What a marathon day

What a marathon day. OSCE to start the day off. Before I realised the exam was so near, I was already sitting in the dietetic department in Alfred with half of the class, being sequestered for the oral exam. Nothing could calm our nerves - not by talking of nonsense which Sara & I attempted. A brief discussion went off on what topic the exam could be on -- "definitely not coeliac, too specialised.. gastro would more likely be on constipation, or GORD..." Guess what? The most unexpected was indeed the chosen-one - coeliac disease. Argh~ Least expected, least prepared. Not to mention the lengthy questions instead of just the "goals & objectives". Pretty sure I walked out of the exam room with one single feeling - traumatised.

But soon after i left the Alfred, i headed down to MCHS for my next event - the award presentation night of "Kids: Go For Your Life". That joy of being back in MCHS just radiated through me. And soon enough i did manage to forget about the dreadful exam. Anne Gu Gu was still as hilarious as usual, while all the kinder teachers appeared to be as passionate to the initiative as ever. The display booths were nicely decorated, showing evidence of what had been happening in the kinders during the implementation of the initiative. Before long the hall was filled with the festive atmosphere with nothing but pride & happiness. It was so good to be part of the project team, seeing the sprouting effects of the program & enjoying this final joy. Well, MCHS did have a booth too, which was mainly designated to Janet & I for our poster. We were kind of embarrass on how empty our table was in comparison to the other displays. Haha... Nevertheless, our poster did attract some people who came forward to ask questions on our project.

And, finally at 9pm, i almost rushed off like Cinderella - to the airport to pick up my dear Kheng Ling. It was my first time driving so much in a day, not to mention the night long drive to the airport. What made things worse was the unexpected road blocks in the city where I was stuck, panicking & knowing Kheng Ling must have started to turn into a stone at the airport. Poor girl, ended up waiting for 1+hour~ But well, really glad to see her back in Melbourne.

Home time was 1am, exhausted.

P.S. Oh, it was so embarraseed to be caught red-handed by a kinder teacher outside KFC where Janet & I had our quick dinner. She had the intention of making tomorrow headline as "Student Dietitians Caught Eating Unhealthy Fastfood". Ooops. Ya. We shouldn't have done it, not right before the award presentation for HEALTHY eating. Hahahah..

Tomorrow OSCE exam

Tomorrow is my OSCE exam - my oral. Honestly it shouldn't be difficult after all i have learnt at placement. However, the lecturers claimed not to see our performance at individual sites, so tomorrow exam will be used as a judgement of whether we meet the graduate standard. This sounds all weird to me. If we don't meet the standard after the 2-semester placement, then we wld have been doing detrimental harm to our patients. Well, no matter what, exam is exam, it is to test our knowledge & skills. But i hate that feeling of meeting "the standard", which is as usual much much higher than the expectation in the real world. Well, as students, we ought to 100% or even more, leaving rooms for cutting corners~!

Good luck to me for tomorrow OSCE~!!!

Dietetic gatheirng

Wen chiann's birthday celebration cum dietetic gathering. Today we had 100% turn-up rate! All the 9 of us.

Having a feast of grilled sausages + chicken wings; high fat high sugar snack; high-caloric soft drinks. Playing board games on the floor like five-year-olds. These make us look least like graduating dietitians, from food as well as psychomental point.

Nevertheless, this short gathering might as well be our final meet-up before all of us heading off our own individual paths. Some are continuing to study, some are getting married, some are entering the dietetic workforce~~ Wow..

閉關

不知道爲什麽最近都很少跟外界接觸，不多想出去，就算出去也想快回家。朋友叫吃飯，打球，我都推了。我不是想玩自閉，我想閉關，好好讀書~!

STUDY time

Studying Week. Cramping all newly learnt knowledge to the tiny brain. Rushing to the library where a full-blast study mood is present. Sleeping & eating with, if not on, lecture notes & telephone-book size textbooks. Great~ What time is it?! It is STUDY time.

Mission: Become a nutrition Know-it-All before the exam!

Are You Coeliac?

Are u coeliac? Being the few only Asians, Janet, Fran, RJ & I walked into the Gluten-Free Exhibition, setting the people around us with that question in their mind. Yes, coeliac disease is in fact uncommon or even rare in Asians~ So, we were mainly doing some professional development as student dietitians. Oh well, to be honest, we all think it was kind of expensive to visit the show, paying $12 for admission, n all we managed to get out of today trip are a stack of written information of the different gluten-free products + taste tested as many as almost all the gluten-free products. Not very helpful, but i m happy to at least visit the show once, so i wld be able to recommend my patients to the show in the future. Oh, but, if i were ever diagnosed with coeliac, i would not like to eat that kind of products - they all taste so weird~~!

四年課程也結束

今天上完了最後一天的課，四年的課程也算到了一個結束。除了考試，我的學位也差不多完成了。這幾天上課都有點不同，以前一起嘻嘻哈哈的 Janet 和 Wen Chiann 都不在，真的不習慣。感覺她們好像請了病假，我不由自主地想幫她們拿 notes，最後又只能心酸酸地聼課。而今天到了最後日，最後一次能與全班同學們共聚一室，難免覺得有點依依不捨，有點感觸。但我還是沒有去大家安排的午餐聚會。我不是 anti-social, 只是我不是一個酒鬼。不過話説回來，我們能夠一起挨過了種種的難關，互相扶持，可說是出生入死的姐妹。尤其是我們這班 international students，入學那幾個與現在一起將畢業的這幾個，已經不一樣了。從中的壓力與煎熬，真是有口說不清啊~

實習生涯結束

我的實習生涯終于完美結束。這兩年來，實習的確成爲了我精神上的一大部分。我有曾經懷疑自己的能力，也有過面對挫折的時候，但現在一切也成了過去。回顧一幕幕的往事，今天得來的成果真的不容易啊~ 無論如何，我要努力，成功畢業離我不遠!

Loss of Loved Ones

I could see sadness, despair & pain in Kheng Ling's teary eyes last night. I know it must be the hardest thing ever to accept for the loss of your loved ones. Death is just too real when u come to face it. Everyday I see patients having their family crying on their death bed, but yesterday seeing Kheng Ling cry was somehow more real. Dunno why, i feel the loss too, n it is hurting in the heart.

What the HELL

What the hell!!!!!!! 我最恨被人焗住上。無恥。有時，我多麽想自己沒有做司機的責任。

Experienced the New Experiences

Another week of workload consolidation has passed. Currently i m managing 22 patients (though only 17 require ongoing intervention). With this amount of patients in my hands, everyday I really got to plan the day out. But sometimes things can go haywired...

Today I received a verbal "referral" from the nurse that one of my patients has been eating very little at mealtimes (the patient has been lying to me..). This patient has a history of depression & now, with a current issue of recent amputation, his emotional status remains at the bottom of a pit. It was very difficult to emphasize this patient while knowing nutrition is important for his recovery. I didn't want to push him too hard & make him even more depressed, especially when his only request is to not make him to go to the dining room to eat. And, soon, from the nursing staff, we came out a conclusion that the patient's daughter was affecting the patient's mental status alot, as she comes in few times a week crying when she sees her father's missing leg. The nurse manager & I ended up having a mini-family meeting with the patient & his daughter, reinforcing the importance of nutrition, making it his duty to join the eating at mealtimes, reassuring the daughter & patient that the amputation is managable afterall. This is how things can get complex & ended up my job is not that easy. But what an unusual experience~

Anyway, another special experience happened today too. I did a talk to all the new nurses & nursing students. It was quite different from the usual nutrition group educations we do as a dietitian, because my topic was to explain what rehab dietitians do. I think that doing this talk is good for me because it gets me thinking what i actually am doing as a dietitian. Although materials & the outline of the talk were already prepared by my supervisor, i think it did get me thinking, planning for the talk. Oh, it went ok, just that i do feel i m quite unexperienced as what i said was pretty shallow, lack of details & i really should ve asked more questions to stir up the group. But well, it is an experience, something for me to build on in my career.

All the experiences i gather everyday are for learning to be a better dietitian as well as a better person. I think i do enjoy this job & would like to challenge myself to scale greater heights in this career! By next tuesday clinical placement will call an end. I m getting nearer the finishing line, going to enter the real world soon~~!

Weekend Special

These few weekends I have been having lots of fun~~ Last week had a crazy night @ Song yee's birthday celebration, this week they held another mahjong party at Jinn's place. The feeling of being with friends is so good. We laugh on jokes, share knowledge & opinions on different things eg house issues, have lots of fun by simply becoming silly.. It is good to forget about the burden u have been carrying in the past 5 days of the week~! Now i understand why everyone loves weekends n hates Mondays so much. Haha... And, i m joining the crowd.

Workload Management Placement

Workload Managment Placement. A week into the final placement block when i m to reach 100% competency in 2.5 weeks! However, suprisingly, this week has been a breeze. Initially i started with some worries n stress, but as the week proceeded on, i did work well. The weekly review today actually went well, my supervisor was in fact giving good comments! Wow~~

Anyway, i must keep up with the good work, especially next week i ll be managing more patients n some involved education~! Work hard~~~!