My so called "Tanah tumpah darah"

Here I am. Last four months of my medical school, which has truly been a hate-and-love-collide experience. So much going on all at the same, I don't even know where to begin.

One of my biggest headache at the moment is deciding which hospital I should apply to work in. Some said it's better to work in smaller ones, while others think you'll learn more in bigger hospitals.

Well, I've concluded that there are pros and cons to both hospital settings.

For instance, in smaller/rural hospitals, the opportunities to perform procedures and start taking charge of things start much earlier, as they would be lacking in doctors. On the other hand, bigger hospitals are referral hospitals, which means that cases are being referred from smaller hospitals for further management, and not to mention all the better facilities.

While it would be great to start performing appendicectomy and get the adrenaline pumping (which was what I've always been looking for), the fact that there's lack of specialists, is what that's holding me back from applying for rural hospitals.

And then there's the following plan of working overseas, in the immediate future (I hope). Would it be more impressive to have a resume that says I've worked in a tertiery hospital with 600 over beds, which is a referral hospitals with so and so facilities; or to say that I've performed appendicectomy under minimal supervision?

Regardless of all that, after much research, I finally believe that grass is not all that green on the other side, not for doctors at least. Foreign-trained doctors will always be inferior to the locals -in terms of promotion, further studies, choice of specialising, etc. But would it be all that bad to be treated as a 2nd class doctor in a foreign country, or working like a dog and still be treated as a 2nd class doctor in my own "tanah tumpah darah"?

I'm in a very confused state right now. But I'm taking one step at a time and I'm not too worried over it, as I still have one humungous hurdle to cross this Aug/Sept. All plans will be at halt if I don't clear this hurdle ASAP.

Anyway, just to share a rather old article written in 2006 by an Aussie. While this article could have been easily written by any Malaysians, it was beautifully elaborated by someone who doesn't have to worry about the infamous ISA.

While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry