Dyslexia among undergraduate students in Malaysian universities

I want to share some of interesting research about Dyslexia among undergraduate students in Malaysian universities that I obtained from an International Conference on Teaching & Learning in Higher Education 2009.

Dyslexia is condition where individual having persistent difficulties in reading, spelling, writing and organizing thoughts on paper resulting in difficulties in reading and understanding examination questions, writing answers, completing examinations in time and completing assignments.

The study was conducted in 10 universities; government and private. A Total of 240 undergraduate students participated in this study (Medical, dental and pharmacy students were excluded from this study). They were screen by Adult Dyslexia Inventory. Researches found that the prevalence of dyslexia among undergraduates was 4.66%. They also found that dyslexia prevalence was higher in the private universities compared to government universities which were 5.23% and 4.22% respectively. Previous study have found that prevalence of dyslexia among undergraduate students range from 4% - 10% and even in certain studies found 15%.

The findings make me wondering whether some of undergraduate medical students having dyslexia? Perhaps similar study should be conducted on medical students to explore this matters. Why this is important? It is because there are different methods of assessment for the students with dyslexia. The special assessment methods was done and implemented by US and UK universities to their dyslexia students.

Perhaps we should appreciate and recognize dyslexia students therefore appropriate assessment methods can be administered to these students.

Getting along with people

No man is an island

In our daily life we need to interact with others. If we interact positively we can achieve good mental health which will enable us to live life to the fullest.

What will happen if you do not get along with people?

• Misunderstandings
• Accusations and resentment
• Threatening environment and hostility
• Deteriorating quality of life

Tips on getting along with people

Be respectful

• To gain respect one must respect others.
• Always address someone by his/her name.
• Speak politely and ask for permission when you need someone’s help.

Be attentive and sincere

• Learn to listen when somebody is talking.
• Do not interrupt and give unwanted advice.
• Try to maintain eye contact.

Be flexible and cooperative

• Learn to cooperate and compromise with other people.
• Be sensitive to what they need and disire.

Be accepting and forgiving

• Learn to accept people’s strengths and weaknesses. It is important to be able to forgive other people’s mistakes, because by doing so, other people will also accept and treat us the same way.

Acknowledge and compliment

• Learn to appreciate other people’s contributions by giving appropriate compliments and credits whenever it is called for.The key to a harmonious life is to get along with the people around you.

Source: A Public Health Education Information from the Ministry of Health Malaysia

Stressor Among Medical Students

Stressor among medical students can be grouped into 6 groups. The 6 groups are:

1) Academic related stressor

e.g. too many subject to be studied, not enough time to do revision, examinations and tests are too frequent, difficulty in understanding content of subject, and heavy workload.

2) Interpersonal and Intrapersonal related stressor

e.g. conflict with friends, teachers, and personnel, physical and verbal abuse from friends, teachers and personnel.

3) Teaching and Learning related stressor

e.g. teachers lack of teaching skills, educational environment was not condusive, and competitive learning environment.

4) Social related stressor

e.g. not enough time with family anf friends, frequent interuptions of work by friends, and long duration on working with computer.

5) Drive and Desire related stressor

e.g. unwilling to study medicine and family force to learn medicine.

6) Group Activity related stressor

e.g. participating in group discussion and presentation.

Those are the stressors perceived by medical students. Hopefully it makes us realise what are our stressor. By knowing our stressors, we can plan strategies and approaches to manage it effectively.

reference:

1. Muhamad SBY et al., (in press). The Development & Validity of Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ), ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry.

What are the things medical students need?

One question came into my mind, "What are the things medical students need?" in order for them to go through medical training smoothly and successful as well as they are happy and satisfied with what they did during their training. Do they need extra time? do they need extra attention? do they need extra holiday? do they need extra programme? do they need extra motivation? do they need extra money? do they need extra class? do they need a class which teach them how to take care of their wellbeing? do they need seminar on stress-mangament? do they need mentor-mantee system? do they need special counselor to counsel them? do they need personal supervisor for extra support? do they need more patient? do they need extra authority that enable them to do extra procedures? do they need special hostel? and there are many more questions that came to my mind when i think about what medical students need in order for them to get through smoothly.

That were some questions in my mind which i myself not really sure what are the answers. I hope to get some response from medical students if there is any medical student read this article regardless of where they came from.

That's all for now, may be if i got free time and answers for those questions i will discuss more on this topic.

Can We Control What Goes In?

We are what we are because of what goes into our minds and hearts. (Zig Ziglar)

One of the reasons I displayed it prominently (above statement) is that it's the best statement I ever found about the significance of an education. We are not talking about just formal education, but all education. We truly are what we are because of what goes into our minds and hearts. Almost everyday we were being deluged from all sides with a torrent of words. The pictures those words represent get into our heads and have a strong effect on the way we think and the way we talk. Obviously, we can't control all the messages we are blitzed with, but we have more control than we think. We can do two things to make sure our hearts and minds full of good words:

1. Screen out the thrash: Would we let someone come into our home and dump a big bag of thrash all over our living room? If we wouldn't let someone dump thrash in our living room, they why do we let them dump thrash into our minds and hearts? Simply paying more attention to our input (what comes and goes in), we can easily screen out much of the negative. For example, we can change TV channels and radio stations, we can close offensive reading materials, and we can avoid, at least to some extent, being around people who drag us down with their glum conversation. In other words, we can eliminate a lot of negative input.

2. Start the day with positive input: Words always reveal what is going on inside our minds and hearts. Start our day by putting something good into our minds and hearts e.g. we get up ealier than we needed to, before doing anything, we sit down in the quiet of the morning with a cup of hot coffee and something uplifting to read. It has a positive effect on us for the remainder of the day. It affects not only our thinking but also our talking for the rest of the day. It's one of the best habit we can have, if we want to. We must remember that a man's words will always express what has been stored in his heart.

I believe that if we are practising such habit then we will improve our well being, thus will improve our resiliency. Healthy medical students will produce healthy future medical doctors. Healthy medical doctors will result in better treatment for patients, and eventually it will make healthier society. Think, think and think!

reference

1. Hal Urban (2004). Positive Words, Powerful Results. Fireside Book, Simon & Schuster; New York.

The Power of Words

A careless word may kindle strife.

A cruel word may wreck a life.

A bitter word may hate instill.

A brutal word may smite and kill.

A gracious word may smooth the way.

A joyous word may light the day.

A timely word may lessen stress.

A loving word may heal and bless.

As medical personals we must remember, words that come out from our mouth have the power to destroy or heal. When words are both true and kind, they can positively influence our care and treatment on our patients. Thus, we have to use positive words when communicating with our patients. The question is when we have to learn it? the answer is we have to learn this important skills during our undergraduate medical training. Hopefully it will help us to maintain our level of professionalism and well being. Positive words may lessen stress, enhance our well being, and may improve patient care. Every word that we speak is a chance to change what is bad into something good.

"WORDS MAKE US HUMAN"

reference

1. Hal Urban (2004). Positive Words, Powerful Results. Fireside Book, Simon & Schuster; New York.

What Determines Focus & Assertiveness?

Every behavior has a purpose, or an intent, that the behavior is trying to fulfill. People engage in behaviors based on their intent, and do what they do based on what seems to be most important in any given moment. Four general intents have been identified that determine how we will behave in any given situation or circumstance, these four intents are:

1. Get the task done

2. Get the task right

3. Get along with people

4. Get appreciation from peole

Just as we choose what to wear from a variety of clothing styles, so we choose from a variety of behaviors that are situationally dependent. We may have a favourite shirt or pair of pants, an we may also have a behavioral style that we prefer. But rather than having one behavioral style all the time, our behavior changes as our priorities change. We may find it helpful to identify these four intents in ourselves, and recognize their connection to our own behavior in various types of situations. This will make us easier to observe and understand in others.

"AS OUR INTENT CHANGES, SO DOES OUR BEHAVIOR"

reference:

1. Dr Rick Brinkman & Dr Rick Kirschner (1994). Dealing With People You Cant Stand. McGraw-Hill.

Dealing with The 10 Most Unwanted List

You may agree or disagree with this or that person about who's the difficult person and who is not. 10 specific behavior paterns have been identified that sane people resort to when they feel threatened or thwarted, that represent their struggle with or withdrawal from undesired circumstances. Here are the 10 difficult behaviors that represent normal people at their worst (Understanding their behaviors may help medical students or medical doctors deal with them).

1. The Tank: The Tank is confrotational, pointed, and angry, the ultimate is pushy and agrresive behavior.

2. The Sniper: whether through rude comments, bitting sarcasm, or a well-timed roll of the eyes, making you look foolish is The Sniper's specialty.

3. The Grenade: after a brief period of calm, The Grenade explodes into unfocused ranting and raving about things that have nothing to do with the present circumstances.

4. The Know-It-All: seldom in doubt, The Know-It-All has a low tolerance for correction and contradiction. If something goes wrong, however, The Know-It-All will speak with the same authority about who's to blame-you.

5. The-Think-They-Know-It-All: Think-They-Know-It-Alls can't fool all the people all of the time, but they can fool some of the people enough of the time, and enough of the people all of the time-all for the sake of getting some attention.

6. The Yes Person: in an effort to please people and avoid confrontation, Yes People say "yes" without thinking things through. They react to the latest demands on their time by forgetting prior commitments, and overcommit until they have no time for themselves. Then they become recentful.

7. The Maybe Person: in a moment of decision, the Maybe Person procrastinates in the hope that a better choice will present itself. Sadly, with most decisions, there comes a point when it is too little, too late, and the decision makes itself.

8. The Nothing Person: no verbal feedback, no nonverbal feedback. Nothing. What else could you expect from... The Nothing Person.

9. The No Person: more deadly to morale than a speeding bullet, more powerful than hope, able to defeat big ideas with a single syllable. Disguised as a mild mannered normal person, the No Person fights a never ending battle for futility, hopelessness, and despair.

10. The Whiner: Whiners feel helpless, and overwhelmed by an unfair world. Their standard is perfection, and no one and nothing measures up to it. But misery loves company, so they bring their problems to you. Offering solutions makes you bad company, so their whining escalates.

These are the difficult people who most people cant' stand working with it, talking with, and dealing with. But if we are fed up with laziness, frustrated by bullies, disappointed in human nature, and tired of losing, don't upset or despair. Instead, remember that when dealing with difficult people, we always have a choice. In fact, we have 4 choices:

1. We can stay and do nothing.

2. We can vote with our feet.

3. We can change our attitude about our difficult person.

4. We can change our behavior.

It is up to us how we want to deal with them!

reference:

1. Dr Rick Brinkman & Dr Rick Kirschner (1994). Dealing With People You Cant Stand. McGraw-Hill.

Nurturing the Art of Resiliency

The most empowering finding in resliliency-psychology research is that we have an inborn predisposition to become resilient and change-proficient. Our resiliency can be nurtured through appropriate methods such as:

• remain calm under pressure, bounce back from setbacks, and avoid resiliency fatigue.


• improve our problem-solving skills by using 3 different methods; analytical, creative, and practical.


• keep a playful sense of humor, optimism, and positive feeling during difficult times.


• break free from inner barrier to resiliency by strengthening our inner "selfs" in healthy ways and overcoming the "good child" handicap.


• overcome tendencies to feel like a victim, and stay detached from "victim" reactions to others.


• appreciate our complex qualities such as selfish-unselfishness, optimitics-pessimism, and cooperative-nonconformity.


• develop our unique way of being resilient by being both self-reliant and socially responsible.


• discover how our natural desire to learn is what leads to our life getting better and better.


• become skillful at having things work well for ourselves and others.


• convert misfortune into good fortune.


• master the art of resiliency.

Our resiliency strengths come from self-motivated, self-directed learning, self-managed efforts to develop resiliency skills. Some people who hear or read about ways to become more resilient mistakenly think that the power lies in the recommended method. Just as a can opener doesn't open cans by itself, reading about resiliency skills doesn't make a person resilient. Resiliency comes from deciding to learn good skills for bouncing back from setbacks and working to have things turn out well. Our intention to develop resiliency methods that work for ourselves is what determines our success or failure.

reference:

1. Al Siebert (2005). The Resiliency Advantages: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back From Setbacks. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publisher INC.

The Resiliency - It is Hard to do but Worth the Effort

Resiliency refer to the ability to:

• cope well with high levels of ongoing disruptive change
• sustain good health and energy when under constant pressure
• bounce back easily from setbacks
• overcome adversities
• change to a new way of working and living when an old way no longer possible
• do all this without acting in dysfunctional or harmful ways.

When resilient people have their lives distrupted they handled their feelings in healthy ways. They allow themselves to feel grief, sad, anger, loss and confusion when hurt and distressed, but they don't let it become a permanent feeling state. An unexpected outcome is that they not only heal, they often bounce back stronger than before. This is why resilient people usually handle major difficulties and disaster easier than other. They rebuild their distrupted lives in a new way that works for them, and the struggle to overcome adversity develops new strengths in them.

Resilience is more important than ever in today's world. The volatile and chaotic period we are going through will not end soon. To sustain a good life for yourself and your family, you must be much more resilient than people had to be in the past. People with resiliency skills have a significant advantage over those who feel helpless or react like victims.

Resiliency is an essential skills in every job sector such as professional services; doctors, lawyers and etc, especially during times of turmoil. It is important to understand that when we are hit with life-distrupting events, we will never be the same again. We either cope or we crumble; We become better or bitter; we emerge stronger or weaker. It is up to us how we want to take it either in a positive way or in a negative way. We have to remember that it is not the strongest people will survive, it is not the most intelligence people will survive, but it is the people who are responsive to change will survive.

reference

1. Al Siebert (2005). The Resiliency Advantages: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back From Setbacks. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publisher INC.

Thrive Under Pressure

How do we respond to extreme stress and pressure? How do we respond to difficult moment? We react to the life's setbacks in many different ways. Some emotionally explode. We become enraged and flail around. We have emotional tantrums in which we may want to hurt someone. A few of us become physically violent.

Some of us do the opposite. We implode. We go numb. We feel so helpless and overwhelmed we can't even try to cope with what has happened.

Some of us potray ourselves as victims. We blame others for ruining our lives. We spiral downward, mired in unhappy thoughts and feelings. "This isn't fair," we complain over and over. "Look at what they've done to me now."

Then, there is another group, the people who get through their distress, orient quickly to the new reality, and cope with immediate challenges. They bounce back and often spiral upward, stronger and better than before. In the workplace, they convert what could be a major career difficulties into finding an even better career achievement and growth.

Highly resilient people are flexible, adapt to a new circumstances quickly, and thrive in constant change. Most importantly, they expect to bounce back and feel confident they will. They have a knack for creating good luck out of circumstance that many others see as bad luck.

In the past, individuals had to learn how to become resilient on their own. Now the new science of resiliency psychology can show us how to become quickly and easily resilient in a way that fits our world. Research into coping, optimism, hardiness, stress-resistance, post-traumatic growth, creativity, emotional intelligence, and the survivor personality has been identified as the main attributes of resiliency. We can learn how to use knowledge gained from the latest psychology research to develop our unique way of being resilient. Resilient people are the people who can thrive under pressure.

reference

1. Al Siebert (2005). The Resiliency Advantages: Master Change, Thrive Under Pressure, and Bounce Back From Setbacks. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publisher INC.

Financial Intelligence

It was very uncommon for medical schools teach their medical students how to manage their money once they get some from their work as doctors in the future. Do our medical students ready and competence enough to manage their income? Can financial intelligence be taught and help them to be better doctors in the future? Why is so important for medical students to be financially competence? Does it relevance to medical students? Why i'm so concerned about this because I believe that by being financially competence, it promotes well-being of future medical doctors (this is another skill that we medical teachers have to look for). How does it promotes well-being of future doctors? The answer is very straight forward, everyone on the earth need money, thus, by managing your money intelligently you can minimise your money lost and you will maximize profits from your income. In other hand, if you are financially intelligence then you can let your money work for you and they generate extra income to your pocket. While you are treating patients your money generating income to your bank account. Does it sound interesting! I believe if doctors have enough money to support their family and themselves, they will treat patients full-heartedly without worrying about money. However, now it is not like that, it is another way around, perhap that is the reason why doctor are stressed, demotivated and not treating their patients well. May be one of the ways to overcome this problem is to teach our medical students about financial intelligence during their medical training. Hopefully with it we can produce better future doctors, not only they have good clinical skills but they are also know how to manage their money intelligently. Let's think about this together. If it is useful and feasible why don't we try it out and let see what is the students feedback about it.

Outcomes of Emotional Quotient

Studies concerning EQ have been reported from Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Although they are vary widely in their quality, they include a number of individually well-done and convincing demonstrations of the predictive power of EQ. Accumulating findings suggest EQ may predict important outcomes in several areas as below:

1. Better relations for children. Among children and adolescents, EQ positively correlates with good social relation and negatively correlate with correlates with social deviance, measure both in and out of school as reported by children themselves, their family members and their teachers.

2. Better social relations for adult. Among adults, higher EQ leads to greater self-perception of social competence and less use of destructive interpersonal strategies.

3. High EQ individuals are perceived more positively by others. Others perceive high EQ individuals as more pleasant to be around, more empathic, and more socially adroit than those low in EQ.

4. Better family and intimate relationships. EQ is correlated to some aspects of family and intimate relationships as reported by self and others.

5. Better academic achievement. EQ is correlated with higher academic achievement as reported by teachers, but generally not with higher grades once IQ is taken into account.

6. Better social relation during work. EQ is correlated with more positive performance outcomes and negotiation outcomes in the laboratory, and also with more success at work, according to some preliminary research.

7. Better psychological well being. EQ is correlated with greater life satisfaction and self-esteem and lower rating of depression. It also is correlated with fewer negative physical and behaviour.

EQ, validly measured, is a predictor of significant outcomes across diverse samples in a number of real world domains. It predicts social relations, workplace performance, and mental and physical well-being.


Reference:

1. Mayer J.D. , Roberts R.D. & Barsade S.G. (in press). Emerging Research In Emotional Intelligence, Annual Review of Psychology, 59.

Spiritual Quotient (SQ)

SQ (based on the brain's third neural system, the synchrounous neural oscillations that unify data across the whole brain) offer us a viable tertiary process for the first time. This process unifies, integrates and has potential to transform material arising from the IQ and EQ. It facilitates a dialogue between reason and emotion, between mind and body. It provides a fulcrum for growth and tranformation for a sustainability tommorow. It provides the self with an active, unifying, meaning-giving centre.

SQ is an internal and inner wisdom, innate ability of the human brain and psyche, drawing its deepest resources from the heart of the universe itself. SQ is the soul's intelligence. It is the intelligence with which we heal ourselves and with which we make ourselves whole. SQ is the intelligence that rest in the deep part of the self that is connected to wisdom from beyond the IQ, or concious mind, it is the intelligence with which we are not only recognize existing values, but with which we creatively discover new values. SQ has 'wired' us to become people we are and gives us potential for further 'rewiring' - for growth and transformation, for further evolution of our human potential. SQ is our compass 'at the edge'. 'The edge' is the border between order and chaos, between knowing comfortably what we are about and being totally lost. It is the place where we can be at our most creative. SQ, our deep, intuitive sense of meaning and value, is our guide 'at the edge'. SQ is our conscience, it take us to understanding of who we are and what things mean to us, and how these give others and their meaning a place in our own world.

Realizing the important of SQ, future medical doctors should take some of their time to learn how to nurture and develop their SQ properly. With appropriate level of SQ they will be better and good doctors. If we fail to develop our SQ, actually we plan to ruin ourselves. Think about it and let us transforming ourselves into a sustainable tommorow.

Reference

1. Danah Zohar & Ian Marshall (2000). SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence, Bloombury, New York.