Anaesthesia for Doctors

    During medical student, the Anaesthesia posting would be in about 2 weeks as an introductory posting. Medical students will be introduced to common anaesthesia drugs and procedures. In addition some resuscitation events or simulation. during that time BLS was also trained as a basic life support. Then when they start to work as a house officer, they will have some basic training in Anaesthesia and critical care posting for 4 months. They would find it quite difficult with the new drugs, the need to acquire life-saving skills like resuscitation, intubations, and some physics for mechanical ventilators like GA machine, intra-arterial Blood pressure monitoring, Ultrasound-guided procedures like CVL insertion and chest tube insertion and also bedside ECHO. In addition, they also may learn about some regional anaesthesia making Ultrasound their best friend during patient clinical management. Some would find this new experience quite intimidating and might lose interest looking at how busy working in ICU and OT will be. However, over time, they will find that in Anaesthesia, skills and knowledge work in line together. As the patient is just 5 minutes away from death in critical situations and crises, we also need to race against time and decision-making should be accurate and swift.

Pursue Anaesthesia and Critical Care Speciality

    In Malaysia, currently there are 2 recognized ways to pursue speciality in Anaesthesia and Critical Care for postgraduate training. One is MMED offered by local University namely USM, UM, UPM, UKM, UIA, and UPM. Second, is through parallel pathway MCAI/FCAI. Both require candicate to apply for Hadiah Latihan Pakar (HLP).

Pre-Entrance Exam Preparation

Read constantly... Among common important books are:

• Physiology - PEter Kam/ David Chambers/ Kerry Brandis

• Rowi's Anaesthesia Teaching Book

• PK/PD Dr Khoo

• TE PEck Pharmacology

• Stoelting Pharmacology and Physilogy

• Morgan Mikael Anaesthesiology

Focus on Core Topics

• Pharmacodynamic and Pharmacokinetics

• Core Drugs

• Physiology - CVS and Respiratory