How long have you been a Hospital Clinician?
About 2 years – I have been under Woodlands Health (WH) under Hospital Clinician (HC) scheme since August 2020.
Tell us more about your role.
As a Post-Acute and Rehabilitation Care (PARC) physician hospital clinician, I provide post-acute and continuing care services in the inpatient setting, taking care of patients with rehabilitation or sub-acute needs to facilitate their recovery and enable their integration back to their homes with restored medical and functional capability.
It is important for me to understand patients’ needs and build a good rapport with them in order to provide the best care together with our multi-disciplinary team of nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, dietitians, speech therapists, pharmacists and many others.
What drove you to join healthcare?
I joined WH under the HC scheme as it is provides me with holistic and systematic training which not only broadens my knowledge and experience, but also strengthens the fundamental practice of medicine by improving medical knowledge and skills both systematically and comprehensively. It enhances my ability to fast fit in various specialities/subspecialties and allows me to contribute to comprehensive team work.
What is one thing that spurs you on at work?
I look forward to the many learning opportunities! The exposure I get in different disciplines has given me invaluable insights into the extended health care ecosystem through the longitudinal care of patients, from the acute phase of illness (in the Emergency Department as well as acute hospital wards) as well as their re-integration back to their communities (through effective rehabilitation and post-acute care).
What is one thing about your job, that you feel is unknown or misunderstood?
People sometimes misunderstand the role of PARC physicians; that we can only manage with sub-acute setting patients/medical condition, which is not true.
As physicians, we are trained to deal with a variety of medical conditions including urgent bedside procedures as well as emergencies that require urgent care.
Can you share with us one or two memorable moments from your time in WH or healthcare?
There was a patient who presented acute stroke symptoms, and his diagnosis was quickly confirmed by physical examination and brain imaging. The training I received in emergency medicine, general medicine, geriatric medicine and community hospital, enabled me to provide holistic care including clinical and physical examination, appropriate medication treatment, rehabilitation services, psycho-social and multi-disciplinary team support.
Following acute management, the patient was advised to continue rehabilitation at a community hospital with a dedicated stroke rehabilitation team. However, during sub-recovery stage, I recall how difficult it was to persuade him to undergo rehabilitation; post-stroke depression may have played a role in his refusal.
We spent much time and effort communicating with the patient and his family members, and we started him on psychosocial counseling. He subsequently started participating in rehabilitation after building good rapport with the clinical team, and was transferred to a community hospital with functional improvement and a clear rehabilitation goal.
His recovery was fast with activities of daily living almost back to his premorbid functional status upon discharge. This is a success story that I will always remember, on both good and bad days.
What do you love about your job?
In order to fulfil the competency of a HC, we go through multiple rotations to different departments and specialties including the emergency department, general medicine (geriatric, renal, respiratory, cardiology, endocrine, neurology, gastroenterology and rehabilitation medicine), general surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care medicine, and others.
We also learn to do multiple procedures independently such as intubation, lumbar/thoracic/abdominal punctures, bone marrow aspiration, to name a few. What I have learnt and experienced as a HC, has motivated me to be a better physician and to go the extra mile for patients.
What is your favourite quote and personal mantra?
As a doctor, my goal is to make the journey for patients from hospital to home as seamless as possible.
