UCSI University Oath Taking Ceremony 2010

This Oath Taking Ceremony is held annually for graduating students from Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (School of Pharmacy), UCSI University. It has been a culture for Pharmacy students from universities all over the world to take the Oath of A Pharmacist before joining the working profession.

In this meaningful event, we were pleased to have Puan Abida Haq, Vice President of the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) as our Guest of Honour (replacing Datuk Nancy Ho, President of MPS who was on duty).

In the Oath of A Pharmacist, we vow to devote our professional life to the service of all national and international health care communities through the pharmacy profession.

UCSI University Convocation Briefing, 20th July 2010

If you miss the briefing session, no worry. This post will give you exclusive coverage from A-Z for the briefing session held on 20th July 2010 at DeTSAR. However, since I am lacking of sleeping time, I will try to write less as pictures speak thousand of words.

I'm not sure who was the emcee for this briefing session but it wasn't a boring one but instead quite entertaining.

Listen attentively to the briefing session.

Canteen @ UCSI University's Library

This is a brand new and then renovated canteen located at First Floor of the library. Previously, it was an open area and thus you won't really feel the air cond especially under the hot sun. However, now it had been renovated where glass wall surrounds the inner side of the canteen whereas the outer side of the canteen  (walkway) leading to the entrance to the First Floor remains open area.

One first need to make an order at the counter and make your payment. Then, you will be given a small token with a waiting number. Do I need to tell you it is a self service based?

UCSI University's Library

The newly renovated UCSI University's Library is now comprising four floors instead of three previously. The classrooms area used to be for A-Levels students had been renovated and become the main entrance and administration unit of the library including the red-spots, CCTV and offices. 

At the Ground Floor aka the main entrance, there is this Self-Check spot beside the counters. Despite trying to figure what it is, we still do not know what is the function of this 'thing'. No where in the library or the UCSI website mention about this erected spot.

OPAC? It stands for Online Public Assess Catalog which is an online databases of books or simply the library catalog. This is meant for students to search and locate the books in the library. The name looks cool, right? Well, actually it is just another spot for you to access the website before logging into the UCSI website account and start searching your books as usual. As seen, you need to stand while searching and even queue up if there are a lot of people. Well, it does has it own purpose as it mainly used for a quick search and not for surfing net purpose. On the latter, you can do so at the computer laboratory. Don't know where? Let me bring you there in a short while.

Block A Canteen @ UCSI University

Early in the morning, we had this presentation skills talk by Mr. Kelvin. However, I was late to attend this talk not because I couldn't wake up but I had an appointment with my condo's agent to fix my unit's water heater. It will not be late should the agent and the repairman could come in time as scheduled. I managed to arrive in time... yea... 15 minutes after the talk started.

Mr. Kelvin (right) received a token of appreciation from Mr. Allan representing UCSI University

As I 'stormed' into the classroom, I was given a special welcome by him and my fellow classmates who clapped their hands. Argg.. It was an awkward moment as not only the students attend the talk but also some of my lecturers.

Mr. Kelvin (right) received a token of appreciation from Jivan representing the Year 4 Pharmacy Students

To be honest, it wasn't an inspirational speech but Mr. Kelvin managed to outlined the important elements of effective communication which were:

Administrative Pharmacy Presentation & Hospice Briefing

Every subject without laboratory session will be replaced with assignment and a presentation. So, we had our Administrative Pharmacy presentation on the last day of schooling. Well, not the very last in fact as we had another class on Saturday. It was a hectic day as our schedule was packed from early morning till the late afternoon.

10.30- 1.30 pm: Administrative Pharmacy Presentation

Top: Kuan Poh, Lim, Dickson,Wei Kiat

Bottom: Jivan, KF, Kuan Poh, Mahmood

Let's look into the gesture of our friends in the class. Check out Kuan Poh who is the Sleeping King of our class and Mahmood who was biting his pen. 

Clinical Clerkship VIVA Presentation

After a struggling period of 5 weeks, we had finally ended the Clinical Clerkship at Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Let's recap back our daily routine for 3 days in a week or perhaps check back my previous post on Clinical Clerkship here.

Day 1: Tuesday

1. 5.45 am: Woke up
2. 6.30 am: Board bus.
3. 7.00 am: Breakfast-ing.
4. 8.00 am: Start clerking 1 case, went from bed to bed, copy pages of words, analysing, etc.
5. 12.00 pm: Present the case to preceptor
6. 1.00 am: Board bus back to University
7. 1.30 am: Had lunch
8. 2.00 am: Presenting case to lecturer
9. 3.30 pm: Went home and do some works assigned or related to case presentation

Day 2: Wednesday

1. 5.45 am - 3.30 pm: Same routine but we had to clerk another new case.
2. 3.30 pm- Discussion end, went home and started doing case presentation report.

Day 3: Friday

1. 5.45 am - 2 pm: Same routine.
2. 2.00 pm: Present a case to the lecturers from A to Z with a Q & A session.
3. 3.30 pm: Went home and start preparing ANOTHER report for second case.

Did I forget to mention that we had classes on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays? Hmm..

As in sequence above, for my group, Group 2, we started with Obstetrics & Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgical and Psychiatric Clerkship. Of all, I would say the O & G clerkship was the most interesting whereas the most dislike was Pediatrics and most boring till death was Psychiatric Clerkship. However, I chose IM clerkship as for my viva topic presentation. 

Clinical Clerkship Attachment @ HKL

Finally, the 5 weeks of clerkship had come to an end. In this post, I will not be discussing about the clerkship attachment at Hospital Kuala Lumpur which is reserved for upcoming post. In contrast, I will discuss about my daily routine during this clerkship period.

We had clerkship attachment every Tuesday to Thursday of which we were required to clerk 2 cases in the ward. There were 5 different wards that we went namely Obstetrics and Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Surgical, Pediatrics and Psychiatric.

Every morning from Tuesday to Thursday, we we required to arrive at the University compound by 6.30 am before boarding a bus to HKL. At about 7 am ++, we would arrive at the canteen located few meters away from HKL to have our breakfast and morning chat. After that, we would then proceed to various wards as mentioned above and be there by 8 am.

For each of the clerkship, there would be one Pharmacist to supervise us (preceptor) and also a specialist/consultant/ head of department physician. After briefing and so on, we were then required to go from bed to bed and choose a suitable case to clerk.

At about 12 pm ++, we were then required to present our case to the preceptor and discussed issues arising from the case. At 1 pm, we would then board the bus back to the University. If we were lucky enough, we would have some time to eat our lunch either at the canteen nearby the HKL (if preceptor allowed us to go early) or at Cheras. Otherwise, if we have unfinished job, we would have to proceed straight away to the PBL room before discussion with lecturer kicked in at 2 pm. The duration of the  discussion would be 1 hour and 30 minutes and may lengthen depending on the type of clerkship and availability of the respective lecturers.

The routine would be the same for all these 3 days. Apart from that, on every Thursday, we needed to present our case to our lecturer at University of which marks will be given to the presentation. If we were lucky enough to be able to clerk a case on Day 1, we may have additional time. Otherwise, if we were only  able to clerk a case on Day 2, we may require a longer time and some may even either no sleep or sleep at the wee hours of the morning eg 5 am before waking up at 6 am. Phew~

The good news is that everything is over but the bad news is that the finals will be around the corner.  We would have a tough time to digest so many things into our brain. Hope the Mighty God will bless us!~ 

Our favourite breakfast session spot would be either Restoran Pedas Pak Aji or Gerai Ah Kow. Usually, we will choose Restoran Pedas Pak Aji due to larger space to accomodate large numbers of us. We would order only drinks and not food because there wasn't any specialty of the foods offered here. (soory yea, pak cik) Gerai Ah Kow is the only Chinese stall here which offers the famous and highly picked 'Sesame Chicken' or 'chi ma kai'. The price is RM 4.50 per plate regardless of which part of the chicken you ordered. It is not just famous for the Chinese but a lot of Malays especially will choose to eat the sesame chicken which is HALAL.

The pak cik is quite friendly and like to joke with us in English and Malay. When I took my picture with Michael and Kuan Poh, he came and asked me to hold his 'nasi lemak' pack. When I was waiting for my money balance form him, he then asked me to take the picture with the money.

If you can see my picture clearly, I was infected with outbreak of pimples on my face till every one was concerned about me. Thanks friends, it was just another seasonal outbreak perhaps due to mounting stress weeks after weeks. Besides that, It may be due to lack of sufficient and quality sleep.   

My favourite food in the early morning was nasi goreng + tambah nasi + tambah telur goreng  + sambal tiga sudu which costs RM 2.00. After consultation from Suk Yen, I then chose to order Teh O Ais every single morning. 

We have Hooi Hoon, Wei Jie, Suk Yen and Boon Jin in this picture.

The happy faces when eating. Top from left: Shin Ying, Chie Chek, Siew Hoon and Yen Yie while bottom form left: You Know Who, Hooi Hoon, Suk Yen and Yueh Teng.

We have Kuan Poh, Me, Wei Jie, Yee San and Suk Yen in this photo.

The big familly.  Not in the photo were as usual Raj (taking the camera) and Wei Kiat, Chie Chek and Yong Chun who had an important business that day. =P

On this table, we have Wee Ling, Boon Jin, Yen Moi and Chui Wei having their breakfast.

The cutie Cindy with her packs of Sesame Chicken for other friends who did not manage to go back early from HKL. Usually, when we run out of time, we will ask our friend to 'tar pau' for us and ate in the bus. Pity us right?

Top right picture were Cindy and Shin Ying. Check out the symbol of their fingers. Cindy was the leader for Group 1 whereas Shin Yig  was the leader for group 5. Altogether, we have a total of 5 groups for 45 of us.

Cindy, Shin Ying, See Bee and Xiao You.. smile~

On another table, we have Pin Khee, Hui Chin and Lim Yin.

On another table as well, we have Melissa, Belinda, Sue Zin, Suk Yen and Jivan.

The perfect couple dating in the bus. They were Siew Hoon and Kuan Poh,

The behind geng who used to be a noise maker in the bus.Their leader was Chie Chek, don't underestimate his size with his volume. 

This picture was taken in the bus while it was moving. I forgot on what their say with the significance of this picture with Dr, Yeong. The first name tag, Chin Suk Yen was known to be look alike, soudns alike but not the same with Dr. Yeong. (the Dean of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UCSI University)

These were the name tag from my group. We were given this name tag each of which we will required to wear it at all the times except in the Psychiatric ward,

The complete name tag of my Group 2 led by Lam Wee Ling.

Wee Ling and Yen Yie.. no comments ~

First and last photo with our own tag before given back to the HKL authority.
Left: Kuan Poh, Me, Wee Ling and Yen Yie
Right: Xiao You, Yueh Teng, Pin Khee and See Bee

*Raj was on the way to the classroom.

The kaum hawa aaka the girls~

The enjoy looking Xiao You~

Group photos of my my group added with a candid picture. You guys rocks!~

The more formal picture~

Our neighbour, Group 5

We had learn a lot of new things throughout the clerkship. Those experience are related to real clinical practice settings which mostly totally different from the books. It was a great exposure to all of us before joining the work force soon.

Thanks to all my dear friends who make my life merrier and happier.

Dr. Nala Farewell Party

Dr. Nalamolu Koteswara Rao teaches Pharmacology in UCSI University. He holds a PhD (Biotechnology), M Pharm (Pharmacology) and B Pharm from India. He entered into the university when I was in Year 1. The first subject that he taught us was Basic Pharmacology & Immunology. Initially, we had difficulty in understanding his slang but gradually it becomes a non issue. He tried to make his class session as fun as possible by putting animations as pharmacology is really a boring subject. Besides that, he also try to compress the lecture notes as there are really many things to be memorised. A drug can have a lot of adverse effects and many drugs are having very similar adverse effects. This really make us headache! However, thanks to Dr. Nala (Dr Thet called him Dr Rao), everything was made simple through his guidance. His famous word is 'nothing but'. You can ask him for help in anything 'nothing but' be it in studies or personal issues. I do consulted him before and he showed high level of interest, concern and care for his students. If you are looking for any journal which requires subscription, you can ask him for help and he will be very happy to help you.

We love him very much. We were so touched when he told us that he wanted to teach us till we completed all the pharmacology classes despite there was initial call to leave the SOP a year earlier. Our ties with him basically is uncomparable compared to my fellow juniors. He never scolded us in the class and he treated each of us nicely. Also, he took a very short time to remember all of our name (I guess just for 1 semester). This can be never happened compared to other lecturers who don't recall our names despite teaching us for years. Generally, it is a good feeling when your lecturers do remember your name compared to the usual nickname 'boy, girl, hey you, student'. In this farewell video, the pictures included are those taken before study break and few pictures taken years back. At the right bottom, you can see a few pictures of him enjoying his vacations and were taken from his Facebook. Dr Nala is a very sporting person and he loves traveling so much. In just about 3 years in Malaysia, he had traveled to a lot of places in Malaysia and not just KL. That's the usual happy face he portrayed in the class. Also, he has one funny gesture that we will always remember which is clasping his both hands and shaking his head. He was no doubt a funny person. Listen attentively while Dr. Nala was giving his speech. He is very understanding person. When we feel sleepy during the class, he will call for a break or when we were tired after a quiz or test, he will make things simpler and even postpone to another day. Dr. Nala is very concern on our performances. He can memorised some of our results and the mistakes we had done in the exam. Before exam, he will give us the tutorials to familiarize us with the exam format. I can say he is very different from other lecturers who simply make a level difficulty 3 questions that only they know what is the answer and always ask the students to think out of the box when they didn't write the questions clearly. In contrast, he will give a very similar type of questions so that we know what are the expectations during the exam. We gave him a big farewell card with our message written inside and also a photo frame with our class photos with him. Jivanraj who is the upcoming class rep was the emcee for the farewell party. Outgoing class rep, Shin Ying represented us to give our token of appreciation to Dr. Nala. Ivan joined and gave his personal gift to Dr. Nala. Besides the two cakes, our meal consists of pizza. Yeah... hot baken pizza from Pizza Hut. However, due to budget constraint, we only can eat 1 piece of the pizza. There are only 54 pieces from 9 pizzas ordered. Dr Nala was chatting while eating with the students. (Christine, Mahmood, Wilfred & Suk Yen) He will answer basically every question you throw to him from the personal till the working issues. Spotted here are Boon Jin, Chui Wei, Wei Ling, Ah Mei, Yen Yie and Wei Kiat. I think Ah Mei is the one who steal my gf and took the initial pictures. This stealer is now honeymoon'ing in Taiwan. So nice! Ah Mei, Wei Ling, Boon Jin and Chui Wei~ Hui Hoon, Pink Khee, Chu Wun, Yee San and Wei Jie~ Xiao You, See Bee and Joanne ~ Cindy, what are you doing behind? Siew Hoon, Shin Ying aka 1 Jie, Poh Chin, Yen Yie and Cindy~ Belinda, Melissa, Sue Zin and Suk Yen aka Dr. YeonG~ Dickson, Michael, Kuan Poh, Wei Kiat, Raj, Lim, Me and Chie Chek aka cicak~ Joining in is Vun aka the organiser for the party incharging for meals and Jivanraj~ Pictures..pictures.. more please~~ Christine, the sweet girl~ The girls.. oops got Mahmood inside... Argh the girls team comprises Siew Hoon, Yee San, Wei Jie, Shin Ying and Yen Yie~ Shaking farewell hands with Dr. Nala. Though we are sad Dr. Nala is leaving us, we were happy that we received his teaching throughout these few years.

The guys.. why no me? I am taking this photo la..

Closer view of this bunch of handsome guys.. no wonder I am not entitled to join in~

Smile girls~~~

Wei Kiat had a long winded chatting session with Dr. Nala until I need to show the T break time to Wei Kiat to cut short. Still, he continued and ignored us who are waiting to take a picture with Dr. Nala.

Alright..here is the picture of the guys. Mahmmod, Jivan blocked your face~

Don't you ever challenge the girls! These are the dangerous girls to be avoided.. First, they give u a warning through their index finger, next they will give u a punch!

Smile every 1~

Wei Jie acting on a ghost scene. The girls broke the window and placed their heads on the surface. Haha.. jk.. I would like to take this opportunity to wish Dr. Nala all the best in his future undertakings. He will be taking a short break of few months 'holidaying' with his family before stepping into the Taylors University College, School of Medicine. And with his departure, there are only left not much but only 1 lecturer who is good and concern with the studies of the students. The bad news is that that lecturer will be off soon too. Those good lecturers who left earlier are Ms. Shruti, Mr. Jony and Dr. Thet Thet Thar. Finally, but not least, the group photos~ The girls~ The cute babies~~ Till we meet again!! Dr. Nala had promised to attend our graduation day!