SENSITIZATION ON STRUGGLES OF MEDICAL STUDENTS IN NIGERIA.

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According to Punch newspaper, Nigeria produces about 12,000 doctors per annum.

How are these doctors made? What do they have to do to become doctors? How did they overcome those challenges?

 The main question dear reader is, who knows those struggles and success stories?

As a medical student in her second year, I have faced several difficult trials, been pressured even disappointed. Yet the need and aspiration to have that degree doesn’t dwindle nor become easier. My case study today will be the MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS studying in the prestigious COLLEGE OF MEDICINE UNILAG, NIGERIA.

For every student, what is the first stage of study?

 Admission into your chosen course and school.

For our case study, it has been clear for all aspiring students to see that getting into this school gets increasingly difficult every year. The merit mark required to get medical courses now ranges from 76 to 90 percent out of a 100 for the diverse departments in this school. This means an aspirant must have a JAMB score above 280/400 to have a shot and must have a minimum of 4As in their O-level courses even without the official school exam. This is exceedingly tough and it doesn’t get better.

The next stage for successful aspirants is their FIRST LEVEL OF STUDY.

Making use of our case study, your first year is a preliminary session.

During this year, you offer a minimum of 15 courses and you are required to have a GP between 3.5 to 5.0 to make it to the next stage which is the actual College of Medicine of the school. There is also a quota in place which determines the actual number of students that will be promoted to that stage. The realization of this is a major cause of pressure and unhealthy competition for students in this school.

Moving forward, successful students start their journey in the College of Medicine.

This year is another new phase because the students are actually just starting the courses closely related to their field despite being in the school for a year basically becoming freshers for two years. This phase is one of the toughest due to poor orientation on how medical colleges actually are and incapability to cope with these new requirements in some cases. The second year is quite crucial in determining what you end up becoming, it is demanding and tedious yet only the beginning. In consecutive years, the journey doesn’t get any easier, as we face countless exams, both internal and professional where failure means a retake or even worse a repeat of that year of study. In essence as seen from our case study, a medical professional’s journey is not an easy one and it needs to be known by society.

Medical professionals should be supported, congratulated and empathized with for putting their lives, mental health, physical health and even emotional health on the line to take care of the ill, special and needy. A medical student is an amazing, committed and noble human who deserves special recognition, a great standard of living and a sense of fulfillment in his/her life for it is a great sacrifice to choose to save lives.

Celebrate your health professionals today, remember the annual date for recognizing doctors in Nigeria- March 30th.

This is dedicated to every medical professional out there; aspiring, novices, veterans, residents, interns, round-the-clock workers and retired heroes. Thank you for your service to humanity.

God bless you.

COMPOSED BY Miss Joanna.

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