First Day of School (rotation)!

I found a shortcut that lets me walk to the National Cancer Centre in 15 minutes.  Since I had to get there by 7 am, it wasn't too hot yet but I was still sweating from the humidity.  I don't think I'll ever get used to that here.  

Being an oncology rotation, I didn't expect this to be easy.   Even so, it was pretty overwhelming getting used to a bunch of new things all at once.  Singapore follows the British system so the medical hierarchy has different names.  An attending is called a consultant, a fellow is called a register and residents are called medical officers.   

I started rounding right away after a brief orientation and I found that a lot of it is similar to the US but different at the same time.  I rounded with a team of 7 which was considered a big team but it was all doctors and pharmacy - nutrition, PT, social work and others you would think of in the US are notably absent.  Where I rounded today looked like an older part of the hospital where up to 6 people would share a large room.  It's interesting because the hospital is separated by the class of your medical insurance so only the higher classes have air conditioning.  The rest of the patients make due with fans and it really looks like it's from the '50s or '60s.  

The hardest thing for me right now is something that I would experience back in the US as well - trying to gather patient data.  Here at the National Cancer Centre it is a weird mix of paper and electronic records.  The discharge summaries and outpatient progress notes are done electronically but the notes for the current admission is still all on paper so tracking down charts is the worst part.  Hopefully I'll get the hang of it sooner rather than later.