Internship/house officer jobs problems for Medical graduates

This is very big issue to consider in the Nigeria 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 by merits.

The corrupt system in Nigeria have 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 Nigeria medical sector.

Now the effects of this menace in 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 for the hope of securing internship and house office jobs ends up involving in road accidents because of multiple travelling. And the most painful thing is that these slots are pre sold to the ones that have 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 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 internship on different hospitals and end up being defrauded. That is what the system has caused, many have fall victim of this and the little money they are managing for themselves got defrauded too.

◦ Joblessness: lack of internship placement has render some medical graduates jobless, as they fly from one hospital to another writing exams and interviews, they seems 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 stays at home for a year, some two years before they are able to secure internship or house office job, and tends to have forgotten alot 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 this 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 takes or absorbs medical graduates for internship as it tends to boost their creativity, experience and learning.

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