Nardin Derias | 10 March 2020
Nardin Derias is a third-year medical student at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Political Science at the University of Florida. She is one of the original co-founders of Orthodox Christian Campus Ministries and previously served as OCCM President.
The intersection between faith and medicine is one that is widely debated. Since starting medical school, I have had to confront this. Growing up, our Coptic faith was filled with shared stories of medical miracles. People with terminal illnesses and image-proven tumors making miraculous recoveries. The science involved does not make sense because there is no science involved, it is faith. John 20:29 says, “then Jesus told him, ‘because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”
The other day one of my peers asked me if I felt like my spirituality, my faith, had helped me during my time in medical school. Every week, I look forward to going to Sunday liturgy. It is my time to recharge and re-center. I told her that was the way for me to stay true to my being given the workload and stress associated with medical school. Removing myself from the medical setting and reminding myself of why I went into medicine to begin with: to serve others and my community. There are even references in the Bible comparing Christ to a physician, saying, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”-Psalm 147:3.
All in all, we use our faith to guide us day to day. Being in medicine has shown me that faith has the ability to work wonders in people’s lives. Simply praying with patients has been shown to make differences in their hospital stays. Some may say that medicine and faith should be separated, but the two are inherently linked to one another.