Final Reflection

It’s the final blog post for this semester already, and I can’t believe how time has passed so quickly. My final semester in NUS as an undergraduate is drawing to a close, just one final lap to go before I enter a new phase of life.

I’m really glad I took up a friend’s advice on taking this module. One area which I think I really developed through the many projects and presentations, is my oral presentation skills.

Before I took up this module, I’ve always feared public speaking. By forcing myself to face the many presentations involved in the completion of this module, I can safely say that I now feel alot more comfortable in presenting. Besides, this course also thought me that practice is the key to perfecting my presentation skills. Now I try not to shun any chances of presenting, but instead accept each chance as an avenue to further improve myself.

In the past, I never really understood the importance of having a script (I know brad advocates familiarisation instead of memorising), but one main benefit of having a script (in my opinion), is that I will not have to struggle to find the right words to bring myself across. However, that being said, being familiar with the topic you’re presenting, is definitely of utmost importance if you want to appear natural and confident, and that’s what I want to work towards in future. 🙂

Thirdly, I learnt how to hide my nervousness better through the many presentations by changing my stance. By being less rigid, the nervousness seems to dissipates and I get more confident as I speak.

Lastly, as Brad pointed out, my main problem lies in my pronounciation. I’ve been to speech therapy when I was young to correct my pronounciation and I’ve always thought I was okay now. By pointing out my flaws during the peer teaching, I managed to consciously remind myself to articulate my words clearly during the oral presentation (although i still stumbled over my words when I get too nervous or excited) but I’m improving! 🙂

Thanks for all the help Brad! 🙂

Reflection on Oral Presentation

Before I start on my own reflection, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you in ES2007S Class 5 for making my time in this class different and memorable in every little ways 🙂 Congratulations in surviving another semester, and GOOD LUCK to all graduating classmates in your future jobs! Of course, here’s a large shout-out to my research group members of SingaBrella, Gail and Phyllis! this is to a job well done girls 🙂 thanks for understanding my busy schedule, postponing deadlines and helping me out in so many ways. The whole project would never have been possible without your help, THANKS!!!! Really enjoyed working with the two of you. And to Samantha – hurray to finishing our last ever lesson in NUS together! 😀 

Okay, now to the reflection proper! 

I felt that my presentation wasn’t the best I could have done, despite practicing many times and consciously reminding myself to slow down, slow down. My pace picked up as I talked and i could feel myself stumbling over all the words. Nevertheless, I think it was good that i did not miss out any important information, and i managed to control my nervousness! I felt that I had improved a lot since the peer teaching presentation, by making sure that I pronounce every word clearly so that the audience is able to understand what I was saying. The main things that I would definitely have to work on for future presentations include:

1. SLOW DOWN. stop talking so fast
2. BE CONFIDENT! Look at and engage the audience more instead of referring to the slides to ensure that I have not missed out any information
3. Articulate each word clearly, so that audience will understand what I am saying, and stay focused on me. 

Step by step, I can feel myself improving. 
THANKS FOR ALL THE FEEDBACK EVERYONE!! 🙂

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Intercultural behavior do not only occur between different races or across country borders. Instead, it is all around us, in different contexts. For example, families with parents who are graduates raise their kids differently from those who are not, giving rise to cultural differences between the family units. One may place more importance on having big families, while the other prefers small and nucleated family units. The intercultural scenario that I will be talking about, is one that occurs between different education institutions, such as the mainstream schools and schools for people with special needs.

In my fourth year at NUS, I got to learn about the Best Buddies program (part of the NUS community service club). This is a program in which NUS volunteers and beneficiaries are given a one-to-one pairing, which aims to foster a friendship between the parties involved, allowing the beneficiaries to integrate into the main stream society of Singapore.

On our first visit to the school to meet my buddy for dinner after a school day, My friend and I were greeted with much enthusiasm from the students. People we had never seen nor talked to before excitedly came up to introduce themselves to us, eager to be friends. I was taken aback with the attention we were attracting, but nevertheless, I felt warmed by their little welcome. It struck me that this was something you would hardly see in a mainstream school for people of similar ages (junior college/universities). In mainstream schools, you would most probably see people using their phones, hurrying around and hardly acknowledging your presence.

People from these special needs institution yearn to be accepted and to be seen as normal people.On the other hand, people from the mainstream society take acceptance for granted, and choose to not bother about strangers in their schools. This difference in how they are regarded in society gave rise to two vastly difference cultures in their respective schools – one is very accepting and welcoming of strangers while the other is more nonchalant and uninviting. This simple example illustrated here demonstrates clearly how different cultures and behaviours can be fostered by differences in societal stigma towards different groups of people, which is just one of the ways cultural differences are nurtured.

Application Letter Critique

Hi people! here’s my application letter and the link to my job description: http://www.guardian.com.sg/career-opportunities (Community Pharmacists)

Teo Bao Wen

Blk 322 Sembawang Close

#03-295
Singapore 750322

 

17 February 2013

The Human Capital Manager

Guardian Health & Beauty
21 Tampines North Drive 2 #03-01
Singapore 528765
Dear Sir / Madam,

Application for the position as a Pharmacist

As the largest community pharmacy chain in Singapore with more than 151 stores island-wide, I am keen to start my career in this organization as a Pharmacist. I believe I will be provided with ample opportunities to hone my clinical and management skills with Guardian’s large and diverse customer base.

 

As a final year undergraduate from the Pharmacy Programme in the National University of Singapore (NUS), I am sure that I am well prepared to practice in the community setting with the skills I have been equipped with during my course of study. I believe that pharmacists play an important role in the community healthcare scene in Singapore, as we have direct contact with patients daily. I value this interaction we have with patients, which is why I have chosen to practice in the community setting.

 

In my four-years at NUS, I undertook a six-week preceptorship training in a community setting at the end of the second year. I was attached to Guardian, under my preceptor Ms Ng Siow Tian. During the six weeks, I was offered many opportunities to dispense medications and provide counselling to patients, under the supervision of my preceptor. I also helped out in a community outreach event that was organised by the Diary Farm Group, where I was responsible for measuring participants’ blood pressures and blood glucose levels, and to refer them to the pharmacists if their readings are out of the normal range. All these opportunities have enabled me to learn how to handle different situations I am placed in, and to ensure that patients’ wellbeing is maximised. Seeing how I can make a difference in peoples’ lives with the advice provided, it has made me passionate about community pharmacy, as we are able to interact directly with patients.

 

In addition, I have been actively involved in several student organizations. I was Captain for the Squash (female) team in Raffles Hall for two years, and led the team in weekly trainings. I was also the Chairperson of the Raffles Hall Orientation Committee that designed a camp for 250 freshmen, in which I planned, executed and oversaw the entire process of the event. These leadership positions have allowed me to pick up important management skills that will definitely be relevant in the community pharmacy setting, as we have to manage different types of customers, and to manage the stores if we enter the operational line.

 

Thank you for your time to review my application. I have enclosed my resume for your consideration. I look forward to an interview with you to discuss how I can contribute to your organization as a Pharmacist. Please feel free to contact me via email (teobaowen@gmail.com) or via phone at 92477221.

 

Thank you.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

Teo Bao Wen

Enclosure: Resume

Resolving interpersonal conflicts

Interpersonal conflicts are virtually unavoidable and everybody will get entangled in one at some point in their lives. The sad thing is, not every conflict can be resolved harmoniously. The following is a situation that occurred a few years ago, but is one that I will remember for a long time to come. 😦

(to make it easier to narrate, I decided that putting it in point form would be better)

– I had a friend in my course, A.
– Attendance in lectures is needed otherwise you wouldn’t understand the course materials by just reading the notes.
– Lectures were at 8am on two days, without webcasts.
– A decided that she is unable to wake up early for lecture and hence decided that she is not going to attend any.
– A always borrows my notes after class, and takes her time to return them.
– My own study schedule is disrupted because i don’t have my notes.
– I talked to A and told her nicely that it would be beneficial for her to attend lectures by herself. If that is really impossible, please try to return me my notes by the next day, or my progress will be affected.
– A did not change. I was getting angry as I took the effort to wake up early for every lecture, why is it that she cannot do the same and is making use of me? (It wasn’t that she had anything to do at night and is therefore unable to sleep early)
– I talked to A again nicely, and told her that i think it was unfair for me to lend her my notes every time. I thought it was only fair if she started attending lectures or risk failing the module.
– A thought that I was being unreasonable, and we had an argument over this.
– A started to attend lectures sometimes and borrowing notes from other coursemates, and did not approach me ever since.
– When I tried to talk to her a few times after the row, I got the cold treatment and thus made up my mind that I had lost this friend.

(I know this situation prolly sounds very childish, but i guess its a situation that many people encounter in NUS!)

Now, let’s try to analyse what each party involved is thinking.

Me: I was feeling indignant as A wasn’t taking the effort to attend lectures, and assumed that she could keep up by relying on me. To make things worse, she was taking things for granted! I would be less sour about the whole situation if she had made it a point to return me the notes within the next two days. I did try to talk it out with her, but her attitude was less than forthcoming, and she didn’t try to understand my position.

A (from my own perspective):
A believed that as a friend, it was my duty to help her out since she is unable to wake up early to attend lectures. Since i failed to do so, and I made it known that I do not want to do it anymore, I was in the wrong.

I guess the problem here, is that we both held true to our own values, and failed to put ourselves in each others’ shoes. A lack of communication was evident, as I did not manage to tell her exactly how I felt, and neither did she tell me why she was unhappy.

A much better ending could have resulted, but as the saying goes, no point crying over spilled milk. This is a situation that could definitely happen in the workplace as well, so what would be the best way to completely avoid such a conflict of interest in future?

A short notice

Hi everyone in ES2007S class 5!

I would like to tell you guys that actually I have a hearing problem and cannot catch many things that are being said in class. So when I have to ask Mr Blackstone to repeat his questions or when i don’t realise he’s asking me, it’s because i didn’t catch what he said and not because i wasn’t paying attention! (Just in case Mr Blackstone thinks i’m not paying attention at all!) 😀

But don’t worry, i’m no different from you guys, just that sometimes I’m unable to hear what you guys are saying (so just repeat for my sake THANKS! :D), and it’s a little difficult for me to get past Mr Blackstone’s accent but i’m trying! 🙂

yup that’s about all,

THANKS FOR READING! and leave comments on my previous post please, I only have one comment 😦

The Importance of Effective Communication

In a short two-hour seminar on friday, I managed to take away a few important points:

1. There are many important aspects in communication, which determines if the original message is brought across the way it was intended to.

2. When communication breaks down, there are multiple reasons that could have resulted in it, and it is not necessarily the sender’s fault.

3. There are many different channels that we can choose to convey a message, and the right one must be chosen in order to get the full message (not just the verbal part) across accurately.

Besides, we also got to see first-hand the differences between communication and effective communication. By getting each small group to do a short presentation on each article, we got to see how some people managed to do a better presentation than others, allowing the listeners to actually retain the information they were putting across. We all managed to learn from one another, picking up small tips that will allow us to improve our personal presentation skills and realizing our own shortfalls.

Now, why is effective communication important to me?

Personally, i feel that communicating effectively with the people around me is an important skill to grasp. Socially, communicating effectively helps to build relationships and prevent misunderstandings. In the workplace, it ensures that messages and ideas are sent and received accurately, which will not only help to reduce errors that stem from miscommunication, it increases efficiency as well.

As a pharmacist by profession and due to enter a hospital in a few months’ time, learning to communicate effectively is essential. We have to communicate well with patients so that we can understand their needs, allowing us to formulate a treatment plan that will work best for them. Additionally, we have to learn different ways to help patients better understand the information we are unloading unto them, in order to prevent medication errors that can be potentially dangerous.

Other than communicating with patients, I will also need to learn how best to communicate with different colleagues across different channels to ensure accurate information delivery as misunderstandings can put patients’ well-being at risk. Lastly, as of all the jobs out there, many presentations will be in-store for me, further highlighting the need to communicate effectively.

Hence, I hope that the skills that i will learn from my journey in this course will better equip me when I officially enter the workforce! (: