care professionals. There was also one academic staff assigned to each group to give general feedback based on their observations. 12.30pm was the scheduled departure by bus back to NUMed. On the whole, Stage 1 students learned a lot on how to improve communication skills and the right ways in which to interact with our patients. As an overall view, all students were satisfied and benefited from the trip.

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