Medical Students in RIPAS Hospital Brunei

A Local student (undergraduate from University of Queensland Australia)

Posing with the Orthopaedic Team

RIPAS Hospital continues to accept students from local institution as well as abroad for either just a short period of 'get-to-know' experience, to a 4-6weeks of clinical attachments in various specialties. It is open not just to students who are interested in medicine, but also in other allied health professions such as psychology, dietetics, pharmacy, physiotheray, labs and many more.

For those who have successfully gone through their attachments at RIPAS in whatever speciality... Congratulations. We hope the time you guys have spent with us have not been too boring... hehe... and hopefully the experience that you have gained with us can be of use in the future.

If you are interested in doing a stint in RIPAS, it is a good idea asking your friends who have done the particular specialty, for there is always varying experiences. In general, for surgery & Orthopaedics, I think this hospital is very good at providing hands on experience for the students as you can see from the above picture. The students also get ample teaching from the MOs, SMOs, & Specialists. If they don't... you must nag them!! Of course it also depends on the students enthusiasm. We can usually suss out which ones are the keen ones and which ones just want to get through the painful experience as quickly as possible.

My personal experience, students are usually quite keen to get their hands dirty and get stuck in. However they don't like being asked questions during ward rounds... hey that applies to everyone I think.. but of course the doctors like to pick on the students... don't worry... it's not because they want to catch you out, or make you pay for staying up late at night watching the Euro 2008 instead of reading your Kumar & Clark. It's because it makes them feel 'good' when they can explain things to the bewildered students.... Have you noticed the expression on the doctors face beaming when they explain the significance of an Arterial Blood Gas results? My tip.. an enthusiastic nod... accompanied by 'awh....' when the specialists starts explaining the causes of Acute Renal Failure.. goes a long way.

You also get more points when you ask an intelligent question like.. what is the current trend in Management of Head Injuries... but becareful not to ask too difficult questions... the doctors might think you are trying to be a 'smartass' and ignore you throughout the ward round at risk of not being able to give a decent explanation.

I think the A&E department here are also good at providing clinical attachments. I have seen students clerking the stable acute cases, assisted in life-threatening cases, and learn to make decisions. There are plenty of scope to learn suturing here. Dr Ang, the HOD is very helpful and keen to teach.

In Internal Medicine, you have the likes of Dr Arif (aka Boss) a walking encylopedia of knowledge, Dr Syafiq (HOD), Dr Haslinda (Endocrinologist) to name a few who are more than willing to ensure that the ward round and clinics will be firing you with questions..

In ICU, i have not personally seen students attached here, but I don't see any problem with it, just as long as you specify that your interested in spending some time there. There's plenty of really unwell patients here hooked up to fancy machines that their lives depend on. You can learn a lot here especially when Dr Yazid is around who's always keen to teach. If you bump into a young dashing, handsome Doctor Aamton... I have bad news... he is married hehe.. but I'm sure keen to teach too... right Aamton? Skills to learn here... Arterial Stabs, Central Line insertion, and if your lucky.. intubation.

Alright guys.. I'm running out of ideas plus it's 1am now. Need to sleep coz ward round starts at 7.15am... yes boys & girls if you are planning to do surgery... be prepared to get up early!!