PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE: DIFFERENT HOUSE OFFICERS’ EXPERIENCES OF BECOMING A DOCTOR IN SINGAPORE
FOONG XIN YI REENA
FOONG XIN YI REENA
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Abstract
Despite raised concerns about their vulnerability, House Officers (HOs) in Singapore continue to experience poor well-being, while research on them remains sparse. This thesis aimed to uncover more about the everyday experiences of HOs in Singapore through the process of Medical Professional Socialisation (MPS). 7 HOs were interviewed in the in their HO year through qualitative interviews, where findings were developed inductively based on insights from the data and existing literature. I proposed that the experience of MPS should be read with an astute awareness of the influences from one’s Pre-HO identities as an aspiring medical student and a medical student, as well as their visions of their future careers. Additionally, the MPS of HOs is one that is complex, iterative and develops with experiences, and needs to be looked upon holistically. This study found that one’s Pre-HO identity is more prominent as when learning about roles, norms, and stakeholder management while the future visions of themselves take centre-stage when choosing career paths. Utilisation of various adaptive
and short-term coping mechanisms were also found. Through building typologies, I found that positive coping mechanisms and well-established future directions provide better HO experiences while those who are less able to effectively reconcile breakdowns in Pre-HO identities or have little future direction struggle more. As the first few works on HOs in Singapore, this thesis has value in contextualising existing well-being statistics, providing comprehensive overviews of HO’s experiences, while also providing practical recommendations of more differentiated care within the public healthcare system.
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2023-04-05
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