Teaching at Fraser's Hills

• It was a journey that i never took. Before starting the drive from KL to Fraser's Hills, my colleagues gave me some warning. Dr Azeemah said that I need to arrive at the foothill at the right time as the lane upwards is only opened one-way at hourly intervals. Dr Mahathar said that there were many stories of 'ghosts' from friends - that there were ghost 'hitchikers', ghost following you etc. Immediately, I called the organizer and asked "Is there really 'hantu' there?" The organizer, fearing that i would cancel my trip assured me that there's none
• After stopping by at the mechanic to put in 'coolent' into my age-old proton wira, I made my way to Kuala Kubu Bharu and from there, a quiet drive underneath canopies of beautiful trees to the 'hill'.
• I arrived as sunset on the hill and pleased to find that it was peaceful up there. I heard only sounds of the forest, the birds and the cooing of some insects up there.
• The temperature up there is 'just nice' - 20 degrees, not too hot and not too cold. Mr Tey greeted me there and brought me to 'Sri Dahlia' house - an English styled house with granite wall and a fireplace inside.
• The next morning, I woke up and sniffed in a clean and cool air of the 'hill'. No ghosts. No dreams of ghosts the night before. Just some weird dream about my wife.
• Anyways, my session on the ECG started well. It was a favourite topic and the MA loved it that i simplified the whole thing to a 10 minutes' ECG. After getting to the practical interpretation of a sinus rhythm, rate measurement, myocardial infarct diagnoses, supraventricular, atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, all types of heart blocks etc - i proceeded to teach them the pathophysiology of each.
• When i finished i asked "Do you all understand" only to be responded with a resounding 'yes' with smiling faces.
• I love simplification - and they too love things simplified. I knew the learning curve taken by medical students and doctors- some take years, but all the learning could actually be simplified for practical use.
• Finishing the ECG teaching session, i proceded with the 'Tabletop Exercise for Disaster Response'
• For this, i asked the organizer to arrange the chair around an empty floor. Using toys - bus, lorry, ambulance, fire-engine, i proceeded to teach them about the principles of disaster management - the Directive 20, principles of incident commmand system, response at the incident site, roles of the commanders, disaster zones, medical base station management, communication for help, passing-over principles and hospital based disaster response. Finishing this, i proceeded to discuss about CBRNE response. All the participants took part actively and played their role as commanders, patients and responders.
• At the end of the session, i found many of them coming to me to thank me personally and a few asked to take pictures with me.
• It was a nice teaching experience - one i don't mind doing agains, knowing ghost stories or not- whether or not there are ghosts there.