In Preparation for the Renaming of IM

Today, 15th May 2010, is not only the last day for the semester's examination, it is also a busy day for some IM students, some lecturers and as well as the Assistant Registrars. This is because they have to act for the cameraman or to instruct the students what to do. The video will be used during the day of renaming IM. Below are the pictures taken in IM.

I like the view.

The chairs were arranged as precise as they could be!

One of the acting scene! It's in the CCS room.

Another scene, in CPR room.

Cameramen!

Notice the dummy? Matty could blink, breath and shoot blood! Interesting equipment.

Ahh... Matty could show heart rate and blood pressure on the screen as well!

Students were preparing for the PBL scene. First year students only! Notice, our beloved Kenny is in there!

An interesting group photo.

The scene in the PBL room.

Enjoying in the spot light!

The guys~

Now, it's the laboratory's turn! It's for the first year biomedics.

It's has been a long time since I use this instrument.

Amazing, I could use my camera to take a picture through the eye piece of the microscope!

And another one.

Ah... Working hard to show what IM is really about!

Nice smile you three!

Spot the lecturer!

To all IM's students, congrates on finishing the exam and enjoy the holiday~

IM in the news

In the efforts to promote UBD, particularly the medical programme offered by IM, a series of articles have been published recently in the Borneo Bulletin. Below are the articles:

[Dated 06 February 2009]
Institute Of Medicine To Open New Building With More Programmes
By Sonia K

Bandar Seri Begawan - As Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) is reviewing its undergraduate programmes, the Institute of Medicine (IM) at UBD will not only be offering just one bachelor programme but will be adding another masters programme as well as getting a new building this year.

From August this year, IM will be offering a Bachelor of Health Science where students will have a choice to major one of four — Medicine, Biomedical Science, Nursing and Midwifery.

On top of that, the masters programme that IM will be offering besides Masters in Primary Healthcare, is Masters in Public Health.

According to the Dean of the Institute of Medicine, Dr Anita Aziz, the new masters programme will be open to doctors, nurses and allied professionals or to anyone in the health industry.

She said that IM will also be offering few diploma programmes such as Diploma in Nursing, Diploma in Midwifery and Advanced Diploma in Nursing/Midwifery.

For the Advanced Diploma in Nursing and Midwifery, there will be 11 specialties to choose from such as mental health, midwifery or surgery.

"In addition, students can have a lot of options from a variety of courses which will give them more adaptability and flexibility. It has been developed to keep on par with the rapid changing world out there and we want our students to be better equipped, so that they can evolve together with the changing needs of the society," she added.

IM will also be changing its style of teaching, as it will be more student-centric.

"Students will be doing their own research so they will know how to obtain the necessary knowledge and resources. Apart from mediciné, students taking the three other majors will be spending up to a year abroad (Discovery Year), studying or probably doing some placements abroad," Dr Anita said.

The students will have the option of where to spend their third year, either at hospitals abroad or other universities or even labs, organisations and companies, before coming back to UBD to finish their degree.

Therefore, currently, IM is in talks and negotiations with other universities for the third year abroad programme.

As the institute is proactively looking for ties, it is quite attracted to those who can confer a diploma or related degrees, when the students spend their third year abroad.

As for the medical students, on the other hand, they will have to spend three years at the Institute of Medicine and graduate with an ordinary degree in health science. And then they will have to spend another three years abroad, where they will graduate with a medical degree, coming back as doctors.

IM currently has partnered with medical schools in the UK, Australia and Canada.

According to Dr Anita, IM now has 20 lecturers, ranging from senior lecturers to professors and associate professors.

"The bulk of our teaching staff is actually expatriates. They come from various parts of the world in various fields with different expertise," she added.

As for the Institute of Medicine's new building, they are hoping to move in sometime in April this year.

It has state-of-the-art teaching and research labs, seminar and tutorial rooms and two lecture theatres. Also included in the new building are areas for communication and ethical skills, as well as a reading room for students to study. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

[Dated 07 February 2009]
Future Docs Visit UBD's Institute Of Medicine
By Narissa Noor

Bandar Seri Begawan - UBD's Institute of Medicine (IM) is opening more windows of opportunity for young aspiring doctors to realise their dreams and this time the dream is much closer to home.

A group of Maktab Sains Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan and Maktab Duli Pengiran Muda Al-Mutitadee Billah students took a glimpse of their future recently as they toured the new facilities which they hoped is where they will spend their next three years.

Eagerly a waiting to fill in their applications, these students could be accepted into IM to pursue a Bachelor of Health Science with a major in either Medicine, Biomedical Science Nursing or Midwifery.

Fadhil Abdullah, an 18-year-old from Maktab Duli, hopes to become a general surgeon one day and sees UBD as the best route to get there. "UBD is where I want to go and getting in will be a golden opportunity for me," he remarked adding that the Discovery Year will be an added plus.

UBD medical students spend three years at the IM, graduating with a degree in Health Science before doing a further three years abroad to pursue their medical degree. Meanwhile, students of the other three majors will be able to benefit from the newly launched Discovery Year - one year in universities, hospitals or even organisations abroad.

Aspiring orthopaedist Syaahidah from Maktab Sains grew up thinking that being a doctor is the greatest job in the world. The feeling never went away. The 19-yearold thought she'd end up abroad but said, "I saw what UBD has to offer and was surprised. I realised that UBD is just as good as any other university I would have chosen."

Meanwhile, Hui from MD admits to being fickle. "I wanted to become everything from a doctor to a lawyer to an accountant and a businesswoman," she quipped. "I've finally decided on medicine because I love biology and at the end of the day I have to do something that I love," added the 19-year-old.

According to senior lecture Dr Zaw Wint, IM students are expected to have, by the end of their programme, patient care, examination and communication skills, extensive knowledge of the cardiovascular and neurological system and basic life support skills.

"The qualities of the students we are producing here at UBD are of a high standard with a benchmark from the St George's Medical School," he asserted.

Fifteen recent IM graduates from the first cohort have since moved on to pursue their medical degree in Australia, Canada and the UK.

Since the appointment of Dr Zulkamain Hanafi as Vice Chancellor of UBD, the university's structure and programmes, including those within IM, have seen a huge transformation, which has received both commendation and criticism.

However, in a recent interview with the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Western Australia whose effort to review and consolidate UWA programmes have proved successful, Don Markwell had nothing but praise for the initiative.

"The view that educational leaders have around the world, in a world of rapid change and global forces is that we need to refresh the balance between the breadth that students have and the depth of their specialisation so that they can be equipped to live and work successfully in such an environment.

"The world changes and universities need to change what we offer our students to ensure that it remains highly relevant to the world as it is becoming," said Markwell who believes that a broader educational base and greater professional maturity is a necessary step in pursuing a professional career. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

IM Open House 2008

This year, the theme is Blueish Green and celebrated at the Female Residential College Hall to fit in the growing IM Family. Enjoy the pictures

Dk Dr Nurol and student

IM Staff wearing blue and green

Posing on the stage

Year 1 students singing performance
(Nice..they even dance...)

Group photo

Taking picture with the Face of UBD (Mo)

Year 1 with Mo

Guys with Mo

Matun with Mo

Staff with Mo
The bluish green people

Purple and pink team

Healthy Heart Day at UBD

MOE Healthy Heart Day in conjunction with World Health Day 2008. Here are a few pictures

Doing Yoga

Leading the Warming up session

Doing aerobic

During briefing

Treadmill Area

I will be back for more!!!

Congratulation to Dr Zulkarnain

Congratulation to our NEW Vice-Chancellor of UBD, Dr Haji Zulkarnain Hj Hanafi (our ex-IM Dean/co-founder of IM)

THE new Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Brunei Darussalam aims to make the university the institution of first choice of the people of Brunei Darussalam. We all will support you in making this possible!

For more visit here

Netball Friendly match

Interesting play. The kids from FBEBs are nice too. Very talented. But I think IM team manage to score alot. The real superstar in the first rounds are the two birthday girls (Fiza and As) and not forgetting Syukri (who always catch the ball on time) and Kenny (who scores!) First round is 6 to 1 goal. That is 6 goals for IM....yeah!!!! But after that I forgot...Anyone remembers? keke... enjoy the pics

Meet the ..BLOGGERS!!!....

So at last, the IM bloggers held a lunch gathering at Mamih today and discussed further how to improve and maintain this site. IM Family Blog has reached ONE year old!

Here are some pictures and intro of all our blogger for your reading pleasure.

Maria was the founder of the IM Family blogspot. Initially she started this site for her personal blog and ended up writing mostly about IM. Therefore, she changed the title and one year later, another 5 more members joined in to make the blog more interesting.

Haiza is a Lecturer at IM. She was a member of the IM Blogger team since April 2008. Welcome Haiza! She has her camera ready in her handbag all the time. So please beware everyone! Hehe. Do get ready those pretty smiles! A netball freak and she likes to joke and laugh a lot!!

Nadiah is from the very first cohort of Health Science/Medicine. Just finished her final year exams at I.M UBD, she joined the IM family blogger circle because we're like family here! A avid blog hopper in her free time and this is one of the many blogs she contributes to and will be updating! She loves all the IM-mers (staff and students) and will miss them greatly!

Izyan, one of the girls in the second batch. She's about to enter her final year in IM. She enjoys reading novels and watching TV in her free time (which is only during the holidays come to think of it =p) She loves the family environment in IM and likes to check the blog regularly for any news from everyone.

Emma, one of the third batch to join the exclusive IM family, is an internet junkie and likes to cuddle up with a good book. She enjoys blogging for this blogsite tremendously.. :) She likes the color pink... hehe...

Zeti, is the newest member of the blog team. She just joined IM family 6 months ago...Zeti loves all sorts of sport especially running.....True fact about her; she never blogs! So this is a new thing for her... One thing she loves the most...taking photograph (especially candid photos..)...

So now you know who we are. if you have any story or photos to contribute, please contact any one of us at red.institute@gmail.com or approach any one of us.

Keep visiting for more!!!

IM Building

IM Building nearly finishing. Hopefully it will meet its due date, ie, by next year August. Finding rooms for lectures and PBL classes have been difficult, especially when the new courses are coming in. Here are some pics.

Special offer - HP for a Tablet PC

This offer will be available on 28th April 2008 during the School Leaders National Conference 2008 and will be available till 2nd May 2008. Please refer the attached flyer for more information.

This offer will be available only for the Students, Teachers and permanent staff of the UBD and the Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise License will be offered under the Academic Select Agreements which are already in place for these entities.

Anybody who require more information can call our office on 2341862 or email to arjuna@techdisti.com .

What students think of IM ver 2

Hope this will be very helpful to all of you who are interested to join in the family.

What students think of IM?

IM is a very close-knit community. Being a very young and small faculty, many of us know each other, and almost all the lecturers and staff members know us by names. It has a very good staff-student ratio, allowing small group teaching. I particularly enjoy the learning system adopted in IM. It encourages us to do our self-study and research during SDL, which then stimulates healthy group discussions in PBL.

How do you find out about IM?

I first heard about IM when the BHSc/MBBS course was advertised on the newspaper back in 2005.

Can you describe one whole sentence about your program?

A pragmatic programme, with emphasis on clinical knowledge and skills, always striving to train us to become good doctors in the future.

How do you survive Mini Medical Interview / OSEI? Tips for passing OSEI.

OSEI is a formal interview just to check that you are really into doing Medicine. As long as you have the passion in Medicine, and you are ready to commit yourself into the life of a medical student and doctor, they will pass you for sure. Just be yourself and let your personality shine. But one thing, just speak…whatever your opinion is, but do be reasonable. It might be very intimidating as you may think the examiners are all doctors, specialists or scientists, but they are just like any other people out there. For just that day, treat them like friends – I’m sure they are not there to fail you. They are there to pass you. At the end of the day, remember to smile.

What is Problem Based Learning / PBL?

PBL is a way of learning which involves a simulated clinical case. So at the beginning of the week, you will be given a case scenario, say Mr X who is 20years old came in to A&E with a cough. So from that, your team of people will have to hypothesise and discuss issues around that. For example, you have to know the anatomy, histology and physiology of the respiratory system; the mechanism of cough; types of chest infections, etc. It is therefore an integrated system of learning, which unlike medical schools before, we will have to cover all the disciplines of health sciences in a week – relevant to the case. The mode of learning is self-directed learning (SDL), with some lectures (2 or 3) and large group sessions (LGS)…then as a group, we will discuss what we have all read up on the learning issues that we have identified from the case triggers.

How does PBL change your way of study?

I am not a person who is very much into didactic lectures. So PBL suits the way I study, as I have the freedom to do self-study and research at my own time – which means that it is highly flexible. In a way, it is training me in speaking in the “medical language” when we have discussions, rather than just absorbing the knowledge and regurgitating them during examinations.

Did you take Physics/Biology in high school? How does that help you in surviving BHSc Health Science?

Well, I was in the Science stream throughout high school and in college, I took Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics. Having some background knowledge in Biology does help in a way – in first year particularly, when we go through the basic health sciences. Nevertheless, not taking Biology in A Levels does not mean you can’t be a medical student. Indeed, I know some friends who are doing well in medical school and some great doctors/specialists who didn’t do Biology then.

What do you like best about IM?

I must say it is the group of people I study and work with in IM. IM’s staffs are very friendly and helpful.

By Jonathan Lim
Third Year BHSc Health Science / Medical Student


I am still waiting from the Second year students...hint..hint...hehe

BSM Walk-a-hunt 2007

Walking towards Taman SOAS at 7am in the morning, I saw people wearing Green T-shirts lining up for an early registration. It coincide with the theme this year 'we care for our environment'. Saw lots of familiar faces and found a few IM staff joining the venture. Dr Charles, Kenny, Zeti, Husma and As are a few of them. Maudena, our previous AR was also seen in the scenery with her sister. Started of with a 'funny' aerobic session, the hunt started exactly at 8.15am. The members are expected to answer questions found in Yayasan Complex and The Mall Gadong. In addition solving the mystery treasures and completed 2 missions. Challenging but lots of fun. Well, I think so. The lucky winner will fly to Dubai in business class! Wow! Did I forgot to mentioned that this is a charity event?! Good luck to everyone. The result will be announce next week. Can't wait.

Pictures taken from anakbrunei.org



My Lucky number (*cross fingers*..hehe..)