Penang Members Conferring June 2019

 

 

Welcome to …

 

President/ CEO, RCSI UCD Malaysia Campus

Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, RCSI

Dean, Perdana University and RCSI School of Medicine

Excellency’s, Academic Colleagues, Examiners, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

 

And especially to our new RCSI Fellows and Members – those awarded the FRCSI, MRCSI and MRCS (ENT). It is my pleasure to preside over this conferring ceremony and welcome you and your families here today.

This ceremony is fitting recognition of the hard work and commitment that you have shown in your studies, training and practice over the last number of years. All of the platform party and RCSI staff understand the mental and physical challenges required to be awarded an RCSI Fellowship or Membership.

 

The Fellowship and Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons are prestigious, internationally recognized qualifications and quality standards. Holding one of these qualifications demonstrates to colleagues, peers, and employers a surgeon’s knowledge, clinical skills and commitment to his or her practice. Your FRCSI, MRCSI or MRCS (ENT) recognises your ability to use your intellectual knowledge and critical thinking in the clinical setting, skills which will be vital for the successful surgical careers that lie ahead for you. These professional qualifications and awards also open up a world of wonderful opportunity as you set out on an exciting journey which will allow you to continue your surgical training or practice in surgical specialties and sub-specialties throughout the world.

 

Today we also acknowledge your families who have supported you during your years of training and practice. We understand that they have made many sacrifices to support your career and rightly are also proud of your achievements to date.

 

Medicine today however faces many challenges and it is certain that all of you will work in increasingly complex health care environments where you will need to use all of the skills that you have gained during you training. Doctors of the future will need to be adaptive to the constant expansion of medical knowledge, changes in technology and medicines and increased patient and societal expectations in addition to regulatory change; all of which require a commitment to life-long learning and an ability to adapt to the changing world that we live in. The awards presented here today will give you a solid foundation to continue on this exciting journey.

 

For many of our membership awardees, it is likely that your most difficult challenge initially will be to select what career path you should choose among the diverse specialties that exist within surgery. Having already made this decision earlier in their careers, our Fellows must work to strike a balance between managing their own professional development and contributing to the training of more junior surgical colleagues.  

   

To support you in such journeys and manage the challenges all healthcare professionals face we would not only encourage you to maintain the strong links you now have with RCSI but we would also encourage you to form close bonds with those you work with, as increasingly in the health sciences, there will be an emphasis on team working which requires the ability to communicate effectively, demonstrate leadership and acquire an understanding of the working of the healthcare management and the administrative structures in which you will work.  It is also increasingly apparent that no healthcare system can fully support all the healthcare needs of society so it is important to be an advocate for not only each of your patients but it is also important to understand the broader societal needs in the communities you will work in and use the medical resources at your disposal carefully.

 

Despite the challenges facing health care services throughout the world the basis of all medical practice is empathy which is the ability to understand and share the feeling of others. This must form the basis of your medical practice even when working in difficult circumstances.

 

Today is also a time to acknowledge the commitment of the teachers and trainers who taught and supported you over the last number of years. It is their endeavours that have given you the skills to practice medicine and will allow you to make a significant contribution to the well-being of the communities in which you will work. RCSI is rightly proud of our ambition to develop healthcare leaders who make a difference worldwide; this is our ambition for you as Fellows and Members of this College.

 

In pursuit of this goal, we at RCSI are working continuously to improve our exams offering. With regard to the MRCS, our College constantly strives to support our examination candidates and to provide them with the resources necessary to meet this exacting standard. Candidates are provided with preferential access to online revision tools and core textbooks; we have developed a suite of video tutorials to help candidates ready themselves for all parts of the exam, and; we also now offer an MRCS Part B OSCE preparation course in Ireland, Bahrain and Malaysia.

 

During the last five years, we have seen very significant growth in the number of surgeons attempting examinations with RCSI. We have had record candidate numbers across all our centres, both at home and overseas. Today we graduate 4 doctors with MRCSI certificates, 1 doctor with an MRCS in ENT and 1 doctor with an FRCSI certificate. You will add to the growing body of RCSI Fellows and Members who practice around the globe and we look forward to your contribution to the RCSI Fellows and Members who are already making a difference worldwide and of who we are so rightly proud.

 

At this time I would like to acknowledge colleagues both from Ireland and Malaysia who play a key role in the co-ordination and management of our overseas examinations. Firstly, I must thank the Dean of the RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus here in Penang, JSCFE Examiner and Fellow of RCSI, Prof Prem Nagalingam without whose support our MRCS examinations in Malaysia could not take place. I would like to acknowledge our Associate Director for International Programmes, Mr Paul Nolan, who plays a key strategic role in the Department of Surgical Affairs in relation to all of our overseas activities. Sincere thanks also to Professors Stephen Doughty and David Whitford and other colleagues at the RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus in Penang for supporting arrangements for today’s conferring. I am aware that this is a busy weekend so their facilitation of this event is much appreciated.

 

Finally, let me congratulate again our new RCSI Fellow and Members and acknowledge the support of your families. I wish you every success in your personal and professional lives and I am confident that passing these milestones in your career will equip you well for the challenges you will encounter in your further training and future careers.