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A Time to Recalibrate

Chief Resident Induction: A Time to Recalibrate

This programme has been a timely recalibration exercise, with the chance to pause and evaluate our personal growth and professional journey.

Dr Vanessa Lim
Deputy Chief Resident of the NHG Dermatology Senior Residency programme

Amidst the everyday hustle and bustle of clinical work, back-to-back case presentations, chasing research deadlines, and so on, the two days spent at the recent NHG (National Healthcare Group) Chief Residents Induction Programme felt like a breath of fresh air I didn't even realise I needed. It was an unexpected 'break' that broadened views, challenged existing ideas, and even allowed us to glean insights into our personal and professional selves.

We were kept on the edge of our seats as our guest speaker, Ms Kuik Shiao-Yin of The Thought Collective, shared her social enterprise’s aim to build up the social and emotional capital of our nation through programmes that facilitate cross-sector conversations.

Training in our respective specialities, it is easy to get lost in the maze of medical minutiae, so it was a pertinent reminder of how our roles in healthcare fit into the overall objective of achieving a common societal good. This involves building trust at multiple levels – the head, heart, and gut.

My technical expertise as a specialist is a basic expectation that my patients should have of me, but above and beyond that, genuine sincerity and concern for each and every patient is the glue that our healthcare system should be built on.

A mainstay of this annual programme was the opportunity to attempt the MBTI (Myers–Briggs Type Indicator) personality test. Having previously had a go at it as a 14-year-old in secondary school, it was interesting to see how some of my core personality traits remained quintessentially Vanessa... and also how other traits had evolved with time and, I'd like to think, maturity. What was perhaps even more interesting was the exercise that followed - working on several tasks in groups divided based on the various personality categories and seeing the descriptors in the MBTI booklet come to life.

I very much appreciated the emphasis on first understanding ourselves well, to be able to work well with others of other personalities and conflictmanagement styles. We then wrapped up the two days learning about useful negotiation strategies to engage with others within a team and advance meaningful agendas for our patients. Overall, this programme has been a timely recalibration exercise, with the chance to pause and evaluate our personal growth and professional journey thus far. It has also provided a macro perspective of how our everyday work contributes to the overall healthcare landscape, reminding us of the original reasons why we chose to do medicine.

 

​Dr Vanessa Lim Ziying is a graduate of the NHG Internal Medicine Residency Programme, and current Deputy Chief Resident of the NHG Dermatology Senior Residency programme.

 

 

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