We Didn't Plan This – The Podcast for People Who Ditched Their Five-Year Plan
Oct 3, 2026 · 20 min · 8 segments
What is it really like to be a doctor in Singapore? Faith and Isaac chat with Malaysian medical student Xiao Yue (Universiti Malaya) about housemanship, 24-hour calls, workplace hierarchy, pay…
versa? Okay, one thing I think we could learn from is the hierarchy side of it.
Because I find that in Singapore, the teams that I followed after rounds every day, the consultant would go for coffee together and then maybe do some teaching, some sharings.
And we also had departmental meetings where different teams come up with their own interesting cases or they have a learning objective.
Maybe one is interesting cases and then it's like focus on pathology.
Yeah, so every way is different.
So I like that there's sharing and interaction between teams to sort of like share about this medical knowledge.
Yeah, for this, I don't think we have it in Malaysia, but we have something called Continuing Medical Education, CME, in Malaysia, which is something similar, but I haven't been to a CME session yet.
Yeah, so I cannot really comment on that.
So it feels like you liked the junior-driven teaching, the peer-to-peer kind of education.
Kind of like in
the community, right? Like just being ritual with your consultant, grab a good drink.
Yeah, it also was a bit more, I think a lot more relaxed because I feel in Malaysia, everyone is rushing for time.
I mean, we can't help it also because of the manpower shortage.
Yeah, maybe it can be tackled with time.
And I mean, I think about that preclinical education thing a lot also because I don't know, do you feel like when you went from year two to year three, you were very well prepared for it?
Honestly, not really.
Like, I mean, they teach you like in theory, like, you know, the knowledge and you've like, maybe you've examined them, but when it comes to actually seeing how a team operates and learning everything while studying, it doesn't prepare you that well.
Yeah, right.
I remember when I was a student, then they let you follow these teams.
And then like in the morning, you know, maybe you first see the patients, but then you kind of get it.
Then after they say that, oh, okay, I'm going back to do changes.
Then you always wonder as a student, like, what are these changes that take
eight
versa? Okay, one thing I think we could learn from is the hierarchy side of it.
Because I find that in Singapore, the teams that I followed after rounds every day, the consultant would go for coffee together and then maybe do some teaching, some sharings.
And we also had departmental meetings where different teams come up with their own interesting cases or they have a learning objective.
Maybe one is interesting cases and then it's like focus on pathology.
Yeah, so every way is different.
So I like that there's sharing and interaction between teams to sort of like share about this medical knowledge.
Yeah, for this, I don't think we have it in Malaysia, but we have something called Continuing Medical Education, CME, in Malaysia, which is something similar, but I haven't been to a CME session yet.
Yeah, so I cannot really comment on that.
So it feels like you liked the junior-driven teaching, the peer-to-peer kind of education.
Kind of like in
the community, right? Like just being ritual with your consultant, grab a good drink.
Yeah, it also was a bit more, I think a lot more relaxed because I feel in Malaysia, everyone is rushing for time.
I mean, we can't help it also because of the manpower shortage.
Yeah, maybe it can be tackled with time.
And I mean, I think about that preclinical education thing a lot also because I don't know, do you feel like when you went from year two to year three, you were very well prepared for it?
Honestly, not really.
Like, I mean, they teach you like in theory, like, you know, the knowledge and you've like, maybe you've examined them, but when it comes to actually seeing how a team operates and learning everything while studying, it doesn't prepare you that well.
Yeah, right.
I remember when I was a student, then they let you follow these teams.
And then like in the morning, you know, maybe you first see the patients, but then you kind of get it.
Then after they say that, oh, okay, I'm going back to do changes.
Then you always wonder as a student, like, what are these changes that take
eight
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