Reaching out to the elders’ in conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year
Date : 29th January 2011
Event : A Trip to the Old Folks’ Home in Kepala Batas
Report By : Joyce Lim Yi Phing (MBBS Batch 15)
The Faculty of Applied Science, Department of Biotechnology organized a trip to an old folks’ home, Happy Retirement Home, in Kepala Batas, Penang. This trip is aimed at reaching out to the elders’ in conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year.
The representative of the organizing committee requested a few volunteers from MBBS Batch 15 to join the trip, so as to carry out few procedures, such as blood pressure measurement, history taking and blood glucose measurement.
Seven of us joined the trip and had great experiences. Visiting old folks’ home is a new experience for few of us. At first, it was quite tough for us to get moving with our job as the residents were quite
‘dormant’, giving us the looks of what-are-they-doing-here-in-our-territory.
We made full use of our communication skills by speaking the language the residents were most comfortable with. We took turns to ask the residents regarding their histories (name, age, whether a hypertension / diabetes patient, on any medication etc), record their blood pressure and also blood glucose level. Some residents were very cooperative while some declined our services.
Overall, most of the residents are hypertensive and recorded high level for blood glucose. The findings tallied with the residents’ histories. We advised them to take care of their diet (reducing intake of sweet and salty food) and also to continue their medications.
At the end of the day, we were all thankful for this exposure as we managed to get the first-hand experience of dealing with the elders. This exposure made us realized that we made a right choice by choosing this field of study and also there are still more challenges awaiting us in future as we embark the journey in becoming professional healthcare providers.
Source: AIMST University Faculty of Medicine Newsletter Volume 2 (August 2010 – Febuary 2011)