I would suggest not to come to Duke-NUS Medical School if you want to practice in the United States, Canada, or in Australia.
Last year, one of the Duke-NUS seniors received an offer to work in the United States after completing her residency in the U.S. Despite the $500K bond with Ministry of Health (MOH), she accepted the job offer and did not choose to go back to Singapore to practice. After this incidence, MOH changed their policy. Now, they no longer allow people to apply for residency right after the completion of medical school. Everyone will need to stay at least one year in Singapore to work as a House Office. After which, you may apply for residency (whether it is in Singapore or other countries). However, each year, they will only allow 2 people to do residency outside of Singapore.
They are now making it extremely difficult for people to apply for residency in the United States. You will need to be top 10% of the class. Each class has about 60 students. This means that you will need to be one of the top 6 students among your classmates, which is difficult. Majority of the tests are designed by Singaporean clinicians. Most of the questions require rote memorization. Not much critical thinking involved. Singaporeans are trained to be good with rote memorization. Therefore, people who are among the top 6 are typically Singaporeans.
It is also difficult to get a residency spot in Singapore. This year, about 30 people out of a class of 60 students applied. Only 50% of those that applied received offers. Most people will be doing Family Medicine. MOH is advocating junior doctors and medical students to take up residency spots in Family Medicine. They want more family physicians and less specialists. So, if you are aiming to become a specialist, it will also be a long and difficult process.
Another thing that I will point out is the school typically let the students fill out survey on student mistreatment during year 1. However, most of the mistreatments take place during clinical rotations. The worst rotation block is pediatrics. Its program coordinator is Loh Tsee Foong. He tends to target international students and Singaporeans who have studied overseas. He is a locally trained Singaporean clinician.
Once you are targeted by him, he will start a process to set you up. He silences student who tries to speak up. He has connection in the hospital and at Duke-NUS Medical School. He will make sure that the students get disciplinary actions and forces the students to be in a position to be targeted and bullied by other clinical faculties (including administrative staffs and clinicians at Duke-NUS). His aim is to slowly crush the person’s self-esteem by having the clinician staffs to severely and constantly scold and question the student’s caliber and identity. The clinical staff will ask very personal question about the student and send the report to the program coordinator. He will take the autonomy and independence out of the students. Every single decision and move that the student make will need him or the administrative staff’s approval. The administrative staff at Duke-NUS Medical School will ask the students to see a psychiatrist. The whole process is mental manipulation through emotional and verbal abuses. Yes, there are a lot of reports of bullying in medical community. However, this is a whole another level from bullying. This is mental manipulation or brainwashing. The aim of the process is to break the person’s self-esteem down so that the person conforms to their rules and submits to their authority. The only way to pass the rotation is to submit to this program coordinator’s mistreatment and submit to his authority. Most people who endured his mistreatments were too scared to speak up. Sadly, clinical staffs and administrative staffs at Duke-NUS Medical School are also part of the process. Students are not safe or protected.
What the leaders in the Singapore medical community want are skilled workers who do not question their authority. Singapore is not like the United States, Canada, or Australia. It is not democratic. People here believe in hierarchy and authoritarianism. Human rights are not their top priority. Depending on how successful the process of brainwashing is, the person will end up starting to agree and think alike as their Singaporean colleagues and teachers. The person becomes afraid to speak up and start to doubt themselves. This leads to conformity. But, for certain students, self-doubt and damaged self-esteem can lead to depression. This can also lead to the beginning of another cycle of bullying. For the ones who are bullied, sometimes become a bully themselves.
Regardless of what the root cause of this type of behavior is, bullying is wrong. Silencing people and making sure that the wrongdoings of clinicians are not known to the public is also wrong. People need to know what is happening in the community. Students should be able to learn and study in a safe and nurturing environment.
