Training medical students
THE challenges faced by medical students and doctors are no secret. Therefore, students must be equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to provide holistic healthcare.
Prof Dr Shah Yasin, head of school for the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences (JCSMHS) at Monash University Malaysia, shares how medical students are prepared for the realities doctors face.
Private hospital engagement
For the last three years, medical students at JCSMHS have had the opportunity to engage with private hospitals during their undergraduate study.
“We have a number of private hospitals that actively take our students. These include Sunway Medical Centre, which hosts the largest number of our students, Tropicana Medical Centre and Darul Ehsan Medical Centre,” says Prof Shah.
In private hospitals, students can tap into the knowledge of specialists with at least 10 years of experience under their belt.
Compared to public hospitals where one might see up to 40 patients in a morning, students may see less than 10 patients at a private hospital.
Prof Shah explains that this gives specialists time to address students’ questions.
Students assist doctors and specialists in various tasks, including sourcing for information from the latest journals.
On top of that, student doctors have been well received by patients. With hospitals being a lonely place for some patients, medical students often offer companionship, which helps lift patients’ moods and subsequently improve their well-being.
Students also sometimes act as information bridges when patients are reluctant to ask specialists questions.
The response from private hospitals regarding the presence of medical students at the hospital has been encouraging.
According to Prof Shah, following a survey that was conducted in the hospitals where students were posted for their pre-internship, the university found that, to date, not a single patient has refused to be seen by students.
Pre-intern posting
The fifth year of the university’s medical programme is essentially a pre-intern (or prehousemanship) year, but with additional academic requirements.
“The programme consists of six blocks, each lasting six weeks. Our students are attached to a consultant for each block,” explains Prof Shah.
Students undergo the six pre-intern postings in different places, with two compulsory postings in Australia and four locally, including one in Hospital Segamat, Johor.
While students are supposed to act as and do almost all the work of an intern, they do not yet take on the full responsibilities of an intern.
These pre-intern postings give them a taste of various environments including the Australian healthcare system, a rural hospital, a private hospital and a large public hospital such as the Sultanah Aminah Hospital, where they also need to complete a Patient Safety module.
An important part of the curriculum, the module teaches the importance of ensuring patients’ safety – for example, the correct way of transporting critically ill patients.
With Malaysia’s rising life expectancy and ageing population, there is now an increasing need for geriatricians. In one block of the programme, students take on Aged Care.
The posting, which is completed in Australia, will see them looking into a range of services targeted at the ageing population.
Another block, Indigenous Care, focuses on the health of indigenous people who have unique health issues and worse health outcomes compared to the general population.
It is believed that there are many parallels in the social and health issues of indigenous people around the world.
In Malaysia, students also look into health issues of the orang asli in the hospital and through orang asli community visits during their pre-internship programme.
According to Prof Shah, rural hospitals differ vastly from public hospitals as there are fewer services and specialists in the former, making it important for students to acquire a broad range of experience to prepare them for this post.
Through its holistic approach to education, Monash has produced well-rounded undergraduate medical students who have benefited from learning a wide range of issues, including the social determinants of health and the healthcare system and work culture of Australia.