Waiting For Houseman-ship: Things To Do

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I believe plenty of fresh graduates are wondering what should they do while waiting for houseman ship. As we know, the waiting period is about 1 year. It will be wasted if you didn't fully utilize this period.

During my "old time", the waiting period is about 4 months time. I didn't fully utilize my "holiday" as there was neither guidance from senior nor any information from internet.

Hence, I decided to write this post specially for those fresh graduate doctors.
You can continue to read if you
-really do not know what to do
-no one give you a clear guide
-or unsure whether you are doing right things for now

The biggest mistake i made during my waiting period is to become data collection assistant for 2 months
Why would I say so?

Data collection will never help you understanding how to do a research paper. Basically you just a human resource to help out collect data. Work like a clerk or robot only. Data collection wont make you become one of the author in the research paper. A lot of researcher did hire people in helping data collection (they can be medical students, other science field workers, or even science field people)

Unlikely you learn much if you are involved in data collection only

But if you involved in research formation such as literature review, hypothesis formation, methodology, it did help a lot in your future undertakings. I believed most of the universities did give us a big lecture on basics to perform a good research. 

Another questions come...which field are you interested in ? So you can be one step ahead of the others.

Most of my friends in medical school are ambitious to become surgeon, physicians. But towards the end of houseman ship, they realized those are not their cup of teas. They more interested in primary care, private sector, radiology etc. Working environment or working scopes will change one's perspective and interest easily. Hence, let say you are interested in orthopedic, but ended up in primary care. It is completely different field and the research done wont help you at all. 

Hence my suggestion to you:

-you can trial to approach any medical officers/ professors to give you a good case report. Learn how to write a good care report 1st. Get guidance and advices from them. Case report is the basic for writing. If you can write a good case report, you can write well in your research later.

-previously, the world is without COVID. Now the world is full of COVID virus. I would suggest you to go travelling (if COVID issues resolved). Travelling fruitful your vision, the world is big. As a Chinese proverb saying, it is better to travel 10000miles than reading 10000books. We need to see this world while we still can. You will realize you had difficulty to get your leaves to travel when you started your housemanship. The approved leave is usually 3-5days only, which is short and tight. If you have no financial issue, you can slow down your pace, take your time to enjoy every moment while travelling. No need to travel a lot of places, but to enjoy each place you visit to the maximum.

-Do not overwork yourself. If you have some financial issue, you can get a job and earn some living. But if you have not much financial issue, I suggest you not to overwork yourself. You should use these time to spend with family, your hobby or anything you like to do. Of course, do not procrastination. Trial to arrange your time wisely, for yourself, family or friends. 

I believe you will work till age of 50+. No need to rush to join the working field. 

For me, I regret did not spend my time for travelling. I regret I save my money to visit oversea countries. I did not spend enough time for my hobby. Now I have no time to do all these things. T

-Upgrade your computer skills such as Words, Excel, Powerpoint, Video editing , SPSS. All of these are very helpful for your future undertaking. 

-Join toastmaster club for your public presentation skills. If there is any toastmaster club, I suggest you to join them and start your toastmaster journey. It is interesting and fruitful. Public speaking is not easy, but you definitely need it during case presentation, poster presentation, making referral, requesting scans etc.

Above just my suggestion. You can choose to use it or leave it. All the best !