My desire to become a physician began during my teenage years while watching my father be treated for rheumatic heart disease. The dedication and caring that the physicians exhibited created a lasting impression on me. As my father recovered, my passion for medicine steadily increased. I soon realized that medicine was not just a career, but rather a way of life. Medicine requires dedication, perseverance, patience, and empathy, and I had set myself to master these traits and become a caring physician in the vein of my father’s doctors.
Medicine in my native Libya was a very hard track to enter. I dedicated myself to lengthy and hard high school studies. When my dream of studying medicine was finally achieved, I did not rest on my laurels, and I worked hard in Medical School in order to learn the critical information. My hard work paid off and I graduated fourth in my class. Since graduating, I had the opportunity to work and volunteer in many clinical settings that have further impressed on me the importance of collaboration and dedication to the patient. Furthermore, I have also continued academic work and enjoy teaching and working with students of all levels. The teaching aspect of medical practice is particularly important as it disseminates critical, life saving knowledge, and partially fulfills the noble altruistic goals of our practice.
I am presently on the path of completing my Internal Medicine residency at Coney Island Hospital, in Brooklyn, New York. Under their inspired tutelage I have learned many aspects of medicine including patient management, professional collaboration, and honed my empathy and people skills. The diverse patient population has constantly engaged me, and attempting to understand the different walks of life that patients come from has given me a firm belief that individually we are all very different, but that in the aggregate we are shockingly similar.
I am deeply interested in the study of nephrology and the kidneys. Renal disease takes a wide range of forms, and has wide reaching consequences on patient health and quality of life. Systemic disease, autoimmune disease, and metastatic diseases are only some of the pathologies that the nephrologist deals with on a daily basis. The scope of the work can be pediatric or adult, each with unique concerns regarding the patient. It further requires a heightened level of sympathy and a personality that is inviting. Adherence to the treatment plans nephrologists propose is difficult, often requiring frequent time-consuming dialysis. The people skills that I have learned throughout medical school, work experiences, and in residency have prepared me well for working with patients and I am prepared to take on this burden.
The importance of renal pathology cannot be overstated. The effects on quality of life are profound, as the further effects of the diseases take their tolls on a host of other organ systems. Furthermore, the intensive treatments may also erode quality of life, and it is important to be able to empathize with the patient and explain to them the necessity of the life saving treatments we perform. After tending to the patient’s care, the most critical aspect of the care is teaching. It is my great passion to make a lasting contribution to the field of nephrology. This will entail great amounts of toil, both with the patient and with other physicians and students.
