A published author

Anyone can start a blog and become a published author. Yet not everyone gets an opportunity to publish in a respectable journal read by a select group of people.

That's what I wanted to start this post with. But on the other hand, I think - 'I'M GONNA BE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR READ BY MILLIONS' - sounds much better!

Is that why I am still working on my research about paramedic handovers? There's always more things to edit, numbers to check (which showed something scary - I think I made some very minor mistakes with the numbers in my thesis - nothing that would change any conclusions or even affect percentages), references to add. If there's anything this research has taught, it's

• Research takes a lot of time and effort
• It is good to get a superb supervisor (or in my case, supervisors).
• Get published - otherwise the effort's kinda wasted
• Even in research, it is nice to have contacts

It'll probably be a while still before my research gets published, and hopefully someone will want to publish it!

the osce surprise

Just before exams, everyone (yeah, including myself) was rushing to attend procedural skills revision sessions for OSCE (a mouthful, but better than "Objective Structured Clinical Examination"). The skills coordinator was so nice, so calm and ever so helpful in revising and practising skills such as venepuncture, cannulation, suturing etc. As we were leaving the last revision session, she shouted out, "Relax guys, all of you will be all right for the procedural station!"

Yeah, sure...especially since out of the four stations, none of them were procedural. That's why she got to laugh and say "I gotcha" as we finished the exams ...

In memory of...

It is really sad, when it takes another friend's blog entry to remind me that just three years ago, a very close friend passed away.

I still remember, he was preparing for his STPM exams, and he wanted to play badminton. My mom told him to study hard and play with me when I got home from Melbourne, in a few month's time. I never got to play with him again. Ever.

I never saw it coming. I even thought we were going to be future colleagues. Maybe grow old and laugh at each other. But not this.

Ganesh A. (1984-2003) - You are sorely missed. I wonder how things would have turned out otherwise. The time we shared was fantastic and you have been a great friend.

"Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri, lebih baik di negeri sendiri" Malay proverb

What that proverb basically says is that - Home country is still the best, even if it is raining gold in other countries, and raining stones at home...

I have been asked many times, by different people, of my plans after my studies in Melbourne. You see, I think it is really raining stones back home - with the current political backdrop, democracy, and even police problems (watched/heard of MTV Ashton Kutcher Punk'd ?? - here's one which is proudly Made in Malaysia, with real policemen).


What is Malaysia becoming?

The draught in blogosphere (mine at least)

Introduction
If you'll just scroll down a bit on this page, you'll notice that my last post was in March. (and it's May now...)

Results
But I can't be faulted can I? A systematic review (yeah right) of selected blogs which I regularly frequent, shows that many blogs have not been updated for a long time. One of them have been taken off Blogspot (i.e., deleted). Don't trust my review? - Have a click at those links on the left of this post.

Discussion
It is most likely that there's a blogging trending which correlates with procrastination, boredom, and loss of interest after initial excitement (p<0.001). style="font-style: italic;">Conclusion
It may have been fun initially, results might have been interesting (maybe?), but I can't understand why one of my friends told me he loves doing research. I can't wait to get to clinicals - just another 2 months for it to start. And yes, expect more whining about it when it begins - didn't you know -- things seem more interesting before it starts, and after you get white hair (and use words like...I remember those days when I was a medical student...). Nostalgia - what a wonderful thing my brain does for me (...probably a change in the strength of connections between neurons saying...DAMN CAN'T YOU REMEMBER...YOU HATED IT!)

Disclaimer: This paper was written without peer review and statistics was anecdotal. Any statistician out there interested to do the real thing?