Clinical Attachment II: Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia

After a week in SunMed, I did my time in HUSM, Kubang Kerian for five weeks, or to be exact, 20 days of clinic (due to public hols, got sickie, and attended a wedding).
Was very excited to go there, as I have heard rave reviews from other clinical supervisors who were positively encouraging for us students to go there.
I must say, things were quite different in HUSM.
Firstly, the working days are from Sunday to Thurday. Honestly, I thought the time just flew by with starting the week on Sundays and Thursday being the last day of work for the week. I guess it has something to do with my mindset of the Monday blues and not having to go through that in HUSM.
Then there was the set-up and the supervisors.
For the set-up there were five audiological rooms. Each room being more specific for a particular testing, e..g.: room 5 for ABR and ASSR; room 4 for AABR and DPOAE screening.
There are 4 supervisors: Cik Su, Cik Roza, Cik Ninda and En. Khary, all of whom are UKM graduates of 1st, 2nd, 8th and 2nd batch respectively. And then there was Kak Sar, a technologist who knows the ORL department inside out; En. Adnan, also a technologist whom is just starting his degree in Audiology this very semester!; En. Yus of unknown origin but acts as the technologist at times; and Kak Lin who's the attendant of the clinic.
Anyway it was truly an experience doing my attachment there in HUSM. I learned some things I may not learn in UKM, but then that was the purpose of having us scattered all over the country in the first place right? And I also had my ears suctioned by an ENT doctor for free!
One thing for sure is: am I thankful and glad that I study in UKM and not in UIA or USM. Not that I'm insulting or anything, but those universities are still new in Audiology while the UKM students are blessed with experienced and excellent lecturers and supervisors.
Nevertheless, thank you to everyone in Audiology Clinic of HUSM for having me there. May we meet again, which I am sure we will! :)

Statistically Corrected

Met Prof Baharuddin today for sample size calculation. He's the reknowned statistician in the whole of FSKB, UKM. He actually pursued statistics because he loves it. Hard to believe anyone could ever love the complexity of statistics but I guess someone has to right? If not who will teach us ignorant students :).
Anyway.
He told me the formula that I used for the proposal presentation was absolutely wrong because that particular formula is actually for those doing a prevalence study. So malu! coz pandai-pandai saja, hehe.Blushingly, I asked him what is the right formula for my study.
He asked me what is the study and I just handed him a copy of my proposal presentation. First, he corrected my title, to quote 'it should be among older adults not in older adults'. 'Aye aye sir' I said to myself, and thought, 'hrmm, funny how the deputy dean @ my supervisor had let it pass and I am corrected by the statistician whom I am meeting for the first and probably last time'. He arrived to the objective of my study on measuring benefits, so after scrutinizing the very small font of my statistics notes, taught me to use which values to put in in the most suitable formula.
He advised me to do a pilot study on 20 subjects that fulfill the inclusive and exclusive criteria in order to get the values. Being a smart-alec, I was like, '20 subjects?? Okay... can I use the results from the pilot study's subjects as the results for the real study's subjects?'
And he said I can't. I then whined on where am I going to find so many subjects and he said to me that if you want to simply guess the number of subjects, don't come and find him to innocently ask him to teach and then not applying what is taught. I came to my senses and agreed, because it's like an insult to him right, if I do so.
After that he relented and said I can use 10 subjects for the pilot study. I asked him if he wants to be my subject and he agreed! Yay. So i guess it was kind of a win-win situation where he got his msg across to me (on understanding what he said and applying it) and I get a subject in return.
Hope he's a cooperative subject, that is, if he fulfills the subject's criterion first, of course :)

Thesis Proposal Presentation

Firstly. Yay, I'm done with it ;)
It was a 3-day marathon of presentation after presentation.
I presented yesterday (17/7). And my supervisor said it was okay~! A relief, (and a success, may I add? 2 friends said it was ok too and one even said, to quote, 'like so bergaya saja'. hehe :P) considering I have never met her!(supervisor I mean) Just came up with it based on the one-time meeting with the co-supervisor and continuous discussion with fellow thesis-mate.
FYI, before presentation day, I presented it roughly to my boyfriend, my cousin, my aunt and two speech students. To make sure that on actual presentation I tak syok sendiri, hehe. And they understood well! But admitted that it was a bit technical, of course.
So what is it that I proposed, u ask?
I'll try to explain it in laymen terms.
Basically, it is an advanced research of one of my seniors. As I've mentioned in an earlier blog, she did the same thing except her population is the schoolchildren. So her findings revealed puzzling results, where the benefits of bilateral are similar to left-unilateral fitting while the benefits of bilateral is higher than right-unilateral fitting.
As it is generally known, the right ear hears better because of how the brain works. It's called the right ear advantage. So from her findings, my senior hypothesized that when wearing the EduLink on the left ear, the benefit of EduLink (which has been proven where wearing it is better than not wearing it. To quote my bf, 'Duh, that's why it's created in the first place') combined with the right ear advantage leads to the similar benefit of bilateral fitting. The right-unilateral fitting on the other hand, with only the EduLink benefit and no left ear contribution resulted in the obvious better benefit of bilateral than unilateral fitting.
Am I making sense so far?
That very hypothesis justifies this research where I'll be conducting it on the elderly population. Studies have reported that the older people have decreased right ear advantage. So I need to find out if there is a right ear advantage effect that influences the EduLink fitting, besides determining the relationship between both variables.
I think that was a very straight-forward explanation.
With a good start on the proposal, I hope I will be on the right track all the way :)

The First Meeting (Finally!)

Friday, 11th of July was a significant date in my thesis history. I finally get to meet my supervisor! Mind you, co-supervisor. My main supervisor, the 'mother-of-audiology-in-Malaysia' to quote a certain clinical supervisor, had to attend a meeting at the last minute and re-scheduled my meeting with her with Dr Cila instead.
Nevertheless. It was a very fruitful meeting.
The night before the meeting I frantically put up a mediocre proposal for my supervisor's attention. I must say, I was thankful that she discussed about the thesis first before seeing a little bit of my proposal. I thought my proposal was an embarrassment, it was nowhere near what she and Dr Siti wanted. And she was very understanding on the fact that it was my first ever meeting.
So she set things straight for me and my thesis mate and gave very useful journals.
She advised to get as much literature support as possible, or in her own words, 'need to read more' and be critical of the journals read. Oh and get a larger thesis notebook (She actually showed her own collection of thesis notebooks that she had over the years. 'saje nak eksyen la tu', hehe just kidding Dr Cila! ;p).
The meeting got me quite motivated to do my best on the proposal presentation later on. But now... I am so bogged down with all the journals, I don't think I can read any more.
HeLp!

Clinical Attachment I: Sunway Medical Centre

One of our requirements for graduation is to do 360 hours of clinic. With 4 semesters to do so, I would have to deal with patients for 90 hours each semester, which is not possible due to (usually) public holidays and insufficient patients at the clinic. Therefore, we are sent all over the country's medical centres and hospitals to do our clinical attachment. This is to 'top-up' our clinical hours, in simpler terms.
So living in PJ, I automatically chose Sunway Medical Centre as my training centre. I applied since February this year and fortunately for me, the good people of SunMed accepted! However, I can only come for a week as they are preparing to move to a new area.
With only 12 days of break after my final paper, I started my attachment on the 12th of May 2008. It took me only about 10 minutes by car to get there, and I parked at the visitors' parking area. (Actually, 4 days before that I came to SunMed to check out the place, where to park, etc, and I thought of getting staff's sticker or something, but apparently, the accounts people think one week of attachment is not significant enough for a sticker and asked me to park at the visitors' parking. Cruelty to newbie I must say).
I was supposed to register at the HR Dept. at 9am, but I reached there at 8.15am. Yeah, I know, 'very the semangat wan'. I thought I'd be stuck in traffic but then it was smooth sailing all the way. So I just went to the HR straight away and waited there. When I got there, there were already several other students waiting to register. I noted that I was the only Malay there.
So all of us trainees/interns/whatever you may call it were briefed by the HR guy Mr Ken and he disposed us to our departments respectively. I was sent to the Department of Speech & Hearing up at the 6th floor, but somehow the Audiology Clinic is at the 1st floor. I was introduced to the speechies there before Ms Tye (Head of DSH & also KKA lecturer when I was in first year) took me to the Audiology Clinic.
I was greeted by Ms Mazwin (Head of Audio Clinic & KKK lecturer when I was in 3rd year) who somehow forgot that I was coming that day (pardon her, she’s a super busy, multi-tasker woman). Nevertheless she let me observe for the first hour before disposing me to Dr Liza at the nursery.
Dr Liza is the first Malaysian audiologist that I met who pursued audiology as her first degree in the US. And she continued on doing her masters and PhD there as well. A very pleasant woman, the best supervisor I have yet to have! Dr Liza took me under her reign for the rest of the week almost 24/7. (I think she was super glad when I finished on Saturday, haha).
We started at the nursery, where I also met Rosemary, who's actually not working there anymore as she's moving to England. I saw how they do UNHS using the Automated ABR. Very good stuff for assessment; it's fast and simple but very costly and can be very tiring, especially when waiting for the babies to lay still and be quiet.
After the nursery, we went back to the clinic and I observed Dr Liza doing hearing assessments. Initially, I thought there would not be many patients, but then on that day, it was really busy, and I was quite overwhelmed. There were patients every hour and I only had a break for one hour before another patient came in. I have to say, the 9-5pm work time was utilized to the most. That night, I slept early as I was exhausted!
The 2nd day wasn’t so bad as the patients were not as many. I get to meet another audiologist, Mr. Saravanan, a UKM-graduate. He shared his experiences with me and showed some assistive listening devices that I have yet to see in the clinics I have been to so far. I intended to attend a talk by a nurse of the nursery on G6PD, but they postponed the talk. I did get an article about it though. Very informative.
Third day onwards I began to get the hang around things. In the mornings I would go straight to the nursery and do hearing screenings. Depending on how many babies are there, I would normally finish at around 11 am. Then I would go down to the clinic and observe/assist Dr Liza.
I noticed the approach in the private setting is far more different than the government setting. The private setting really prioritizes the patients first. They give their best service and they don’t push the patients. Yes, they’re profit-based, but somehow what truly concerns them is what the patients want, regardless if it does not benefit them much in return. The most important thing is patients’ satisfaction. No wonder the clinic is packed with patients, they’re all satisfied customers; and when they’re happy, they promote SunMed.
However, there are patients who think that since they’re paying so much money, they should get first class treatment. Come on, we are all humans, and we have our imperfections. Some of the mothers there can be real bitches to the nurses at the nursery (I heard them gossiping, of course). But other than the dirt on bad mothers, it can be quite fun to hear the nurses tell on first-time mothers’ experiences. Fun and scary, making me think twice about having my own, haha. Looking at the face of the babies though, always made me change my mind. They’re so adorable, how could I not want them?
The attachment ended on Saturday (yes, they work on Saturdays! half day, that is), 17th of May 2008. I must say I learned a lot throughout my attachment there. And it was only for a week! I wonder how much more I could learn if I have completed 5 weeks (as suggested by my dept.) of attachment. I may have developed excellent skills and be super-competent! I wish. Looking forward to doing more attachments there before graduation :).

I Heart PJ

I know most of you will be scratching your heads wondering what is it I am going to write that relates in the making of the audiologist.
FYI, it is so related.
I have lived in PJ all my life (for the ignorant, PJ is Petaling Jaya). This place has helped shaped me into who I am today, which is an audiologist in the making.
And that's my only point, haha :)
I just want to convey my love and passion for PJ to the public as I it is really the only place I can call home.
I've been to places all over the country (yay, I finally can say I have been to all of the states of Malaysia, Kelantan was the last state) and yet nothing compares to my beloved PJ.
However, maybe in the future the PJ would stand for Putrajaya, hehe. Hopefully.
Whatever it is, I Heart PJ. Always been and always have.

The Never-Ending Quest for the First Meeting

Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh.
I think that sums the quest up well. I have STILL yet to meet my supervisors. The only weekend that I come home and I still could not get an appointment. One is on holiday while the other is not feeling well. And then I didn't get to borrow my senior's thesis (But then that's my own fault for coming late to the clinic. Padan muka is the right term for me haha)
Why is this happening to me? What have I wronged? (Okay, that's more like a question that need not be answered, hehe)
But I am taking all this as part of the challenges and obstacles that I have to face in producing the best thesis ever! (optimistic much ;p)
Bloggers, do channel your positive energy to me through your comments ;)

My Final Year Thesis

Recently I have just gotten the title for my thesis. It is very unfortunate that I got the title because I was the last one to get to my department. Sob sob much. But then, I kinda expected it anyways so I am pretty much stuck with it and life still goes on. As always.
So without making anyone holding their breath to know what the title is, it's : Benefits of unilateral and bilateral Edulink fitting on speech perception in noise in older adults.
Quite a mouthful? not unless you're in this field, hehe.
Actually even if it was the last thesis title available just for moi, I was actually thankful I got this title. Because the other titles did not interest me anyway. And honestly, I think I work well with older adults. I just hope that they can hear me well, because a lot of people keep saying I am soft-spoken. Which is a good thing I know, but not so good if I need to talk to deaf people, right?
Anyway, thankful I was, but just for a short while until I started to really think about it. That is when I started to feel stressed out. I was going, Edulink is actually designed primarily for kids, where am I going to find published journals of it on adults? Where am I going to find the adults who wear Edulink? What is actually the age range for older adults? Which population is needed? How many subjects do I have to find? How am I going to do test the subjects? and on and on the questions just kept popping out.
For anyone's interest, my coursemate is actually doing the same thing, except that she's testing it on younger adults. Another fact that I'm thankful about. At least I'm not doing this alone.
Based on the thesis assignment, we are suppose to present the proposal in the 2nd week of the new semester. Which currently is 10 weeks away. Seems like I have plenty of time on my side, but then I'm heading up to Kubang Kerian for my industrial training, and I don't think I'll be spending much time googling about my title, or anything for that matter.
So my friend and I made an appointment with our supervisors. I actually anticipated the meeting, because, well yeah, I'm sure my supervisors are gonna set things straight for us. Alas, they cancelled the appointment. I was devastated. NOT. Hehe, but a bit frustrated because I'm not going to see them at all until I get back from Kelantan, as they are superbusy.
But the good thing is, my brilliant friend found our senior's thesis which was the SAME thing except that she tested the school-age children population. So basically, some of our problems are solved with that and I just can't wait to start on my thesis. Later, that is. Or sooner, who knows? ;P