Photo by Andrew Ly on Unsplash

Hello hello. It has been ages since I last updated my blog, nearly two years to be exact. Even I nearly forgot the existence of my blog! There has been massive life changing events happening in my life during these years. 

First things first, after waiting for approximately a year I have finally started my job as junior doctor in one of the public hospitals in Malaysia back in spring 2019. It was a fruitful yet challenging year for me as I had to start from the bottom of the food chain. As the most junior training doctor in the hospital, it is rather an unspoken rule that I have to go through arduous trainings and working for ridiculously long hours with barely adequate rest. To be fair I did learn a lot while I was going through my internship or housemenship period, be they practical skills or clinical knowledge.

After I have completed my first year training in Malaysia, I earned myself full registration with the general medical council in the UK while working towards my Malaysian license to practice. During early of 2020, I had actually applied for training jobs in the UK in hope of continuing my training there. Fortunately I got accepted for a job to continue second year of foundation training after going through interview in April. I was pretty hesitant back then as I have already gotten used to the healthcare systems and cultures in Malaysia (albeit not the most enjoyable one).

After being in dilemma state for somewhat eternity,  I have finally decided to accept the offer and go with my gut feeling to continue my training there. I left Malaysia for UK in summer last year. The main reason was that there was very few opportunities for career progression in Malaysia. It was because at the moment, only those who were in permanent jobs were given privilege to further their trainings to become specialists and then consultants. Whereas in the UK, everyone is given equal opportunity to apply for specialty training programme and the working hours and environment are more conducive for both working and learning.

The only downside of working abroad apart from missing Malaysian food is the distance with my family members. Although I was busy most of the time while working in Malaysia, I had always manage to squeeze out some time to take few days off and go back to my hometown to spend some quality time with my family members. Working in the UK did allow me to have much more off time but due to the pandemic I am not able to go back to Malaysia as I would need to quarantine for more than 3 weeks in total.

Overall, I do think that I have made somewhat correct choice as I find myself less stressful and able to have some me-time after coming back from work everyday which is very important for my mental health. Having said that, I shall end my post here and pledge to update the blog with much more adventures and food since I have much more time to spend now! Till then, take care!