سليمان ناصر الرواشدة
Hey there! Suleiman here aka Solomon which was my name during my time in the US and I’m a 6th year medical student at Yarmouk University.
Clinical experiences at Yarmouk university are of high value since you won’t be learning if you didn’t get exposed to what you study, that’s why 2 months of the final year are dedicated to experiencing what really goes on in hospitals and what it really feels like to be a doctor. Getting exposed to new settings and new communities can help you grow as a doctor and as a human being, which’s why i’ll be telling about my experience within these two months!
I had the honor and pleasure of having my elective in the United States specifically in Warner Robins, Georgia at Houston medical center. Prior to beginning the course, I was a bit confused about the healthcare system in America and why do medical graduates from our universities aim at matching into residency programs in the United States and when I started working in it, I had a glimpse of how sofisticated the system was.
During this rotation, I had worked in the departments of gastroenterology, infectious disease and nephrology in addition to working with one of the hospitalists! We would see 30-40 inpatients a day where I was required to see them all with the attending physicians and had to take histories and examine the patients. I was also involved in the management of inpatients and the physicians actively involved me in managing many patients. Gastroenterology caught my interest the most, where i had learned the most and gained the most knowledge and was able to peek into up-to-date guidelines on how many cases are approached. I had the honor of actually doing and upper and a lower endoscopy! It felt immaculate! Even though it was frustrating at first (since it is not as easy as it looks).
Being active within patient care helped me gain some confidence in my decisions, at first I was hesitant when making any decision regarding patient care thinking it would just be wrong, but these 8 weeks were enough for me to gain the confidence i needed!
On a side note, Georgia has lots of scenery for hiking and has a rich history, after all it was the first state that the British have entered before colonizing the east coast!
This experience was exceptional and I highly encourage everyone to lean into going international. Getting exposed to new communities and new culture can be enriching to your personality and getting exposed to a novel healthcare system can help you visualize how medicine has developed over the years! In the end this experience has showed me the potential to my professional growth as a future physician and helped me in visualizing my path and how dedicated should i be in order to walk that path.
