6 weeks of
holiday went pass me just like that. Now am back to my life as a dental
student. The only difference: I am back in Malaysia for good.
I have
written the draft for this post for quite some time now. I was so reluctant to
continue it especially when my study load was piling up. However, something happened
today that made me want to complete this post.
Let’s start
from the registration letter. It came really late; 2 weeks before the
registration day. Only three days’ notice was given to pay up and sent back the
reply slip. I was oversea at the period of time but still manage get back to
them. Some other batch mates of mine weren’t so lucky and they had a hard time
in getting a hostel room. I really don’t understand why everything has to be so
last minute. I think they can really improve on that.
On the
first day, we were given till noon to register ourselves. There were
registration booths set up in the cafeteria. After handing in the registration
forms, we proceeded to collect our hostel keys. A hostel checklist and complain
form were given to us along with the keys. We were free to anything after that.
The orientation started after lunch that day.
To be
honest, it was the longest orientation I ever had. The whole thing lasted for 2
weeks. (For medical student, it was only for a week.) It runs the whole day,
8am-5pm. We joined the MBBS student for the 1st week. For most of
the time, we have to sit in the lecture hall and listen to talks from many
people. There were staffs from the library, clinical skills lab, IT department,
psychology department, hostel wardens, hospital Pengarahs’ and people from
medical mobile app company. It was really hard to stay awake through some of
the talks especially those just before lunch. Funny that they choose to put the
hostel briefing the last of all talks when we have been staying in comfortably
for a few days. There was also a campus tour. It was conducted on the first
day. It wasn’t really what I expected it to be. First they brought us around
the main office building, library, academic block II and lastly the sports
complex. It wasn’t organized well as there was only one person who was in
charged to bring all 200+ students around the campus. We at the back hardly
could hear anything. I think our own seniors should have been there to at least
guide us especially in regards to our own dental building. I hope this will
change next year. At least they should
have given us some kind of map like how the Manipal management did.
For the
second week, we were slowly introduced to various fields in dentistry. I think
our batch shocked the lecturers. Back in Manipal, we were known to be a quiet
group; unlike our senior or junior batch. They were trying so so so hard to get
us talking. Till now, the condition is still the same. In the first meeting
with all the dental staff, the dean asked us to introduced ourselves one by one
and share a little on our expectation from the faculty as well as the field we
would want to specialize in the future. We were then introduced to our
lecturers and the supporting staffs. He also briefly touched on the exams and
academic layout for the next 3 years. On the subsequent days, we were shown
around the clinics and labs. The OPD (outpatient department), reception,
finance department and radiology department are stationed on the ground floor. As
for our clinics, it is on the 3rd floor. For now, we all share a
dental unit with another partner. Our partners were decided by the management. There is a surgery theater on the 1st
floor while our labs are all on the 7th floor. We have classes
mostly in the 9th floor. On the same week itself, we were also
briefed on the various rules and regulations of the clinic as well as
sterilization of our instruments. We were asked to record the serial numbers of
our handpieces and dental unit. I hated the introduction to “Gloco” the most. Gloco
is a computer system where we key in our patient’s information and store it for
future reference. Currently, we are all divided into 6 groups, each consist of
8-9 students. Each group will be posted to a different specialist clinic for a
few weeks to learn the skills in regard to that field. As for our first general
dental clinic session that week, we were all taught about taking E&D
(Examination and diagnosis). A lecture on infection control was also held for
us. We were also introduced to our yellow operation gowns which we will be
wearing for the next 3 years.
There is
also an assembly held on the first Monday of every month unless it crashes with
our holiday. All batches will gather together in the hall like how we use to do
in our national schools. Awards and announcements will be given out at that
time. New lecturers and staffs will be introduced then.
I think
that’s about it on the orientation. I don’t know about most of you, but being
back just make me miss Manipal even more.
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