Page 8 - 01_2021 PULSE@FASS e-Bulletin

ALUMNI VOICES SERIESLUMNI VOICES SERIESLUMNI VOICES SERIES
AA Issue no. 1 | 2021
Being a Medical Social Worker:

My Life Journey

I was the 4th batch to graduate from the Social Justice
Department at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Reflecting on the journey of my career, I am grateful that I
made the right choice and have no regrets. Looking back
at how it all began, I graduated in 1998 and first worked as
a general clerk.

Approximately a year on I became restless and bored and
decided to apply for a job at the Public Services
Department, as I had wanted to pursue a career in the civil
service that fit my university qualifications. I was not very
hopeful then as the competition for posts in the civil
service was very competitive. Call it luck or fate, to my
surprise I was called for an interview two months later in
May and by July the same year I was appointed to the civil
service and am still faithfully serving there till this day.

I vaguely remember as an undergraduate being told in
one of the classes that we may be sent to work in a
hospital as a medical social worker (MSW). That statement
scared me as I felt very unprepared of the possibility of
working in a hospital setting. As a child, I hated hospitals,
BY NAZRAH BIDIN
especially the smell of Hibitane and Lysol. I had always
HEAD OF MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT
associated those chemical odours with that of a 'sick'
environment. I began planning to instead conduct my MELAKA GENERAL HOSPITAL
SOCIAL JUSTICE DEPARTMENT (1998)
internship at a hotel with the opposite ambience.

There were 88 students in our class then and I prayed that In the blink of an eye, I have had 22 years of service. Apart
I would not be picked to intern at a hospital. So much was from my time at Hospital Tawau, I have had the privilege of
my dislike and fear for the hospital setting, I researched also serving at Hospital Sultanah Aminah in Johor Bahru
the number of hospitals there were in the country in and in the Penang General Hospital, with a promotion
attempting to figure the probability of my ending up in offered at every new posting. Although I was quite
one. As luck would have it, on July 1999, I received my first reluctant to relocate each time as my husband was unable
posting to Hospital Tawau in Sabah. to follow me, we decided that the job was a public service
that was important for me and my career. Also, a benefit of
As an arts student who never learnt pure science in being a civil servant was the opportunity to enhance my
school, I was like a naive kindergarten pupil fearful of career through academic pursuits. While posted in
learning new medical terminology and I had to learn Penang, I applied and was offered a scholarship to pursue
about diseases, diagnoses and the prognoses, treatment my master’s in social work at Universiti Sains Malaysia. The
modalities from scratch. As if that was not tough enough, I course was tough, and I had to endure lectures in statistics
had to undergo the difficult and most excruciating and conducting research, while still juggling between
experience of trying to decipher the doctors’ handwriting. work and being a wife and mother to four children.

PULSE invites alumni members of FASS to share with us their share of history and the amazing things they
have done since graduating. Please send your articles directly to vilasomiah@um.edu.my
(Dr. Vilashini Somiah, Ed- in- Chief) or nadhwah@um.edu.my (Ms. Nadhwah Tul Iman Mizam, Asst. Ed-in-Chief).
We are also open to receiving donations and any feedback, suggestions and questions as well.

8 | Pulse @ FASS