Staff Profiles: Claude Maroun

Claude Maroun

Under the guidance of director Claude Maroun, the physical therapy department at AUBMC provides top-notch clinical care and excellent services for its patients. In addition, the department trains physical therapy students, supports staff professional development, and conducts private research as needed.

Claude Maroun joined the AUBMC for the second time in 1990 (her first employment was interrupted by the civil war and the difficulty of crossing over from East Beirut). For the past 18 years, she has been a model of dedication to her job, focusing total concern for her patients and for her team of eight physical therapists. Encouraged and supported by AUBMC, the members of her staff all pursued their professional development there and succeeded in receiving their master's degrees in physiotherapy in different specializations.

In keeping with AUBMC's policy of perpetual advancement and staff promotion, Maroun completed her own master's in public health from AUB in 2003, after she earned her bachelor's equivalence in physiotherapy in 2000 from the Lebanese University. In fact, it took Maroun over twenty years after she graduated from the Cortbawi Institute where she studied that she was able to complete her rigorous and demanding physical therapy education (between 1976 and 1979).

Maroun then finished a comprehensive six -month training stretch in different areas of physical therapy in France soon after her graduation from the Cortbawi Institute. Next, she worked at Notre Dame Hospital in Jounieh for over a year before joining AUBMC in 1983, where she worked for two and a half years. But political turmoil again forced Maroun to leave AUBMC, and she worked as a physical therapy teacher at the Lebanese University, conducting midwife teaching and training sessions at St. Joseph's University, while simultaneously treating patients at a center she opened with a friend.

Maroun was relieved to be able to work at AUBMC again. She regards her entire cultural experience there as invaluable, because of the hospital's high standards of services, its availability of best medical facilities, and the many opportunities for personal development it offers. She says that AUBMC offers a unique diversity of pathologies can be encountered, as patients from different places seek the medical expertise and distinctive professional health care guaranteed there.

Insofar as growth is concerned, Maroun has worked on ensuring a multidimensional development of her department by broadening the scope of services, upgrading the equipment, empowering staff, deepening communication in a team framework, and improving the physical setting. "We have great group dynamics here, and this is very important for achieving results. In our field, one cannot work alone; team work is essential; trust, respect and transparency are a must," confirmed Maroun.

Maroun also has a passion for her hobbies: art, painting, dance, music, theater, and reading. She walks almost daily, and is particular about taking care of her health.