Beginning of A New Era for ME1/15 Medical Students

Rite of Passage

It was a joyful moment for 87 medical students as they celebrated their rite of passage to become medical doctors. The event took place on 13 February 2020 at the IMU Clinical Campus, Seremban.

Heartfelt Dedication on Social Media
“…My medical school journey has come to an end. I would like to thank my family for their sacrifices and their endless prayers” – Muhammad Naim Rusman, via Facebook
“An absolute blast of a journey. My achievement is merely a reflection of your compassion and generosity. Thank you for the lessons taught and wonderful memories” – Mustafa Himmat via Facebook
“A lot is uncertain as we move forward in life but I’ve always believed in letting your full heart in whatever you do, at least when the going gets tough, you would then know who to listen to. I’ve stayed true to this all these years and hope to continue with same amount of passion in all my work” – Felicity Ng, via Facebook

The Star of the Evening

The brightest star for the day belonged to none other than ME1/15 batch representative himself, Chang Fai Jun who concluded the celebration in his own way, with his own heartfelt speech. It was unfortunate that we could not be there to listen to his speech. Lucky for us, Fai Jun was kind enough to share it with us and because sharing is caring, it is only fitting for us to end this piece with his speech.

Fai Jun’s Speech
“A very good morning to Prof Zabidi Azhar Mohd Hussin, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academics, Prof Nafeeza Binti Haji Mohd Ismail, Dean, School of Medicine, and Associate Deans, Prof Sharifah Sulaiha, Prof Nazimah Idris, Prof Chen Yu Sui, and Prof James Koh, fellow professors, doctors, sisters, staff, and friends. I am Chang Fai Jun, the batch representative of cohort ME 115. It is an honour and a privilege to deliver an appreciation speech on behalf of my batch to you this morning. First and foremost, I would like to start by congratulating every single one of my batch mates for successfully braving the challenge of completing medical school. Can you believe it? Five years? That is five years of blood, sweat, tears, lots of tears, sleepless nights and newfound caffeine addictions. Bravo to all of us for making it to this point. Now, I’ll be honest, and you should be afraid when people are honest. I was requested by Ms Nur Hanis to prepare a speech three weeks before the Semester 10 exit examinations, and I prepared this speech that I am reading out now, yesterday. Now that is not to say that I have not thought about what to write or say in this speech, but I wanted to take my time reflecting what makes ME115, ME115. And for this speech I wanted to highlight certain themes which I believe brings out the flavour of our batch. The themes I’ll be talking about today are the themes of growth, teamwork, and personal well-being. All of us came to IMU with a dream, some of it not even our own, but our parents, but a dream, nonetheless. Each of us carrying our own motivations and ambitions on what we want to achieve in this field. Phase one of medical school was, colourful to say the least. Exam malfunctions, changes in the assessment midway, crying, screaming, you get the picture. We were so young, so proud, so gung-ho when we managed to finish our Semester 5 examinations, thinking we can take on the world with our knowledge in the field of medicine. And then, Semester 6 happened. The transition from pre-clinical to clinical was, for lack of better term, a culture shock. We went from being the big bosses in the hierarchy in Bukit Jalil to being well, medical students. Strict attendance, punctuality, and personal responsibility was grilled into our well-beings from Day One. Some of us understood the significance of this practice right away, and some of us took a tad bit longer than necessary, resulting in warning letters being received. But eventually, the message was well received, and fully understood, and for that, on behalf of us students I would like to thank the faculty for giving us the most necessary wake up call. The field we are entering as the newest addition, the field of medicine is a cruel place, it does not forgive, it does not forget. We have seen countless social media posts about healthcare workers being overworked, being under appreciated, and in recent times, claiming to be underpaid. These are tough time we are heading into, and the spirit of camaraderie amongst each other holds even more true than before. A burden shared is a burden halved. And I speak from personal experience with my group mates throughout the semesters, my group leaders, and subgroup leaders. From covering wards when a student is unwell, to finishing a part of TBL when it was not finished. Sure, most of it was done so we do not get grilled by the lecturer, but it was done out of friendship and teamwork. A recent example was on 15 January 2020, I’m sure most of us are familiar with that date, portfolio submission date. To sum it up in one word, it was chaos: but only to the untrained eye. What I witnessed that day, was nothing short of what exemplifies the spirit of friendship. Students were compiling their portfolios, arranging, printing, stapling, punching holes, you name it. But it was not one student doing all that with their own portfolios, but friends and group mates helping to compile the entire portfolio of each other for submission. Was it necessary to help? Definitely not. But it happened anyway. And for that, I am proud of you all, even though we have our own differences, in the face of adversity, we can work together to achieve a common goal. Give yourselves a round of applause. We’ve covered the theme of growth, we’ve covered the theme of friendship and teamwork, lest we not forget the final one. The theme of personal well-being. We entered this field with different goals and intentions, and from my personal interactions with you all, it was mostly noble intentions. The goal to help people, the intention to relieve suffering. These intentions are nothing short of virtuous. We are so fixated on helping others that sometimes we forget to help the person that we will be spending our lifetime with, ourselves. Many of us, whether we like to admit it or not, are suffering from some form of mental health disorder, some of us are vocal about it, and some of us tend to keep it to themselves. It is not wrong to feel these emotions, as we are human too. We feel stressed, angry, sad, everything a human would feel. It means we are alive. I would like to share my personal experience on this matter, and the words of a particular professor that I still hold close to my heart. It was Semester 8, and I was having some personal problems regarding family and interpersonal relationships. To sum it up, I was in a dark place. But one day, this professor requested me for a meetup after the end of the posting. Internally, I was like “oh no, what now?” it was more vulgar than that, but you get the point. The professor sat me down and asked me, “are you okay?” I was silent. The professor pressed on, stating how I was not my usual self and how I seemed less focused on my duties, and stated if there was anything, they could do to help me, to let them know. I thought I hid it well, I really did. I told the professor regarding my ordeal and situation. The professor looked at me, silent for a minute, and told me a story. A sultan in the Persian empire was experiencing a difficult patch in his life. He requested an eastern sage, to bless him with words of wisdom to be inscribed on the ring he wears. Words which would calm him in the time of distress, words which would ground him in times of peace and happiness, words which would be true in good times or bad. “This too, shall pass”. I would like to give thanks to the said professor, for inspiring me with newfound wisdom, and for allowing me to share these words of wisdom with you. To our professors, lecturers, teachers, you have been nothing but inspirational towards us all. You were there when we needed the guidance, you were there when we needed the wisdom, you were there when we needed the mentorship. You have bestowed upon us the hunger and drive to learn, to reflect, and to be inquisitive in every aspect of our lives. Thank you all for your patience and time. Thank you all for putting up with our shenanigans and calling us clowns and nodding monkeys. But most of all, thank you all for moulding, shaping and guiding us to be who we are here today. To the clinical skills staff, thank you all for your guidance in our procedural skills, for accompanying us during our CFCS visits, and for calming our nerves during the ever so nerve wrecking OSCE stations. It has been nothing but a blessing. To all the other departments, the deanery, academic services, student services, facilities management, library staff and IT services, thank you all for making our stay here at IMU smooth-sailing. Thank you Academic Services, for your utmost diligence on handling the attendance. Student Services, for keeping our phones safe during exam periods. Library staff, for helping us with the Vancouver citations. Facilities management, for the air-conditioning in JBLT especially on a Friday afternoon class. And IT, for the oh so realistic sounds and simulations with the mannequin during trauma simulations. These are the few things, although which may seem small to you, we are greatly appreciative for you service. Lastly, to my dear fellow batch mates, it’s been a pleasure for Jerrold and me to be of service to you all. Thank you for putting your faith in us to be your batch representatives for these semesters. If we did any mistakes that was of inconvenience to you in the past, we truly apologize. To all my previous group leaders, and subgroup leaders, thank you all for cooperating with me to ease the process of being a batch rep, and to every single one of you, thank you all for making this journey, a pleasant and memorable one. And with that, let’s eat! Thank you.”

Fai Jun’s Speech

“A very good morning to Prof Zabidi Azhar Mohd Hussin, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academics, Prof Nafeeza Binti Haji Mohd Ismail, Dean, School of Medicine, and Associate Deans, Prof Sharifah Sulaiha, Prof Nazimah Idris, Prof Chen Yu Sui, and Prof James Koh, fellow professors, doctors, sisters, staff, and friends.

A joyous moment for a group of IMU medical students who are graduating with their degree.

I am Chang Fai Jun, the batch representative of cohort ME 115. It is an honour and a privilege to deliver an appreciation speech on behalf of my batch to you this morning. First and foremost, I would like to start by congratulating every single one of my batch mates for successfully braving the challenge of completing medical school. Can you believe it? Five years? That is five years of blood, sweat, tears, lots of tears, sleepless nights and newfound caffeine addictions. Bravo to all of us for making it to this point. Now, I’ll be honest, and you should be afraid when people are honest. I was requested by Ms Nur Hanis to prepare a speech three weeks before the Semester 10 exit examinations, and I prepared this speech that I am reading out now, yesterday. Now that is not to say that I have not thought about what to write or say in this speech, but I wanted to take my time reflecting what makes ME115, ME115. And for this speech I wanted to highlight certain themes which I believe brings out the flavour of our batch. The themes I’ll be talking about today are the themes of growth, teamwork, and personal well-being. All of us came to IMU with a dream, some of it not even our own, but our parents, but a dream, nonetheless. Each of us carrying our own motivations and ambitions on what we want to achieve in this field. Phase one of medical school was, colourful to say the least. Exam malfunctions, changes in the assessment midway, crying, screaming, you get the picture. We were so young, so proud, so gung-ho when we managed to finish our Semester 5 examinations, thinking we can take on the world with our knowledge in the field of medicine. And then, Semester 6 happened. The transition from pre-clinical to clinical was, for lack of better term, a culture shock. We went from being the big bosses in the hierarchy in Bukit Jalil to being well, medical students. Strict attendance, punctuality, and personal responsibility was grilled into our well-beings from Day One. Some of us understood the significance of this practice right away, and some of us took a tad bit longer than necessary, resulting in warning letters being received. But eventually, the message was well received, and fully understood, and for that, on behalf of us students I would like to thank the faculty for giving us the most necessary wake up call. The field we are entering as the newest addition, the field of medicine is a cruel place, it does not forgive, it does not forget. We have seen countless social media posts about healthcare workers being overworked, being under appreciated, and in recent times, claiming to be underpaid. These are tough time we are heading into, and the spirit of camaraderie amongst each other holds even more true than before. A burden shared is a burden halved. And I speak from personal experience with my group mates throughout the semesters, my group leaders, and subgroup leaders. From covering wards when a student is unwell, to finishing a part of TBL when it was not finished. Sure, most of it was done so we do not get grilled by the lecturer, but it was done out of friendship and teamwork. A recent example was on 15 January 2020, I’m sure most of us are familiar with that date, portfolio submission date. To sum it up in one word, it was chaos: but only to the untrained eye. What I witnessed that day, was nothing short of what exemplifies the spirit of friendship. Students were compiling their portfolios, arranging, printing, stapling, punching holes, you name it. But it was not one student doing all that with their own portfolios, but friends and group mates helping to compile the entire portfolio of each other for submission. Was it necessary to help? Definitely not. But it happened anyway. And for that, I am proud of you all, even though we have our own differences, in the face of adversity, we can work together to achieve a common goal. Give yourselves a round of applause. We’ve covered the theme of growth, we’ve covered the theme of friendship and teamwork, lest we not forget the final one. The theme of personal well-being. We entered this field with different goals and intentions, and from my personal interactions with you all, it was mostly noble intentions. The goal to help people, the intention to relieve suffering. These intentions are nothing short of virtuous. We are so fixated on helping others that sometimes we forget to help the person that we will be spending our lifetime with, ourselves. Many of us, whether we like to admit it or not, are suffering from some form of mental health disorder, some of us are vocal about it, and some of us tend to keep it to themselves. It is not wrong to feel these emotions, as we are human too. We feel stressed, angry, sad, everything a human would feel. It means we are alive. I would like to share my personal experience on this matter, and the words of a particular professor that I still hold close to my heart. It was Semester 8, and I was having some personal problems regarding family and interpersonal relationships. To sum it up, I was in a dark place. But one day, this professor requested me for a meetup after the end of the posting. Internally, I was like “oh no, what now?” it was more vulgar than that, but you get the point. The professor sat me down and asked me, “are you okay?” I was silent. The professor pressed on, stating how I was not my usual self and how I seemed less focused on my duties, and stated if there was anything, they could do to help me, to let them know. I thought I hid it well, I really did. I told the professor regarding my ordeal and situation. The professor looked at me, silent for a minute, and told me a story. A sultan in the Persian empire was experiencing a difficult patch in his life. He requested an eastern sage, to bless him with words of wisdom to be inscribed on the ring he wears. Words which would calm him in the time of distress, words which would ground him in times of peace and happiness, words which would be true in good times or bad. “This too, shall pass”. I would like to give thanks to the said professor, for inspiring me with newfound wisdom, and for allowing me to share these words of wisdom with you. To our professors, lecturers, teachers, you have been nothing but inspirational towards us all. You were there when we needed the guidance, you were there when we needed the wisdom, you were there when we needed the mentorship. You have bestowed upon us the hunger and drive to learn, to reflect, and to be inquisitive in every aspect of our lives. Thank you all for your patience and time. Thank you all for putting up with our shenanigans and calling us clowns and nodding monkeys. But most of all, thank you all for moulding, shaping and guiding us to be who we are here today. To the clinical skills staff, thank you all for your guidance in our procedural skills, for accompanying us during our CFCS visits, and for calming our nerves during the ever so nerve wrecking OSCE stations. It has been nothing but a blessing. To all the other departments, the deanery, academic services, student services, facilities management, library staff and IT services, thank you all for making our stay here at IMU smooth-sailing. Thank you Academic Services, for your utmost diligence on handling the attendance. Student Services, for keeping our phones safe during exam periods. Library staff, for helping us with the Vancouver citations. Facilities management, for the air-conditioning in JBLT especially on a Friday afternoon class. And IT, for the oh so realistic sounds and simulations with the mannequin during trauma simulations. These are the few things, although which may seem small to you, we are greatly appreciative for you service. Lastly, to my dear fellow batch mates, it’s been a pleasure for Jerrold and me to be of service to you all. Thank you for putting your faith in us to be your batch representatives for these semesters. If we did any mistakes that was of inconvenience to you in the past, we truly apologize. To all my previous group leaders, and subgroup leaders, thank you all for cooperating with me to ease the process of being a batch rep, and to every single one of you, thank you all for making this journey, a pleasant and memorable one. And with that, let’s eat! Thank you.”

Photos by: Asyraf Zulkipli, Alumni Relations Office Aida Lina, IMU Clinical Campus, Seremban Photos and Speech by; Chang Fai Jun, ME115 Batch Representative