Campbell University Jerry M Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine Reviews

I never really saw myself every bit airtight-minded well-nigh anything except for eating at concatenation restaurants. They're overpriced, and local independent establishments offer fresher ingredients and more grapheme, in my opinion.

But when I fabricated the journey from the bustling DC suburbs to rural North Carolina for medical school, I realized I was indeed closed-minded about something else: Christianity.

Before medical schoolhouse, I studied international relations and African studies in London and California. It wasn't until I began working in an HIV/AIDS clinic that I had the "Aha!" moment almost future physicians say they have. I and then completed a mail service-bac in prehealth studies, worked every bit a medical assistant for a year, and applied to medical schoolhouse.

In 2013, just days before classes started, I got the telephone call. I learned that I would be attention the Campbell University Jerry Thou. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine in Buies Creek, North Carolina, a new schoolhouse whose mission statement included teaching medicine in a Christian environment. Amid my elation, I also felt uncertain. How would I fit in at a Christian school? How would religion affect my educational activity in the science of medicine?

Civilization shock

The get-go year of medical school was so much harder than I could have e'er imagined. And don't let anyone tell you that the second year is easier. Sitting in course with 161 other highly qualified students, I felt then out of my element as our professor talked most the catecholamine synthesis and tyrosine catabolism pathway. I had just only come to the realization that anything that concluded with -ase was an enzyme. I needed to quickly shift my muscle memory of the classroom from discussing political theory to speaking the language of pathophysiology, and I had a lot of communicable upwardly to practise.

On meridian of all the schoolwork, I was dealing with the civilization shock of moving to the S and an internal struggle of feeling like a complete outsider.

I come from a adequately diverse religious background. My mother is Jewish past heritage, my father is the son of a Methodist government minister, and I was in a long-term human relationship with a Senegalese Muslim. Yet, I take never been religious. My childhood household was completely secular. We celebrated Christmas and Hanukkah, mostly for the gifts and the excuse to melt matzo ball soup and lamb.

At CUSOM, I felt like I stuck out similar a raven in a sky full of doves. Many locals—my future patients—in Harnett County, Northward Carolina, are Christian. Then are many of my classmates. I was surrounded past members of a guild that I wasn't part of.

At our get-go-yr orientation, our dean, John Thousand. Kauffman Jr., DO, relayed his ain definition of learning medicine in a Christian surroundings. To him, Campbell provides a learning space that encourages "everything that's good about being Christian." I thought to myself, "Well, isn't that convenient? What nigh the bad aspects of Christianity? We're simply going to overlook them?"

When I visited him in his office to hash out this very concept, he pointed to a affiche on his wall of the golden dominion—you know, the Biblical statement that instructs people to treat others the way they desire to be treated. The poster featured like dictums from all the other major world religions, such equally Islam and Buddhism, suggesting that the different faiths are more like than people might assume.

Dr. Kauffman spoke about how the goodness of Christianity includes the "fruit of the spirit," which the apostle Paul wrote about in his letter to the Galatians in the New Testament. These manifestations of a good Christian life include love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

A common goal

The profession of a doctor is one of servitude, Dr. Kauffman said. He spoke about caring for your swain man (and woman!) and loving all others without judgment. I had some other "Aha!" moment: I realized that our unlike worldviews overlapped much more than I initially had thought. Dr. Kauffman, a Christian, and I, an atheist, share a common life goal: to have care of others and put their needs first.

Every bit physicians, we must be prepared to aptly tackle whatever comes up during our shift. Physicians should exist ready to treat whoever walks, rolls or runs in with a deep level of compassion, Dr. Kauffman stressed.

I used to remember beingness open-minded meant existence especially sensitive toward alternative lifestyles, marginalized people, outsiders and the destitute. Just now I sympathize that to be truly open-minded, I must expand upon that definition to include anyone different from me. One must approach each and every person from a place of empathy and credence.

Medical schoolhouse is near gaining the knowledge and skills to care for your future patients in the most effective fashion possible. Every bit a nonreligious student learning in a Christian environment, I've had the opportunity to selection upwards an extra skill I may non have otherwise gained. I have been taught the importance of incorporating faith into the care of religious patients. At CUSOM, students are instructed on how to delicately ask questions nigh spiritual health in our complete medical histories.

I will exist let loose in the wards soon, in a customs where many patients share the religious beliefs of my school's founders. I am now able to better navigate personal questions well-nigh religion, whatever spiritual groundwork my patient may have. This new awareness will permit me to better relate to and care for my patients.

Osteopathic physicians recognize the innate interconnectedness betwixt listen, torso and spirit. Although I have previously personally struggled to reconcile how religion and medicine can live harmoniously together, I understand that the holistic needs of the patient must direct the partnership between physician and patient. As a physician, I'chiliad responsible for addressing my patient's mind, body and spirit regardless of the doctrine we each individually follow.

All medical students spend significant amounts of fourth dimension outside their comfort zone. Nosotros are grilled in the intensive intendance unit, we written report harder than nosotros e'er thought nosotros could, and nosotros learn to carefully perform invasive, immodest exams. Simply every bit an atheist in a Christian school and customs, I've spent a fiddling more time outside my comfort zone than I expected. I hope all of my classmates as well have the opportunity to work extensively with patients of different backgrounds from their own. The experience would be as good for them equally my time here has been for me, I retrieve.

Learning to stretch my view of the world has been a humbling experience. I've realized that life continually provides you with opportunities to self-reverberate and grow your ain worldview. You just take to be receptive to change and willing to tackle challenges head-on. To that end, I am meeting some friends at the Olive Garden tonight. Only kidding, I'm not ready for that yet. Instead, we're heading to a new mom-and-pop pizza place down the street.

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Source: https://thedo.osteopathic.org/2015/03/im-an-atheist-and-a-student-at-a-christian-medical-school/