Life as a house officer. 

Hey guys. First of all, I’m pretty sure my followers/readers outside Nigeria might not understand what house job is all about. 

Its basically your internship year. Your first experience as a Doctor after med school. It is also when you start earning money. 😉

We are at the bottom of the chain as the consultants here keep emphasizing. So basically, we do three months in each department (medicine, obgyn, surgery and pediatrics). 

I’m starting with Obgyn and for the first month I’ve been posted to GOU (Gyne oncology unit). I wasn’t particularly thrilled by this. I mean, who wants to wake up to see cancer patients everyday? Not me! It is quite depressing but I’m not so sad because I hated gyne oncology in med school so I guess this will give me an opportunity to learn and know it by force. 

So, during the three months posting in different units in O&G, you get to do one week in labor ward, another week in Gyne Emergency and then your one week leave. One each month. 

Guess who started with labor ward? Me. I was initially not excited because its usually very busy and unpredictable but I’ll still do it anyway and apparently to get your leave, you must have done your two weeks outside posting. 

First day in labor ward was not bad. They only allow scrubs and slippers in labor ward. I still dont understand why bathroom slippers sha. It was not as bad as I thought it’d be. I heard it was a punishment zone like if you do something wrong in your unit, they might post you to labor ward. The have the first stage area, the second stage area and then the post partum area where they stay till theyre transfered to the warda. The most common diagnosis here from my one week there is preeclampsia.  Basically, we do ward rounds with the registrars, snr registrars and consultants, review patients, fill investigation forms, take blood samples, assist in any procedure being done, assist in the surgeries being done, give IV drugs, take vital signs and deal with any complaint the patient has. Its not as easy as it sounds. I barely got a chance to just relax but the thing is its very unpredictable so it might get quiet for like an hour and next thing you know, they’re wheeling three patients in.  I was excited though. 

If you’re not on call, you get off work 5pm (5 was never really 5 tbh)  but if you are on call, it’s till 8 the next morning and you resume your normal duty. Stress. 

I did my first call in gyne emergency. Bruh. I never hexperret it. I barely slept for two hours. The emergency room here is under construction so it was just chaotic. I learnt a lot though and it was exciting. 
I’m back to my unit on Monday and I have a ward call that day. Hopefully, it goes well. 

This post is mainly for those that asked for house job update. 

So far, so good. I’ll try to keep y’all updated.

Have a good weekend! 

– TOSIN