When I enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine in childhood motivation to help people and reduce pain and suffering in 2012, I was not aware that medicine will become life itself for me.
Years of basic education began, many books contain endless numbers of diseases that I have to know in every detail, each lecture was an endeavor and an adventure as I started to understand the different processes that happen in the human body. This gave me the solid foundation to search more and get to know the in depth and most detailed aspects of every topic, I do it patiently and with great love thinking that this is medicine, during this period the more I understood diseases and their pathophysiology the more satisfied I was but still something was missing!
As soon as the years of clinical training began, I faced medicine in its true sense.I was very lucky to have started years of clinical training in the most important and most comprehensive discipline which is internal medicine.
I was amazed by the broad knowledge it provides, and how small changes in clinical signs and symptoms may lead to different diagnoses in different patients. This emphasizes the importance of thinking and having analytical approach to help your patient. The wide variety of systems covered by internal medicine further increased the intellectual challenge of making differential diagnosis. Dealing with patients with their chronic diseases, listen to their suffering, follow up on their investigations and management after knowing their past medical history deeply, this was a key point in developing a new perspective about medicine.
I realized that the medicine is something out of books, out of the pathophysiology and out of epidemiology. it’s not just about curing the disease itself, it’s about the person you are dealing with, his quality of life and the way you have to be with your patients to make them accept their diseases and deal with it just as a new challenge, and that was the missing piece of the puzzle.
My career preference was reinforced further when I had the privilege to do my elective clerkship in the US during my last year in medical school. I did my training in cardiology at McGovern medical school at Texas medical center which was a rich experience working with passionate and dedicated physicians, during which I was able to expand my medical knowledge and hone my clinical skills. And I had the chance to explore the American health care system and the cutting-edge technology used in health care; like ablation procedures for complex arrythmias, implantable devices like watchman and I had the chance to observe the implantation of the new small sized pacemaker (Micra).
The most fascinating case during which technology was a life saver was a 90 years old lady with severe aortic stenosis and coronary artery disease, in the past those patients were managed symptomatically only but this patient was given a chance to treatment by using tandem heart during the cardiac catheterization to stent the blocked vessels and place new prosthetic trans- catheter aortic valve. This case and many others made me feel like it was the place that would offer the greatest opportunities to learn, expand my knowledge, and improve my capabilities as a physician. It’s where I would have the resources for better clinical training, and also clinical research, which has always been career goal for me.
Over the course of my medical training, I had the chance to practice medicine as an internal medicine resident in King Hussein cancer center, which is one of the top specialized cancer centers in the middle east and a university affiliated academic hospital. I was met with a myriad of complex patients, who suffer from multiple diseases other than their cancer so it was an eye-opening experience into importance of multidisciplinary care, dangers of anchor bias and the importance of gaining the practical skills implicated in managing critically ill patient, and introduced me to various challenges residents face; especially that the residency program system is very similar to the residency programs in the united states.
Also, I had the opportunity to meet and teach medical students from multiple medical schools, I found pleasure and joy in simplifying complex medical concepts and helping students grow and achieve their goals. However, a more gratifying reward was when I realized that this experience has empowered me to excel in educating my patients about their diseases, for example I enjoyed educating my lymphoma patient about the protective precautions after his chemotherapy session and I had pleasure in explaining the procedure of bone marrow transplantation to my anxious 20 years old leukemia patient.
Internal Medicine is my unquestionable career choice. I want to train in a program that offers a well- structured learning environment, a broad diversity of pathology. In the future, I seek a career in Internal Medicine at an institution with a busy practice, diverse and complex pathology exposure and where the needs of the patients always come first. I am full on enthusiasm that my future career steps will be challenging but will bring me fulfilment and immense satisfaction. I don’t claim to be a unique person, but I believe in myself to possess the gifts of determination for improvement, the willingness to work and perform as a strong team player and the proper interpersonal skill to communicate with patients and other members of health care team at your program.
