Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Big Steps Ahead..

Salam..

Ahh.. Every single time.. Every single time my fingers hit this laptop keyboard, trying to jot a post, it would be my 'routine' apologetic opening paragraph.. For some, maybe this is not a big deal, but if this blog ever has (or had) avid followers, then most likely there are now none!

Maybe I should just make a brave resolution and try to make this a routine for me, jotting a word or two, even if not much..

Of course, so much has happened since my own last entry.. But at this stage, I can never begin to share all.. Maybe a little bit of what has happened recently would suffice..

Career Choices

It is the time again of the year when doctors in the country will be looking for jobs for the coming July.. For some lucky ones, jobs are already secured - those in the SpR schemes or the SHO schemes.. As for me, the last time I went fishing for jobs was two years ago.. Then I got on to the Medical scheme.. It is almost over now, and my two-year contract is almost up.. I have to pack my CV and start fishing again.. As for Ina, one year has almost elapsed since she decided to take the year off.. Now, she too will go fishing with me..

Career choices are not easy a task to decide.. I am looking to take a 90-degree turn in my career and switch to my new interest, from Internal Medicine to Emergency Medicine.. Don't ask me why or how that happened - it is hard to explain.. Needless to say, I am still banging my head to complete my medical membership..


Now that is just one side of the coin flip.. The other side is about my progress in trying to make some publications to 'sweeten' my CV.. At this current moment, things have moved forward in small baby steps.. I have in my bag three poster presented as second author, one case report as first author.. I am hoping to get this case report done and dusted by end of March, if I'm lucky.. One poster has already been presented in the Irish Association for Palliative Care meeting in Dublin earlier this month (many thanks to Along) and the same audit has been accepted for poster presentation in the European Association of Palliative Care in Glasgow in June.. Along might not be able to go and I wonder if I would be available.. It would look nice in my CV if I could.. We'll see..

In the meantime, there are a few courses I need to get into, most of them related to my Emergency Medicine hopes, and some audits that I am to start with few colleagues here before I end my medical scheme.. Ahh, so much to do..

Some For Me, Some For Others

Alongside the things that I am doing for my own career and CV, recently enough, I regained my interest in teaching, certainly when I remember the days when I was craving for help and assistance facing the final year exams.. It was horrible!

And because of that, I have always offered, to my best avail, to help students, especially the final year ones, who are ever facing the biggest challenge in their lives yet.. Over the last few weeks, I have got involved with some final medical students - be it in hospital or in small discussion groups.. It gives me great joy to see that I could share some of my knowledge and (possibly) experiences to help and guide them through these coming tough days.. May Allah help them as much and more as He helped me during my days back then..

I still have a few more weeks to serve them if they would allow me..

Oh, well.. Maybe that is all for now.. Maybe I will update some more some other time, hopefully in the near future..

Salam..

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