Day 6 (21.2.11) - Fresh Day

by Punitha Kanasan

Let us start with a short lovely poem:

‘Night has ended for another day,

 Morning has come in a special way,

 May we smile like the sunny rays and leave our worries at the blue blue bay….’

As the quote sounds, our day also started so fresh even though yesterday was tiring. After five days of posting to Kota Setar, today is the first day we woke up after the sun rises around 7.10am. After we had our breakfast we left AIMST around 8.15am and reached DHO by 9.30am.

By 9.45am our briefing for communicable disease control regarding tuberculosis started. The briefing was given by Mohd Zahidi Abdul Ghani (PPKP).He briefed us again about the notification system which was already explained by Mr.Ooi yesterday, but in greater details on Tuberculosis (TB).According to him, only TB is notified manually by using paper forms out of all the communicable diseases. Notification is done by doctor in Borang Notifikasi 10A-1. Then, further investigations are done such as sputum smear examination, sputum culture and radiological test. Investigations done have to be recorded in Borang Siasatan 10A-3. Contact tracing is usually done and recorded in Borang Notifikasi 10C-1, 10C-2 and 10C-3. If the investigation result is positive the patients have to start their treatment called DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course).

~ with Mr.Zahidi ~

After TB briefing was over, Dr.Sawri guided us regarding some exam-based questions and information that we have to find from each unit. He stressed more on the method of collecting food and water sample which was one of the most famous question asked in our continuous assessment. Besides that, he also asked us to find more information on immunization for children. The short briefing ended around 11am.

~ Dr.Sawri briefing us ~

~ with Dr.Sawri & Mr.Nasrul ~

Then we went to diabetic clinic around 11.30am to find more information on non-communicable diseases. All 12 of us were divided into six pairs. Then we were told to enter each sub-clinic as a pair. At one of the clinics, we had an opportunity to observe how the dietician Miss Nurul Hidayah and the pharmacist Miss Nina Fareha took a complete diet history from the patients and advice them regarding balanced diet. They also guide the patients regarding the dosage, frequency and the side effects of the drug. Random blood sugar test was done on every visit to find out patient compliance on drug. If the reading is above 15mmol/L this shows patient non-compliance on the drugs given.

~ at Diabetic clinic ~

~ pharmacist, Ms.Nina giving counselling to a patient ~ 

~ food pyramid model used at the clinic for educating patients ~

According to Miss Nina the clinic is open from Sunday to Thursday and fundoscopy is usually done only on Thursday. After spending about half an hour at the clinic we realized that most of the patients visited the clinic are having Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and Hyperlipidemia.

We had a short lunch break, but as usual it was enough for us to enjoy our meal at Menara Alor Setar Park. Only four of us went there including me, Gomalaa, Mohanajothi and Tineshwary.Rest of my group members enjoyed their lunch at Star Parade. After lunch, they also visited the Buddhist Temple nearby the DHO.

~ visit to Buddhist Temple ~

We were back at DHO around 2.30pm.All of us gathered at meeting room for the next briefing on non-communicable diseases (NCD) by Mr.Yong Phooi Wah (KPPP). He briefed us using the power point slides regarding the organization structure of NCD unit and the seriousness of NCD in our country. For year 2000 alone, the total NCD cases recorded in Malaysia was about 55,694,000. Besides that, he also told us about some of the NCD control programme such as Diabetic screening programme and Hypertension screening programme. NCD screening is done when the patient came to clinic with complains or else in medical camps and ‘Program Warga Emas’. The patients are screened for blood pressure, height, weight, BMI, urea level and RBC count. He also told us that recently new strategies had been implemented in DHO to reduce the NCD cases such as staff training and quality assurance programme (QAP). At the end of the session, we took pictures of the meeting room and the patient record books.

At last we came to the end of day 6. It’s time to pack up. We left the meeting room around 5pm and reached AIMST around 6pm after the heavy traffic jam in Alor Setar. As usual it was a tiring day but we enjoyed it!!!!!!