Getting Meducated
By Abbie Wong
How many of you want to work in the medical field? Doctor, nurse, psychiatrist, and so on. If so, you’ve definitely heard of and probably attended Meducate 2.0. But in case you haven’t heard of it, Meducate is an event that aims to “provide secondary students with an insightful perspective on the medical and health field,” according to its description on the Student Bulletin. This is the second Meducate event that has taken place, hence the 2.0 in the name. This year it targeted students in years 10-13 and took place on Zoom on November 14.
While I personally don’t fall under the target audience of Meducate of “student planning on working in the medical field,” I decided to attend after my parents suggested it would help me get a better understanding of the medical field if I ever write any media related to it in the future. I also figured it would be a good excuse to stay at home for that Saturday afternoon, although it’s not to say I wasn’t completely disinterested in the medical field. So I filled out the form and listened to all four hours of Meducate 2.0.
The guest speakers included CUHK medicine student Sharen Lee, paediatrician Dr. Pik To Cheung, and dental surgeon Dr. Gerald H.H Siu. All of their presentations were informative on the speaker’s specialty, whether it be student life, medical practices on younger people or dentistry. Something I noticed was that they all touched upon IB qualifications, which is obviously important for aspiring medical students in Renaissance College. They also gave helpful and heart-touching anecdotes, the type of people fitting for certain medical positions, and the challenges they face. For example, when Lee addressed studying for clinical years in university she stated that “IB trains you in terms of having to seek information out for yourself [and] having the curiosity to ask further questions.”
That’s not to say Dr. Cheung and Dr. Siu didn’t provide advice outside of qualifications, as they also gave us handy tips for being in the medical field, such as considering the question, “What is the quality of life someone needs?”, reminding us that “you need not only your knowledge, but your skill,” as well as different career options to consider under different medical specialties, such as becoming an orthodontist after completing dental school.
After these interesting talks were the group activities, and as per any group activity taking place on Zoom, they were awkward (At least for me and the three Year 11s in my group). The activities themselves, though, were fitting for the event and gave us a taste of the medical field. The first one involved us deciding the best measures in two ethically challenging scenarios, while we drew a diagram of a heart and explained its functions in the second activity. The final activity that everyone competed in individually was the Kahoot, which recapped the information touched upon before. And funnily enough, I won. Keep in mind that some of these questions were biology related, and that Science is one of my weak subjects.
“I definitely had a lot of fun learning about different medical careers that we can pursue in the future.” Year 10 attendee Shaine Woo commented. “One thing that I think could make this event even better is if there were more talks from different people who work on other medical related jobs such as physiotherapists, anaesthesiologists, ophthalmologists, etc.”
To add onto that, I also think there should’ve been at least one COVID-19-centred talk, because while Lee, Dr. Cheung and Dr. Siu talked about the changes that the pandemic brought upon us, they never talked about the virus itself which I understand due to their field of expertise. Because of this, I would’ve liked it if someone who had involvement in doing research on the virus such as a medical researcher was a guest at Meducate 2.0.
Ultimately though, I still enjoyed the time I spent in Meducate 2.0 as I learned new things about the medical field that as my parents hoped, could help any aspiring screenwriter create a hospital drama.