[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/why-senior-doctors-and-healthcare-administrators-should-follow-doctor-meme-pages\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/why-senior-doctors-and-healthcare-administrators-should-follow-doctor-meme-pages\/","headline":"Why senior doctors and healthcare administrators should follow doctor meme pages","name":"Why senior doctors and healthcare administrators should follow doctor meme pages","description":"The year 2022 began on a rather hopeful note for Singaporean doctors. Their trials and tribulations have finally surfaced in the national broadsheet. The Straits Times had highlighted the issues junior doctors face, publishing articles such as \u201cIt may be time to review junior doctors 30-hour shifts\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cMy brain kind of stops functioning: Long working hours […]","datePublished":"2022-03-21","dateModified":"2022-04-15","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/victoria-marie-er\/#Person","name":"Victoria-Marie Er","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/victoria-marie-er\/","identifier":319,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e86d0a8b79222bbed91e2b70dd7712cee30ace97d90f46cba7f2d57ec226c9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e86d0a8b79222bbed91e2b70dd7712cee30ace97d90f46cba7f2d57ec226c9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Source-updatemeprn-Instagram_Featured-Image.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Source-updatemeprn-Instagram_Featured-Image.jpg","height":900,"width":1600},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/why-senior-doctors-and-healthcare-administrators-should-follow-doctor-meme-pages\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg","name":"Taylor Swift - Blank Space","description":"Music video by Taylor Swift performing Blank Space. (C) 2014 Taylor Swift.\n\nStream\/download \u2018The Life of a Showgirl\u2019 - https:\/\/taylor.lnk.to\/TSTheLifeofaShowgirlYD\n\n\u25baShop Merch: http:\/\/taylor.lnk.to\/store\n\u25baSubscribe to Taylor Swift on YouTube: https:\/\/ts.lnk.to\/subscribe\n\n\u25baFollow Taylor Swift Online:\nTikTok: http:\/\/tiktok.com\/@taylorswift\nInstagram: http:\/\/instagram.com\/taylorswift\nTwitter: http:\/\/twitter.com\/taylorswift13\nSnapchat: http:\/\/snapchat.com\/add\/taylorswift\nFacebook: http:\/\/facebook.com\/taylorswift\nTumblr: http:\/\/taylorswift.tumblr.com\nWebsite: http:\/\/www.taylorswift.com\n\n\u25baFollow Taylor Nation Online:\nTikTok: http:\/\/tiktok.com\/@taylornation\nInstagram: http:\/\/instagram.com\/taylornation\nYouTube: https:\/\/youtube.com\/taylornation\nTwitter: http:\/\/twitter.com\/taylornation13\nTumblr: http:\/\/taylornation.tumblr.com\n\n#TaylorSwift #BlankSpace","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/e-ORhEE9VVg\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/e-ORhEE9VVg\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/e-ORhEE9VVg\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/e-ORhEE9VVg\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/e-ORhEE9VVg\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2014-11-10T17:05:44+00:00","duration":"PT4M33S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e-ORhEE9VVg","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCqECaJ8Gagnn7YCbPEzWH6g#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCqECaJ8Gagnn7YCbPEzWH6g","name":"Taylor Swift","description":"And, baby, that\u2019s show business for you. 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The Straits Times had highlighted the issues junior doctors face, publishing articles such as \u201cIt may be time to review junior doctors 30-hour shifts\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cMy brain kind of stops functioning: Long working hours leaving young doctors exhausted\u201d\u00a0in February 2022. These articles came in the heels of smaller independent news companies such as\u00a0The HomeGround Asia, which had highlighted the matter last year (2021).While the public\u2019s response was\u00a0largely sympathetic, the medical circles were divided. Several doctors who had already left public service for the private sector even wrote to the Forum editor of the newspaper, expressing their views.\u00a0Some highlighted that members of the public were\u00a0overzealous in insinuating that it was due to the medical community being \u201cresistant to change\u201d, while others continued to reinforce that\u00a0\u201cnight duty (is) an invaluable part of house officers\u2019 medical training\u201d\u00a0and hinted that such outcries on the plight that junior doctors faced were puzzling.\u00a0Dr Yik Keng Yeong, for one, said in his letter, dated 11 February, that this was a non-issue:\u00a0\u201cIt may sound worse than it really is. During my time as a house officer, even under the duress of stamina-sapping work hours, I don\u2019t remember any of us cracking under pressure.\u201dIn some closed medical Facebook groups, the same sentiments were shared by senior doctors and healthcare administrators, highlighting that their past experiences were worse, and called junior doctors partaking in such discourses \u201cshit-stirrers\u201d.\u00a0More explicitly, senior doctors in administrative positions began calling out popular doctor meme pages such as\u00a0@updatemeprn\u00a0for being troublemakers who only represent a small minority of disgruntled voices. After all, what can be learned from meme pages when\u00a0memes\u00a0themselves have traditionally been the Internet\u2019s medium to provide entertainment to digital natives.Memes: When art mirrors lifeFor the uninitiated,\u00a0the idea of memes was first introduced in 1976 by Richard Dawkin.\u00a0It was intended to express the idea of an \u201cideological counterpart to genes: like how a gene (such as for brown eyes) spreads through sexual selection and physical fitness, a meme (such as the idea that the earth orbits the sun) spreads through social selection and ideological fitness\u201d (McCulloh, 2019).The reference to memes on the Internet evolved to represent multimodal texts that were imitated\u00a0and then adapted. Each replication followed a template and could have multiple intertextual and indexical meanings.Contrary to popular belief that creators and consumers of memes are illiterate and silly beings, Canadian linguist and author of the book, \u201cBecause Internet: Understanding how language is changing\u201d Gretchen McCulloh highlights that meme creators and consumers needed some deep cultural understanding and technical know-how. More importantly, memes function to provide humour and is a means for creators to express their opinions and views on the Internet.The meme created by the On-Call Doctor has garnered 525 likes, and 11.1k views. It takes a scene from the popular Korean show, \u201cSquid Game\u201d, and contextualises it to their experience as doctors in the Singaporean system. Its creator borrows a popular hashtag, \u201c#HealthcareHero\u201d, referencing the nation\u2019s attempt to express gratitude for the many sacrifices that healthcare workers made during the pandemic, and even adds on a doodled stethoscope.The first panel of the meme expresses their sentiments as doctors \u2014 the energy and hopefulness they feel arriving to serve, and the second panel exemplifies the utter feeling of hopelessness and defeat when they \u201csee their list\u201d. It doesn\u2019t refer to the names of patients \u2014 it refers to the overwhelming number of patients under their care at the start of the day. It entails performing history-taking, doing all necessary checks and admissions before\u00a0the consultant arrives.\u00a0Medical officer David Yung says,\u00a0 \u201cIt isn\u2019t just about seeing all the patients on the list, but needing to be thorough and to know each of their stories inside out before the consultant arrives.\u201dRiding on the sensational moment between Edwin Tong and Pritam Singh, UMP highlights some of the struggles of junior doctors in their communication with healthcare administrators. (Source: @updatemeprn \/ Instagram)Another example tapped on Singapore\u2019s current affairs. The\u00a0classic moments between People\u2019s Action Party\u2019s (PAP) Edwin Tong and Workers Party\u2019s (WP) Pritam Singh sparring during the Committee of Privileges (COP) hearing\u00a0turned into\u00a0great material for meme creators, and the On-Call Doctor was no exception when it comes to making use of it.\u00a0The meme highlights the power asymmetry that junior doctors feel, which they believe is illustrated by the situation during COP. It also rides on the public\u2019s sentiment that Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong\u2019s \u201caccusatory style of questioning and explicit attempts to frame a particular narrative\u201d, was something that junior doctors similarly felt towards \u201cMaster M\u201d (i.e. Ministry of Health Holdings). The meme reinforces the message that the \u201cmaster\u201d is out of touch with the ground.Such memes, while entertaining, are also considered highly informative. They depict the doctor\u2019s mental state, their inner emotional experiences, and struggles. More importantly, the\u00a0number\u00a0of likes and engagement with the posts are highly revealing as they can be good indicators of what resonates with other doctors and healthcare workers, and can paint a pretty good picture of the sentiments felt by most of the juniors.Why are doctors running meme pages instead of going through official channels?While administrators and senior doctors wonder why run a seemingly silly page instead of\u00a0actually talking\u00a0to people who can make changes,\u00a0it is perhaps more helpful to examine the predominant beliefs about junior doctors today. If they truly believe that all junior doctors want to do their best and the patients are at the centre of all they do, then the assumption that junior doctors are \u201clazy\u201d, \u201centitled\u201d and \u201cshit-stirrers\u201d become mere labels.In 2021, The HomeGround Asia conducted a survey with junior doctors and it revealed some of the reasons why official channels are not a popular platform for feedback. The article states,\u00a0\u201cAll the doctors who submitted feedback indicate that the responses they received often fell into the following categories: accusations of personal inefficiency; manpower constraints; rerouting the doctors back to their own teams to settle it internally; and being told that it is \u201cpart and parcel\u201d of the job.\u201dSo if official channels were not working, why meme pages do then? The birth and following of UMPIt was on New Year\u2019s Eve in 2020 that @updatemeprn was created. The On-Call Doctor, more colloquially known as UMP,\u00a0 says that it was a day of mixed emotions: They were happy to get the day off \u2013 the first after a long time. They were also dreading work the next day because of the long list of patients and lack of manpower.UMP says, \u201cI was finishing up my [redacted] posting, and was feeling so crappy because I could not take any Annual Leave. I needed an outlet to channel that frustration and turn the depressing experiences into something more fun. It was supposed to be like my\u00a0diary,\u00a0and I didn\u2019t expect it to gain so much traction.\u201dThe choice of the name \u201cupdatemeprn\u201d was an ironic twist and a subtle nod to the unrelenting number of phone calls medical officers had to take while serving patients. According to UMP, \u201cUpdate me\u00a0pro re nata\u00a0(as needed in Latin) or as in the short form for doctors when handling patient referrals.\u201d The Instagram handle, relies on fellow doctors\u2019 ability to sense the irony \u2014 UMP\u00a0really\u00a0only wants to be called \u201conly as needed\u201d.Taylor Swift\u2019s signature look in Blank Space has become an iconic representation of UMP\u2019s personal struggles as a junior doctor. (Source: @updatemeprn \/ Instagram)On using Taylor Swift\u2019s signature look in her music video,\u00a0Blank Space, UMP says, \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of Taylor Swift and the desperate look with the running mascara and the slight craziness in the eyes was exactly how I felt.\u201d Apparently, UMP was not the only one who felt this affinity. \u201cA lot of people messaged me to tell me that they also resonated with Swift\u2019s look \u2014 the\u00a0desperation, the exhaustion, the tears\u00a0\u2014\u00a0that characterised our experience as junior doctors,\u201d UMP says.\u00a0More so, UMP\u2019s mission with the Instagram account was inspired by Swift\u2019s Blank Space. Instead of dwelling on the negatives, UMP wanted to take all the criticisms and negative experiences and \u201cturn them into something creative, fun, and quite uplifting\u201d.On\u00a0how\u00a0they managed to update the Instagram page so frequently, UMP says, \u201cI have a bank of memes I created. I post and create during pockets of free time \u2014 while waiting for the consultant to arrive and in the twilight moments before I sleep. I use Instagram stories to create as it is really fast, and I guess I am not short of inspiration when I experience so much in the hospital.\u201dWhen meme page turned into advocacyInterestingly, UMP\u2019s page gained so much traction \u2013 the current number of followers stands at 7,521 followers \u2013 that it has become a fertile ground to organise efforts to help the community of junior doctors.UMP has also become a pseudo-rights activist, educating fellow officers on call pays, notices on phishing emails, and even organising a helpful Excel sheet every six months to facilitate swapping of medical postings for all medical officers.On top of these efforts, UMP has become a place for organic community building. UMP even takes on the role of part-time counsellor for fellow healthcare workers who readily share their negative experiences. It even offers advice to aspiring medical students. And a key part of why such community building works is due to the Internet\u2019s unique offering: anonymity.UMP says, \u201cI think that it can be hard to tell others about your experiences when they know you.\u201dWhile anonymity can be a double-edged sword, it provides more benefits in the medical context. Some may question the credibility of the experiences and information shared on anonymous accounts but in the professional circles where the jargon and quirks of the job are so unique and require a reader to have gone through the\u00a0same\u00a0training and experience to understand it, credibility is hardly an issue.As the unspoken rule of such anonymous meme accounts is often that of a two-way respect for anonymity, it has created a safe space for other doctors to share their experiences. UMP says, \u201csome would also ask me to organise polls or to share their own experiences in my Instagram stories, and in response, many would respond in kind, sharing their experiences and helping others feel less alone in their experiences\u201d.Dr. Kuhanesh Jarnardanan, one of UMP\u2019s followers, says. \u201cI\u2019m not a fan of memes in general but I do applaud the boldness to advocate for the difficulties junior doctors face on the ground. It highlights the collective need for more open and transparent discussion among all stakeholders.\u201dUMP is not the only popular meme page. In fact, the millennial healthcare workers have formed a community of healthcare-focused Instagram accounts ranging from @medgags, @thehonesthealthcareworker, @sgnightingales for nurses, @pyrexic_memes for other doctors and @memedsku for current medical students. Together, they work almost like a hive mind, gathering and informing others of unfair practices, and sharing stories to advocate for better support systems for all healthcare workers.Things healthcare administrators learn from memesApart from getting some daily dose of laughter, these meme pages provide key data for administrators as an excellent roadmap to fix some of these issues, such as which are the low-lying fruits that can immediately help healthcare workers to feel more taken care of. A quick run through meme pages shows one: anti-phishing emails. While it is key to training doctors to be more careful with data security, especially since they deal with sensitive information, perhaps the content of these anti-phishing emails could be revised. Apparently what drove the scalpel deeper into the side was some of these anti-phishing emails contained promises of Starbucks Gift e-vouchers and vacation offers \u2014 what healthcare workers have been robbed of.Next, it also provides qualitative data on how strategic communication can be planned with doctors. Dr Mythili Pandi, a family physician at The Integrative Medical Centre who follows UMP\u2019s account and other doctor meme pages, says, \u201cI like to feel what\u2019s happening on the ground. These meme pages help me glean\u00a0information about how stressful it is, and the general psychology of the doctors.\u201d\u201cWhile much of their experience isn\u2019t that different from my experience as a medical officer, there is not the added stress of Covid-19. However, it doesn’t mean that [the treatment of junior doctors] is right.\u00a0Doctors need to be entitled to their rest. Only when they are properly rested can you expect to get good medical management,\u201d she says.Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia\u2019s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Why senior doctors and healthcare administrators should follow doctor meme pages","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/why-senior-doctors-and-healthcare-administrators-should-follow-doctor-meme-pages\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]