GEMx Blog

For those who dare to dream, the world spreads out its arms, and for those who aspire to realize their dreams, they conquer the world. This belief has made my family and I walk diverse paths to learn, compete and shine. Due to the continuous strive to chase our passions, we became a family of dreamers.

My name is Basel, Student at Ain Shams University – Faculty of Medicine, Cairo, Egypt. My nickname is Dr. Nobel because My dream is to get the Nobel Award in Medicine in the future Insha’Allah.

I’ve gone on a lot of electives worldwide, but this was a totally new different experience in the Dominican Republic. My rotation was divided in two hospitals. The first one in Hospital General de la Plaza de la Salud (HGPS) which is a teaching hospital facility and has helped more than 140,000 low-income patients with discounts and waivers of its health treatment plans. I did one week at internal medicine Department both inpatient and outpatient in addition to one week in ICU and Emergency Department.

At the second hospital,Hospital Escuela Dr. Jorge Abraham Hazoury Bahles (INDEN), one of the greatest hospitals in diabetes’ management in Latin America, I went through every aspect in diabetes management starting from the outpatient clinic by ordering basic lab & imaging and adjusting the doses of medication and Insulin up to management of diabetic retinopathy and surgical aspect of the Diabetic foot. It was really an amazing experience.

Can you imagine that you go through all medical specialties in a month while getting the opportunity to improve your Spanish at the same time?! We had morning case report, grand round, interacted with physicians and residents and finally the awesome UNIBE students  who are all so nice, humble and willing to help you as much as they can. And fortunately, they speak both English and Spanish so you Ain Sham Universcan overcome the language barrier while interacting with the patient.

 

There are seven broad benefits of my rotation there and you should consider them in your next medical rotation.

• First, I expanded my clinical knowledge and skill set as the style of medicine you’re studying is not universal, nor are the cases you’re familiar with.
• Second,  I must admit, I was nervous on my first day on the wards. I had no idea what to expect but the doctors made me feel like a part of the team. I found out what I’m made of and strengthened it.

• Third I made myself more employable as an elective abroad stands out as a badge of durability, resourcefulness, and aptitude.

• Fourth, traveling is an opportunity to see a part of the world you’ve never seen and might never otherwise consider.
• Fifth, an elective helped me in building my personal and professional network and if you’re clever about it, you can also build an international network of professional contacts
• Sixth, I sharpened my language and communication skills, right now I’m confident enough to take history and doing the complete physical examination in Spanish.
• And finally, it renew my perspective on the worldwide health and I mentioned before my life goal is Nobel award and you should know a little bit about everything in each field in this world and you must know everything about your specialty.

 

Away of medicine, let’s talk about the country and culture.  The Dominican Republic is the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean region. I traveled a lot, so I learned how to enjoy each country to the most.

This country is awesome if you have the correct company, I mean that you should interact with the real Dominican people and hang out with them. There is an amazing beach here, the old city, jungles– I mean literally– great nature. If you like dancing and drinking we’d definitely have a lot of fun as everyone literally is dancing to Latino music everywhere.,  Don’t forget to visit the Colonial Zone and Punta Cana. And make sure that you eat Dominican food made by locals and ask them to teach you how to dance to Latino music. You will have a lot of fun if you have good communication skills and know a little bit of Spanish.

My last word is thank you for everyone who helped me to get this rotation, for every doctor who taught me during the last month, for every student I met there and helped me.

Thank you, Dr. Mejia, Program Manager of HGPS

Thank you, Dr. Ammar Ibrahim, Director General of INDEN

Thank you, Danny, UNIBE Coordinator

Thank you, Eunice Kamami, GEMx Student Engagement Assistant

And Big Thank you to GEMx to giving us these opportunities.