We just had the longest bedside tutorial ever, it started at 2.30pm and lasted roughly at 8pm. Imagine 5 hours or so, on the wards! I bet if I were a diabetic I would've developed pressure sores on my bums (sacrum) out of sitting for too long! Naudzubillah though. After all the tutorial was really useful as we got the chance to present nearly a history each and went through them all in detail to identify the loopholes thus get them fixed. Constructive criticisms are indeed part and parcel of a learning process aren't they?
 |
| Pressure ulcers: Prevention is better than cure |
Time flew very swiftly like the blink of the eyes. We all knew it would be a long tutorial but I personally didn't expect it to be that lengthy. After about 4 hours of discussion sitting by the corridor of St. Nicholas' ward we moved into the doctors' room to find a patient's chart to be further analysed by us. We stood in a circle in that tiny room where the tutor handed us two pieces of investigation results each to interpret. The results sheets were distributed in the order of chronology so that we could all see the big picture of how the disease had been progressing and what to do at what point. It was really great that the tutor explained everything very clearly to ensure that everyone understood what he was on about, but at that hour one particular thing in my mind made me deeply worried. We began the tutorial after Zuhur so I hadn't performed my 'Asr prayer as yet, and the sunset was impending!
I stood right facing our tutor, a dedicated vascular registrar who is also a Muslim that speaks English with a British accent. My concentration intensity just went down rapidly as the clock ticked. I had conflicting thoughts in my mind as to whether the tutorial was going to end very shortly. It was horrible that I hardly deciphered what we were discussing. I purposely glanced at my watch and threw my view towards the window now and again pretending like I was actually watching the darkening sky outside in a hope that the tutor would notice my uneasiness.
I was a furious warrior in a battle that took place within myself. Would I get to declare victory? Should I consider this as 'darurat' and make up for the prayer later (qada')? Or should I perhaps ask for an excuse from the tutorial and come back later? But what if the tutor said we were finishing anyway? Another colleague of mine is a Muslim too so that got me wondering, do the two of them not realise that we haven't performed the prayer yet? Oh my God, oh my God I was literally going insane.
I silently made a duaa' wishing that God would guide me and give me the strength to confront my own worry, assist my decision making. I was thinking, isn't it if I didn't ask for an excuse to go perform my 'Asr prayer then others would think that the prayer really was not a big deal? Isn't it if I didn't ask to leave for a while my fellow Muslim tutor and colleague would think that everyone misses the solah anyway, so what? I need to stand out and make it evident that prayers are a compulsory decree from God Almighty which can't be compromised (unless in very desperate circumstances)!
On the flip side of the coin though some whispers came hitting my imaginary eardrums delivering in the thought of 'Hang on, it's finishing anyway. You'll get to perform it in the last couple of minutes!'. Fine!
It was five to seven. As far as I knew the sunset or Maghrib kicked in at around 7.11pm. Madness! 'These are really important stuff they're discussing Sarah, you'll miss out if you leave now'. 'What will Dr. X think if you ask for a leave, isn't that utterly disrespectful? Don't you see the amount of effort he has put in when he's actually on-call tonight?'. 'Oh come on you're not that bold aren't you?'.
'What am I going to do?'. I was panicking under my own skin, like seriously. All the words that they said came to me in echoes that I was struggling to make sense out of them. Everything passed over my head in the velocity of a speeding bullet train I couldn't keep up with the pace. I became insensate with what that was happening around me. I was in my own fantasy world figuring out as to what was I supposed to do. My attention was detoured towards something else other than the content of the tutorial itself. I was losing my rationality. Double madness!
(to be continued...)
I stood right facing our tutor, a dedicated vascular registrar who is also a Muslim that speaks English with a British accent. My concentration intensity just went down rapidly as the clock ticked. I had conflicting thoughts in my mind as to whether the tutorial was going to end very shortly. It was horrible that I hardly deciphered what we were discussing. I purposely glanced at my watch and threw my view towards the window now and again pretending like I was actually watching the darkening sky outside in a hope that the tutor would notice my uneasiness.
I was a furious warrior in a battle that took place within myself. Would I get to declare victory? Should I consider this as 'darurat' and make up for the prayer later (qada')? Or should I perhaps ask for an excuse from the tutorial and come back later? But what if the tutor said we were finishing anyway? Another colleague of mine is a Muslim too so that got me wondering, do the two of them not realise that we haven't performed the prayer yet? Oh my God, oh my God I was literally going insane.
I silently made a duaa' wishing that God would guide me and give me the strength to confront my own worry, assist my decision making. I was thinking, isn't it if I didn't ask for an excuse to go perform my 'Asr prayer then others would think that the prayer really was not a big deal? Isn't it if I didn't ask to leave for a while my fellow Muslim tutor and colleague would think that everyone misses the solah anyway, so what? I need to stand out and make it evident that prayers are a compulsory decree from God Almighty which can't be compromised (unless in very desperate circumstances)!
On the flip side of the coin though some whispers came hitting my imaginary eardrums delivering in the thought of 'Hang on, it's finishing anyway. You'll get to perform it in the last couple of minutes!'. Fine!
It was five to seven. As far as I knew the sunset or Maghrib kicked in at around 7.11pm. Madness! 'These are really important stuff they're discussing Sarah, you'll miss out if you leave now'. 'What will Dr. X think if you ask for a leave, isn't that utterly disrespectful? Don't you see the amount of effort he has put in when he's actually on-call tonight?'. 'Oh come on you're not that bold aren't you?'.
'What am I going to do?'. I was panicking under my own skin, like seriously. All the words that they said came to me in echoes that I was struggling to make sense out of them. Everything passed over my head in the velocity of a speeding bullet train I couldn't keep up with the pace. I became insensate with what that was happening around me. I was in my own fantasy world figuring out as to what was I supposed to do. My attention was detoured towards something else other than the content of the tutorial itself. I was losing my rationality. Double madness!
(to be continued...)
