Being a junior doctor - Medicine and beyond - Dr Haidah Kamal, SMA DIT Committee

How has life been as a junior doctor?

It can honestly be tough - there are many days where you won’t see the light of day, many calls with no sleep, and missed off days and weekends. I recall House Officer/PGY1 (HO) year being particularly challenging given the steep learning curve from medical student to working life as a junior doctor. I felt very fortunate however that throughout my HO year I had great co-HOs and MOs who made the dark days brighter and seniors who guided me and taught me so much about what it means to be a doctor. I was also very thankful to be surrounded by amazing nurses and allied health colleagues who have been true life savers! :)

Transitioning to become a MO was another hurdle given the greater responsibility that was expected of us, but it was also rather empowering to realise that over the year you’ve built up some clinical acumen to make better clinical decisions (but still with the safety net of asking your seniors when you feel out of your depth!).

I’m currently a Family Medicine Resident in SingHealth. The additional studying and administrative work that comes with residency training does add another layer of challenge to day to day work. But I really love my residency programme for being so supportive of activities that we do beyond clinical work.

I’ve always made it a point for myself that despite the heavy workload or long hours we spend in the hospital, it’s important to pursue areas of interest outside of work and to stay connected to the things that are important to me.

A large part of that is spending time with my family and friends. I’m also a pretty active person - I run a lot and like to hike (whenever I have the chance to go overseas)!

What activities outside of being a clinician are you involved in?

I’ve been a part of Singapore Medical Association’s (SMA) Doctors in Training (DIT) Committee since 2022. We are a committee within SMA consisting of junior doctors who advocate and run initiatives for junior doctors & medical students, with seniors such as consultants advising us.

We organise educational initiatives for juniors doctors such as the HO CTSP (Called To See Patient) Workshop, How to MO 101 Workshop, and the SMA Junior Doctor Helpline and Telegram channel. Our newest initiative is the SMA-DIT Glide App launched this year, which is a phone app consolidating key information to help new junior doctors transition to working life with content previously available in our House Officer’s Handbook and MO Workshop. Our committee also advocates and represents the interests of junior doctors in discussions on key issues such as working hours, post-graduate training opportunities and junior doctor engagement. Several SMA DIT Committee members represented junior doctors in the National Wellness Committee for Junior Doctors (NWC-JD) discussions that were organised by MOH from 2021 to 2023.

I also have an interest in the Medical Humanities and I sometimes find myself back at my alma mater in NUS poking my head into the ever-growing Medical Humanities programmes and activities that the school organises. I’m part of the organising committee for the upcoming Singapore Medical Humanities Conference 2024 that SingHealth and NTU is organising this year. For those who are interested in learning more about the Medical Humanities, the conference will be held on October 29-30th 2024 and is free for students to attend! Do come if you are available!

Lastly I also have an interest in Medical Education. I’ve also recently joined SingHealth JEDI (Junior Educator Development Initiative) this year to learn more about medical education pedagogy. I hope to be able to learn new concepts and skills that I can apply when planning future educational programmes!

What motivates you to do these extra activities?

I first started exploring joining SMA DIT towards the tail end of my HO year as I felt that there were gaps in terms of the support provided to junior doctors in transitioning into HO-ship. I was looking for like-minded people who were keen on creating initiatives that would help to support future batches of junior doctors, and was pleasantly surprised to find out how much work was already being done within SMA DIT. I’ve been working with SMA DIT ever since, and find it meaningful to be surrounded by junior doctors who are concerned about issues on the ground and are passionate about making a difference.

With regards to my interest in the Medical Humanities and Medical Education, I see these roles as an extension of my role as a clinician! The Medical Humanities for me is both an area of personal interest and I use skills learned from the field of narrative medicine for self-reflection and to process the myriad of experiences that we go through as clinicians. With regards to Medical Education, I think that Medicine has a large culture of paying things forward. Having had wonderful mentors and tutors throughout my medical school and junior doctors years, I’ve always wanted to be able to contribute back by teaching junior batches of students and junior doctors.