MOdelling

Dr. K Lum always wondered why she was scheduled to be on call almost every day.





"...Modelling is the learning of behaviours and skills that can occur by observation without direct reinforcement...."

When we are junior doctors, fresh from medical school, many a times we learn from what we see. Usually, unless you are a damn chio babe (few are far in between. Refer to previous post for explanation), you will spend most of your time in the hospital with your medical officers. The damn chio babes will probably have more time with the more senior doctors. I believe that the MOs' behaviour and attitude do rub off on the junior doctors. You either learn to be like them, either for better or for worst. Or you try not to be like them. Usually for the better.

Here at State General, there are a few categories of MOs:

1. "Simply bo-chap" type
- These MOs just want to finish their bond and get out of hospital. They do their job sufficiently not to get into trouble. They grumble about hospital policies and how sian things are in hospitals.

2. "Sian cha bo" type
- These MOs will only spend time with you, teaching, guiding etc if you are a female. Sometimes, beggars cannot be choosers.

3. "Ninja" MOs
- After the morning round (where the senior doctors like the registrars and consultants are around), they will disappear. Sometimes, I think they were summoned by some feudal lords on some secret mission, because there's no way to contact them at all. They're not in clinic, not in the ward. And they only return pages hours later. Ninjas cannot carry handphones is it??
- They reappear during the evening round. Yes, when the senior doctors are around.

4. "Foreign Talent" MOs (NTS)
- I must qualify and say that some FTMOs are wonderful people, brilliant doctors. Not all of them are black sheeps, though most of them are black.
- Words that I have heard used to describe them include "lazy", "sly", "cunning", "useless", and the rest are not suitable for kids surfing this site.
- I have heard about this FTMO who made the House Officer(HO) deliver her breast milk (which she expressed during the day) to her husband waiting somewhere else in the hospital.

(during busy day in the ward)
FTMO: Can I be excused from the ward round?
Registrar: Erm... why is that necessary?
FTMO: I need to pump my breasts.

5. "Horse fart demon" type
- Rather similar to the Ninja, only appearing when certain people are around, but these MOs can be recognised by their pouty lips, developed after years of kissing ass.

The list goes on and on, but I suppose every organisation has these people.
Fortunately, the majority of seniors are really great people, wonderful, caring doctors.
They may be very strict towards the HOs but all things are done with good intentions, to help them learn.

There are:
- MOs who are willing to help do changes for the poor HOs, clerk new cases etc.
- MOs who stay back after office hours to help the junior doctor with the evening changes.
- MOs who never fail to impart their knowledge and skills to the new doctor.
- MOs who take up appropriate responsibilities when things go wrong, as they do sometimes (and not make the HO the scapegoat!).
- MOs who ensure that the HO is not bullied by the nurses.
- MOs who reply to their pages promptly and don't sound as though they wanna bite your head off for paging them.
- MOs who genuinely treat you as a colleague, a friend rather than a subordinate.

To all these MOs, we can say that we learn a lot, and we strived to be like them, if not better. And we sincerely give our thanks.