Thread by @drpenking

THE TEARS AND WOES OF THE HOUSE OFFICER, THE MOST ABUSED AND MALTREATED DOCTOR IN NIGERIA

Medical education in Nigeria lasts for 6 years, after which the new Doctor has to do a compulsory one year program called internship or Housemanship in a teaching hospital or

Federal Medical Centre. This Doctor called a House Officer, practices with a temporary (provisional) license under the supervision of more senior Doctors which can be registrars, senior registrars or consultants. It is only at the end of this program that he can enroll in the

mandatory NYSC program.

A House Officer is the first port of call when a new patient reaches the hospital. He clerks the patient and presents same to his seniors who make a diagnosis and write out what the house officer should do for the patient.

The house officer does jobs which demands the closest contact with the patient such as securing IV access, taking blood and urine samples, passing catheter, transfusing blood, monitoring a woman in labour, administering medications to inpatients, passing feeding tube,

clerking and examining patients, booking theatre and preparing patients for surgery,fetching blood from the bank and loaning for patients who have no donor.

The house officer carries out every demeaning task in the hospital.
Sometimes they are sent by some seniors to carry

out unbecoming tasks which are in no way part of their job description such as going to buy moi moi, going to buy chewing gum or sometimes even going to pick children of seniors from school and unfortunately they can't say No because they need the signatures of seniors to move

ahead in life.

House Officers are refused the right to enroll in National Health Insurance Scheme because "they are temporary staff" even though they are the ones most prone to work place related hazard and stress-induced sickness.

Many House Officers work 72 hour shift

with no rest and some House Officers are on permanent call every night for 2-4 werks because they are the only House Officer in the unit as Nigerian Hospitals are always understaffed. Many Teaching Hospitals which should be manned by 150 House Officers are manned by 50. These

50 work to their death.

When House Officers make mistakes due to overwork, they are punished with even more work which comes in form of "extension". The House Officer may work for upto 2 extra months without pay e.g the case of one Dr Iruka from UUTH

House Officers get diseases all the time e.g Hepatitis B from needle stick injury due to lack of concentration from overwork and burnout syndrome.

House Officers get needle stick injuries from HIV patients and they have to take Post Exposure Prophylaxis for upto 4 weeks with

devastating side effects including Nightmares from Efavirenz.

House Officer Salaries is the lowest among the salary of Doctors yet they are usually irregular, halved, unduly taxed, extorted, delayed without any explanation with no regards to whether these ones have dependents

or not.

House officers are constantly verbally abused and downgraded by dare-devil seniors who tell them things like, "You are a disgrace.". "You can never make it in this profession. "You are pathethic." etc

Even with all the problems listed above, House Officers salaries are

sometimes withheld for months as it is currently happening all over Nigeria.

Little Wonder why post housemanship Doctors leave the country with the next available bus.

There is a questiin we should all ask ourselves. When the Nigerian government and elders in the Medical

Profession keep working in synergy to frustrate young Doctors who ever dreamt of practicing in this country and force them into flights to the middle east, who will take care of sick Nigerians in the future?