JPA scholarships

We had a meeting with Encik Adib and Kak Nazlinda, two JPA officers from London on Tuesday evening over dinner. At first I thought it was going to be a light hearted dinner, but how wrong I was.

Unevitably, the issue of allocation of JPA scholarships popped up. Like what Encik Adib said, there's so many applicants who has met the criteria, each and every single one of them are qualified to get it, but there's only 2 thousand places and from that portion, only the best 150 are sent to the UK for their undergraduate degree. But who actually deserves the scholarship most? Due to the limited number of places, there are bound to be complains and feelings of unjustice not only from the applicant, but from the parents, followed by aunts and uncles....and I added followed by the whole village.

I totally agree with Encik Adib's point of view. It is not only the academic brilliance that counts, but the emotional quotion, interpersonal skills and ability to adapt to the new environment in order for them to maximise this rare opportunity to study overseas. There is also the consideration whether they're patriotic enough to return to serve the country. Seriously, I think reporters should interview him concerning this hot debate around JPA scholarships happening back home currently. He has been looking after us scholars for many years and he knows best about the type of scholar who will be successful. He has seen how many got depressed because they can't cope, failed exams because the learning style was not suitable, got married and pregnant at the wrong time and ended up discontinuing their studies due to commitments to the new member of the family.

I did realise that a lot of people criticise, write letters to the editors of newspapers, and yet, they don't really know the true pictures. To the parents, their son/ daughter will always be the most deserving candidate for the scholarship. To the high achievers, they've definitely worked hard to get as many A1s as possible. To the lower social class, this is their one and only chance to climb up the ladder and receive higher education. It is only human nature to argue that they're the best and others less deserving.

I asked the question of what is JPA's plan for us scholars for the future, expecting a short answer but I got a really long lecture instead. It was very enlightening and directed towards medicine cause that's what I'm studying currently. Why didn't I get this lecture earlier? Saves me the trouble of speculating with my dad. We came up of all sorts like they might encourage us to specialise in fields lacking of specialists etc.

One must wonder why JPA sends scholars to almost every part of the world. Reason is our government wants scholars to learn the culture, work ethics, anything that's beneficial and bring them back with us to Malaysia after we graduate. Through these little changes, we will improve and revampt the system back home. For example, medicine in the UK is famous for its communication skills and bedside manners. This was what they want to incorporate into our Malaysia's healthcare provision. I'm sure you've heard horror stories about how patients are treated back home or even experienced it yourself. He wants us to be the future leaders, people who are able to lead the nation to continue the efforts of our forefathers in building a better Malaysia.

Focusing more on medicine cause that's what I'm concerned about, I am going to write about my own opinion and prospects for us scholars when we go back. I do understand that a lot of us are concerned about the work load and prospects of doing our speciality training. Main points of why we think about doing our housemanship in the UK are shorter working hours, lower cost of living, opportunities to specialise.

If we go back to Malaysia, we would need to do the 3 years compulsory service. For the fresh graduates, that mean 2 years of housemanship and 1 year of medical officer. It is only after that we can start applying to further do our specialist training. Coming to the topic of opportunities to specialise. We do need to compete with graduates from other universities as well. Due to the limit places, there are longer queues for popular specialties especially those where they can set up their own private practices after the end of bond, for example, cardiology, paediatrics, etc. Specialities like Public Health, epidemiology and even anaestaesia have better chances of getting into as they're not as popular. I was glad to hear that we don't need to be registered with the GMC (General Medical Council) to specialise in the UK as there is gov to gov arrangements. There are opportunities to further our studies in the US as well and oncology at Johns Hopkins University was mentioned. So, the future does sound promising to those who go back.

Concerning the long working hours, I guess it will be a blessing in disguise. I've heard consultants condemning the new system of shorter oncalls. They mentioned that the biggest learning curve was for the doctor to look after a patient from the start of the condition till they settle down. Nowadays, there's handover at 4.30pm to the doctor doing the night shift and at 8am to the next shift. The am doctor might start a drug, adverse reaction from that drug occurs during the night shift, in the end, the am doctor will never learn that the management could be improved and all responsibilities of rectifying the situation fell onto the pm doctor whom hasn't had a good grasp of the patient's initial presentation. With the new European working hours coming into force, a lot of budding surgeons will have lesser opportunity to improve their skills as only with exposure can they really master the skill.

Conclusion is, JPA isn't concerned about what we want to specialise in, as long as we have the interest in it. It is the experience, knowledge, culture and skills that we bring back that matters. Jom balik bersama-sama so that our workload will be lesser. At least if we suffer, we'll suffer together. Hehehe. Now back to revision.....