Internship/house officer jobs problems for Medical graduates

This is a very big issue to consider in the Nigerian medical sector as many medical graduates are having serious challenges securing an internship or house office job in different hospitals as most are not given merits.

The corrupt system in Nigeria has affected every sector of the country as most medical graduates are made to pay either in kind or in cash, or you have to know someone that knows someone. That’s how it works in the Nigerian medical sector.

Now the effects of this menace on the life of these little graduates of medical fields are listed below

◦ Road accidents: most students try to migrate from state to state, going for exams and interviews in the hope of securing internships and house office jobs end up involved in road accidents because of multiple traveling. And the most painful thing is that these slots are pre-sold to the ones that have the finance to buy it

◦ Frustration and depression: most students have been depressed to extent of thinking about suicide, imagine being at home for a very long time waiting for an internship, which seems not to come. you would be depressed so much and feel frustrated.

◦ Financial collapse: I have friends who have paid heavily to be able to secure internships in different hospitals and end up being defrauded. That is what the system has caused, many have fall victim to this and the little money they are managing for themselves got defrauded too.

◦ Joblessness: lack of internship placement has rendered some medical graduates jobless, as they fly from one hospital to another writing exams and interviews, they seem not to even have a job, yet they spend a lot of money applying for internship jobs and traveling to different states to write the exams.

◦ Inefficiency: there’s inefficiency in the health system of the country because most graduates stay at home for a year, some two years before they are able to secure an internship or house office job, and tend to have forgotten a lot and lack more experience to dive into the health sector, this is a risk as I have many colleagues after years of graduating and when finally exposed to treat a patient they start to shiver and loses confidence.

With these few listed and many points unlisted here, I urged the government, especially the health sector of the government to adjust the internship and house office jobs placement and place more security on this to ensure that a lot of hospitals take or absorb medical graduates for an internship as it tends to boost their creativity, experience, and learning.

Most graduates are getting discouraged and that’s not entirely good for the health sector of the country. Please kindly look into it.