Soon-to-be doctors are regularly tested on various knowledge and skills in a simulation room that creates highly realistic scenarios for procedural training.
IT is very common for a young child to say, “One day, I am going to be a doctor.” Doctors have always been familiar characters in a person’s life; at one time or another, we would have had to visit a physician.
It is no wonder today, medicine is still a career of choice for young Malaysians leaving high school.
But in the changing face of the world and community today, the medical profession has evolved from the traditional role of “rescuer from pain” to a partner-personality whom you could work closely to live healthily.
Qualifying with an MBBS is merely the first step as it is no longer a fixed road of being a practising clinician.
“Students have multiple pathways these days upon qualifying as a doctor,” said Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM) Faculty of Medicine dean Prof Dr Adinegara Lutfi Abas.
“They can choose to remain in practice, to advance into research, go into corporate organisations by becoming a hospital manager or administrator, or occupational health specialist, or choose to serve the community by being in public health.”
The practitioner
The world can never have too many physicians.
With the growing population, doctor practitioners are still much needed in all sectors of society.
While the hours may seem long and not family-friendly, it boils down to individual choice. As the saying goes, “do what you love, and you never have to work a day in your life”.
“Furthermore, medicine is one of the fields which caters for a varied range of interest, in terms of the specialisations that one can opt to go into,” Dr Adinegara added.
MUCM hosts workshops for United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB), and various Royal College fellowship and membership exam preparation courses at its Melaka campus.
Students through the FIS programme are able to strengthen their research skills through POSMED - an activity that includes topic research, poster presentation and prototype creation.
The researcher
Doctors who are constantly intrigued by how things start, get resolved or how diseases are cured - the pathway to becoming a researcher would be a good choice.
Research work is also more structured today as compared to before, whereby evidence collected is based on a cross-section of causes.
With the advent of systematic review, physician research is now part of a larger multidisciplinary team as the study must incorporate a complete, exhaustive summary of current evidence relevant to the subject matter.
The community advisorIf it has always been your dream to treat communities, the role of a doctor as a community advisor by way of being in public health would be the right path for you.
Strong love of medicine along with mathematics and statistics are the core in excelling in this pathway.
By being able to read into trends and form analytical solutions, a public health physician would be better able to formulate strategic preventive measures.
Where to complete your MBBSMUCM, formerly known as Melaka-Manipal Medical College, is one of the top medical schools. Since its inception, over 6,000 medical and some 400 dental surgeons have entered both the Malaysian and overseas international health systems, with many alumni progressing successfully into specialist careers of their choosing.
As a university college, MUCM’s twinning programmes evolved into fully Malaysian home-grown programmes.
Students are guided to find their true paths before graduation as they interact with real lives of doctors, researchers, and public health individuals through its annual postgraduate fair and monthly seminars and exhibitions.
Parents and students are encouraged to visit MUCM and experience life as a future “Manipalite”.
For more information, call 1700 811 662 or visit www.manipal.edu.my
