Practical Islamic input in Orthopaedics Undergraduate Medical Curricula

Zulkifly, Ahmad Hafiz and Mohd Yusof, Nazri and Khalid, Kamarul Ariffin and Che Ahmad, Aminudin and Zakaria@Mohamad, Zamzuri and Aziz, Mohd Yusof and Mohamed Amin, Mohamed Azril and Awang, Mohd Shukrimi and Kasule, Omar Hassan (2004) Practical Islamic input in Orthopaedics Undergraduate Medical Curricula. International Medical Journal Malaysia, 3 (2). E2. ISSN 1823-4631

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Abstract

The International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) was founded in 1983 upon a renewed awareness of the perennial values of the teachings in the Al-Quran and Sunnah and is dedicated to the reorientation of the ummah and mankind towards this end. The first Mission Statement of IIUM stated that it would ‘…undertake the special and greatly needed task of reforming the contemporary Muslim mentality and integrating Islamic Revealed Knowledge and the Human Sciences in a positive manner’. When it was first founded, IIUM had faculties only in the Human and Social Sciences. In 1995, the Kulliyyah of Medicine (Kulliyyah al-Tabb) was established and the fist batch of 69 medical undergraduates started their medical education in 1997. Previously, fresh medical graduates have been accused of being very uncaring towards their patients when they start working in the hospitals. In a country with a large Muslim population like Malaysia there are certain aspects of medical practice that may make both the patient and the medical practitioner uncomfortable, such as how to perform solah while the patients are incapacitated. As the doctor is responsible for patients while they are hospitalised, there is a responsibility under syariah law for the doctor to ensure that the patients do not forgo their obligations as Muslims. The fact that the patient is under the doctor’s care does not absolve the doctor of this responsibility and, in fact, further strengthens the need for something to be done. The heavy medical curriculum has been blamed in the past as a major factor that medical students become more ‘disease-orientated’ rather than ‘patient-orientated’. In a non-English speaking country like Malaysia, the burden on the medical students to perform is much bigger due to the language barrier as most teaching medium available are in English. Thus, the medical students’ time will be further taken up by their efforts to study and do well in their exams at the end of their posting or semester. They spend more time in trying to read and memorise as much as possible rather than understanding the problem. In the Western world this phenomena is a well known fact, leading to the advent of ‘Problem Based Learning’ (PBL) in trying to overcome this shortcomings in the medical student. Furthermore, the secularisation of all fields of knowledge has lead towards the medical curriculum largely devoid of any religious or spiritual considerations. Although undergraduate students have had formal teaching about the basics of the Islamic fiqh and tawhid during their school-going years, they are very much unprepared to apply the knowledge that they acquired towards the pathological conditions that they will see in the clinical setting. Therefore, there is a great need to re-educate the medical undergraduates on how to be more critical of the information that they acquire in medical school and how to better apply the knowledge gained, especially from the various aspects of the Islamic perspective. In the Kulliyyah of Medicine in IIUM the teaching of medicine in a holistic manner is being achieved by having a series of relevant Islamic Revealed Knowledge lectures for the students every week throughout their five year course. To our knowledge IIUM is the first university in the world to incorporate Islamic Input courses into the medical curriculum. The Department of Orthopaedics, Traumatology & Rehabilitation has gone further by introducing a practical session on the relevant aspects of the Islamic Input in Orthopaedics (Triple IO) practice since 2002.

Item Type:	Article (Journal)
Additional Information:	2397/23982
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc > BP1 Islam > BP174 The Practice of Islam > BP188 Islamic religious life R Medicine > RD Surgery > RD701 Orthopedics
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Medicine > Department of Department of Orthopaedics, Traumatology & Rehabilitation
Depositing User:	Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kamarul Ariffin Khalid
Date Deposited:	12 Apr 2013 10:01
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2013 09:48
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/23982

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