Students Blog

A journey of a medical doctor

moayad khresheh

Written in Arabic By:

Moayad Alkhresheh

5th year student, Glory batch- 5th batch- 2017-2023

Translated by: Dr. M.A. Awwad

Peace and blessing upon you all

When we were little children, we were asked frequently: What do you want to be when you get older? , Our dreams were answering in our mouths, One of us answered: I want to be a police man, others will answer: I want to walk on the moon, and that little girl who used to play a school with her dolls will answer: I want to be a teacher. And that little ambitious boy said: I want to be a doctor, he said it with confidence lighting from his eyes. He studied hard to let his dream come true. He clung to his dream till he was accepted in the medical school. This little boy was myself. Now I know the road of the doctor is not that easy as it was hard before reaching its entrance.

Anyone who works in hospitals in treating people know how much difficult is this profession, how much effort he has to exert while learning, training and practicing. You can specialize in one aspects and be an excellent doctor in that specialty but you cannot excel in every specialty. And reaching the stage of being an outstanding specialist means you spent lots of your life time working very hard. That doesn’t mean in any way to give up your dream or to to be stuck in your blue mood and dark nightmares, No, you have to use your reserve of patience, determination and positive attitude.

A temporary loss of passion could be a stage during your voyage as a doctor, but thinking of the high meanings of medicine are enough to recharge your soul and to set your passion-meter to full again. Haven’t you listen before to the saying of one of the major Islamic scholars in history “ Al-Shafe’e” : “ I know no principle more noble after the Halal ( morally legal) and Haram (morally illegal) principle other than Medicine”. This is what I am talking about. Is there something more beautiful than a smile of thanks from a patient, or a satisfaction you feel from a patient who got an answer to a desperate question, or the pride of your parents when they see you helping people?

Yes life of a doctor is full of tension and anxiety for the sake of the health of their patients, but that’s just because of the great ambitions that time is their challenger, or the medical student who is eager to finish studying every detail of every subject but the time again is his challenger.

From being a medical student, through specializing and getting qualification till practicing and finding that you have to update and learn more, this is the journey of the medical doctor. This journey that polishes your personality every time you face a problem or you overcome a challenge. Fortunately, cooling down the flaming soul of the ambitious medical student and doctor uses the same elements of firing those flames. How? Just by looking at them from a different angle. The time challenge, the busy curriculum and the competition with yourself before competing others are your assets to overcome your frustrations. Be the friend of your time, enjoy the abundance of information and take the prize of the competition everyday by self-satisfaction and high esteem.

Be a human before you be a doctor. How beautiful to be a talented human too. Don’t push your personal gifts to the unseen side of your soul, let them grow with the great profession you choosed. They are no enemies; they are your pulleys to fly high in the sky of medicine.

At the start of my journey in medical school I wrote a lyric about this dream of being a doctor, I talked about my determination and the challenges, the obstacles and the victories during my way till I enrolled my School of Medicine/YU, It’s a long one in Arabic language. But reading the paragraphs before could tell you the meanings of the lyrics without translation.

Death Inattentiveness

leen Jamal bani hamad

Written in Arabic by:

Leen Jamal Bani Hamad

6th year student- Glory batch 2017-2023

With the surge of COVID 19 pandemic, I was frightened to open social media every morning like before, as the black color supervened there and the smell of death was everywhere.

I sat looking at the world from above, I remembered a group of people who were among us , lived with us , laughed with us, argued with us, taught us, sat in the school benches beside us but now they left us because of this pandemic or even before that. I remembered the prophet Mohammad (peace and blessing be upon him) who lived in Medina and was the leader of our ancestors. They are all now inside the ground, We only have their heritage.

Many questions passed in my mind, How comes the human being forget his destiny? How comes He hears the news of the people pass with no stop? How this inattentiveness to death which is the only truth about every person's path? How we neglect that the moment of saying Good bye to life could be so close to us and maybe knocking our doors now?

I remembered the Quranic verse (Draws near for mankind their reckoning, while they turn away in heedlessness), How true is the irony of being close to death and negligence of its true coming.

Allah Says in Quran: (And the stupor of death will come in truth: "This is what you have been avoiding) Then you can't run away, it will be the time to move from the temporary life to the eternal life.

We have to think of death every now and then while we are alive not to feel bad or feel frustrated, but to correct our paths and to think in a different way in our decisions and to change our judgement into more wise decisions.

Competitions between people about ephemeral blessings like money, belongings, lands, real estates etc, should be avoided if hate and injustice will result. We have to look forward to think of God and our eternal life without forgetting this temporary life that we build for next generations even if we think we are building for ourselves during this short life.

An experience of a medical student

Written in Arabic By:

Abdullah Al-ali

5th year student, Glory batch- 5th batch/2017-2023

Translated by: Dr. M.A. Awwad

Studying medicine is a dream of lots of people, I was one of them. My dream turned into a reality after God blessed me to enroll Yarmouk University in Jordan to study in its medical school.

When we talk about an experience of a medical student, I shouldn't ignore this common question that every medical student encounter in any gathering wherever it is and whatever the occasion is: Did studying medicine affect your life? and how?

Before answering this question, I'll talk from my humble experience as a medical student about medicine. Medicine is one of the most interesting and complicated things that you could experience. Interesting in that you enjoy understanding minute fascinating and amazing things that happen in your own body at all levels, that you'll never get your mind busy with if you don't study medicine. This body is highly sophisticated in all missions that each of its structures do. So I think this is how it is interesting, enjoyable and complex.

Now I'll go back to the question I always face when I meet people.The question about the effect of studying medicine on my life. The first answer that comes to my mind is TENSION, Yes, tension become your friend that accompanies you all the time, Why?

Because as a medical student you have to get tons of information in a short period of time. These information are inte-related and accumulative. and you have to get all of them understood and sometimes memorized or at least present in mind once you need them. The basic sciences part of medicine is huge and the clinical part is not in any way less huge. You have to challenge yourself to understand yourself.

If you want to rely on the idea of time mangement, Oh my god, it is not easy. whatever you do, time is always ahead of you. the books are never ending, the diseases and their symptoms are with no limits and the questions are endless too.

If you take rest, you'll get late. If you want to stop, your conscience will hurt you badly.

So you can lierally say 'Medicine becomes your own life'.

Now i'll leave clear cut points as a person who spent just few years in this field:

1- Medicine is not like any other branch of science, medicine is a way of life. Time will confirm that to you sooner or later.

2- If you want to be a doctor, The doctor has to remember that he is a human dealing with humans, if he deals with his job as a source of more money, then he'll be a greedy person who exchanges the pains of patients into money in his bank account. Be human.

3- The patient's body is not a dummy that you test your knowledge with, He is a human being like you.

4- If you felt bored of too much studying, remember that patients are not only bored of their diseases but they are also in pain. you'll be their hope. so be patient, then their smiles will let you forget all of your tiredness and boredom.

5- Medicine is like an inter-related structure. you have to be sure it is all strong. If you ignored some columns the structure will fall down. you won't be reliable anymore.

6- You can't learn medicine just by theory. Apply your knowledge, For example, Anatomy knowledge has to be applied in the anatomy lab. The internal medicine lecture will be just words if not seen and applied in internal medicine ward in the hospital, etc.

7- Our doctors used to say (In Medicine, Common thing is common), So you have to study the (Common) first when you prepare yourself to any exam.

8- Many students miss their lectures to study at home. It's not a good idea, In the lecture the doctor teaches us the most important points and what we have to understand first to build on it and to relate this to other information with examples from the true life, a thing that you will not read in the book. So please rearrange your priorities.

9- Studying in groups especially with a group of colleauges you like is fun and benificial, but unify your break times, so you won't end in a whole session of continuous breaks.This is a personal experience.

10- Don't think about post graduate future while you are still a medical student. Just enjoy your time as a student and enjoy getting new information.

11- It is believed or let's say (misbelieved) that the doctor is imprisoned by his lab-coat and that being socially isolated is his fate. No, this is wrong. In my opinion the doctor has to leave some margin to his social life, that makes him accessible to the society. Be social as much as you can but don't oversocialize at the expense of your responsibilities. Be balanced.

12- They say: " The doctor has to be a good listener", Yeaaa , They will come desperate to tell you the story of their illness, please listen to them, they need that.

13- It is benificial to listen to your seniors about their experiences, but in no way what they say is for granted. This is their experience with their own circumstances. You have to have your own experiences and to have your own choices in your life.

14- Last point: Medicine is a life long lesson. So every time you feel your energy is down, you have to refresh your intention , recharge your power and fly higher in the sky of science.

My colleague the doctor-to-be , please don't forget the meaning of that verse in the holy Quran when Allah says: " and whoever saves a life, it would be as though he saved the lives of all humans".

Forensic Medicine

leen Jamal bani hamad

Written in Arabic by:

Leen Jamal Bani Hamad

6th year student, Glory batch (Fifth batch) 2017-2023

After one week of starting my Forensic Medicine rotation in the 5th year I experienced a deep and an influential experience. I lived hard moments that are unforgettable. It was when I first entered the morgue, it was optional to go there or not and I insisted to get in. Moments Full of anxiety and fear with shaky slow steps. It was not the dissection or blood that scared me, but it was the scene of a deceased man and my thoughts when I first saw his body.

Its ironic how the human play and fight, gets angry, happy or sad, be strong or collapses weakly, be unfair and materialistic as if he is eternal in this life. Then with a glimpse of eye He is not alive anymore, A body with no soul, inanimate thing that cannot defend himself anymore.

There no lesson for us like death of somebody that we know. No one is stronger than death, neither an emperor or a poor man. All are equal in front of this bitter truth.

I realized then how weak I am, This scene killed any arrogance I've ever had. I believed that our lives are short crossing a bridge to the After-Life, We'll drink the same cup that every one who preceded us in all ages have drunk from one day.