Life as a Foreign-Trained Medical Graduate in Lagos. (Part 2)

Hey everyone, i’m sure you were waiting for part 2! Or not. Well, here you go!

(If you’ve not read part 1, you probably should read it here.)

We were divided into small groups for our ward rotations. Two weeks each in the four major departments (Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medicine, Surgery and Pediatrics). I was confused about that.. like two weeks only? Jesus take the wheel. They kept emphasizing that they are not teaching us all over again and that it was a review. A week after the postings started, we started lectures. The lectures were from 8-10/12. After lectures, we’d go to the wards to see what we can learn. It was a struggle and It got to a point I felt like should I even bother going to the ward? Lectures went well for the most part. Most of the lecturers are consultants… actually all of them that taught from the four major departments were consultants and they were so nice, welcoming and patient. That helped us relax. By week 4, I already made some new friends and that was exciting for me because I’m not so friendly and I’m trying to be better in that aspect. I honestly didn’t study so hard in the first month, partly because I was familiar with all they were teaching so I wasn’t nervous… yet! Then things started getting crazy and I was seeing new handouts and books every  other day. I got tired of buying them and was like ‘finish the ones you have first na!’

We were like 120 for the first two months and I was wondering is this it? Is this the lagos everyone is always talking about. I heard people wait for the Lagos batch so the numbers are always insane.. I’m talking 500 Doctors. By August the number doubled as graduates from Ukraine/Russia registered. Class got fuller, things got a bit more intense.

Oh sorry, I didn’t share my ward experience. First department I rotated in was Medicine (Neurology). I was not happy about it. I wanted Cardiology or Gastro or even Nephrology. I hated Neuro in Med school. It was solely memorisation for me back then. I was scared I was going to look so stupid and they’ll be like ‘ahn so this is what you people went abroad to learn’. I was with 5 other Doctors. First day wasn’t so bad as my sister already warned me not to take every critism seriously or else I’ll have a bad experience. She might have given a few high yield topics too. 😉 (perks of having a doctor sister). She also told me they love their definitions which was strange to me because I feel like as Doctors emphasis should be placed on how to save lives and not how to define Stroke because I’m not sure how the definitions will save that life if you don’t know what to do next.

First day, they asked a couple of questions. It wasn’t so bad. They asked for the definition of stroke and of course I gave it to them like a boss! It got annoying when every doctor we meet would ask for our names and where we studied or as they like to put it ‘trained’. The doctors went back to the basic stuff and I felt stupid sometimes but I didn’t let it bother me too much.

Part 3 coming up soon. Stay tuned.

• TOSIN