Life as a student in Vision College                 

I remember walking onto the stage to receive my degree certificate. Yet, here I stand, this time as a student in Vision College, pursuing my Postgraduate Diploma in Ultrasonography. What do I have to say about life as a student in Vision College? Well, it is pretty much hectic, but nevertheless fun! Why? Basically, we are very small in number, hence we know each other well. A simple smile and a “Hi” brings us closer together everyday.

Due to the controlled number of students, we tend to be quite competitive with one another. But it’s all healthy competition mind you! We are always there to help each other without fail and  to share valuable information amongst ourselves.

You might be wondering what we do daily as students here. Well, read on to find out!

In the mornings, we prepare ourselves to scan patients who come from several government polyclinics and private outpatient departments. They come in with various indications and we provide them with various ultrasound scans. The more common ones are upper and lower abdomen, thyroid, pelvic and obstestric and gynecology scans. The morning practical sessions provides us with an opportunity to meet patients with various health problems. It also gives us a chance to practise and master our scanning skils.

After the scanning session, we will prepare the patients’ ultrasound report in the afternoon. The reports are then certified by our in-house radiologist before they are sent out to the respective government polyclinics. It might not sound tough, but this task is mentally, physically and emotionally challenging and it prepares us for our future career as Sonographers.

There are also times when we are scheduled to go personally to the government polyclinics or hospitals to help scan patients over there. We normally go in the mornings and come back by lunch time. The preparation of reports for these patients is done in the college later in the afternoon. Trips to the hospitals and polyclinic are good for us as it broadens our horizons as we get to see more cases due to the heavy patient flow.

Other than having to do our reports, we have classes with our lecturers or tutors in the afternoon. We learn about human anatomy, pathology and about ultrasound findings. Besides this, we have one to one scanning sessions with our tutors who teach and guide us. This helps in polishing our ultrasound scanning skills. We perform scans on each other when we are not busy with our reports or classes. These sessions are vey valueble to us as it enables us to handle patients with more confidence.

Our tutors in Vision College are very helpful and well experienced. They always guide and encourage us to make us good and skillful sonographers. Not only am I happy to be a student again, I feel happier and fortunate to be a student of Vision College!

 

Thanyia is currently pursuing the postgraduate Diploma of Medical Ultrasonography (Asia) Programme and is expected to graduate in November 2008.

Vision College aims to provide an exciting learning platform for students. We believe in providing a platform for students to reach out to fulfill their talents. Our emphasis is on hands-on experience, dealing with real-life patients and sharing medical experience. Vision teachers are here to provide an intuitive environment to learn. We focus on problem-based learning with the use of trigger materials. This creates a highly relevant learning environment in healthcare.