TRAINING FUTURE TRAINERS, THE ROLE OF MEDICAL CONSULTANTS

Formerly Published in Vol. 6 No. 1 Jan. - Jun., 2021

Abstract

There is the need to rejig medical training in Nigeria so as to maintain the reputable standards and remain internationally competitive. The quality of young doctors produced by our medical schools has fallen short of the standard.1,2 The blame is partly on the trainees, their trainers, the medical schools and the regulatory agencies. The aim of this letter is to provide insight on the urgent need to upscale the quality of medical education in Nigeria.  
The “japa” syndrome (emigration wave) has created a complex situation as many lecturers and consultants have emigrated for greener pastures. Some units and indeed departments have been shut down in our tertiary hospitals due to brain drain.1,3 Young doctors now abandon the hitherto-prestigious national youth service program (NYSC) and housemanship after completing their medical training. The double-digit inflation means less purchasing power of our salaries and income generally necessitating pursuit of other sources for additional revenue. Many senior doctors now run non-medical businesses thereby having little or no time for medical service delivery and training of junior colleagues. Again, the quest for materialism as demanded by societal norms has also affected commitment to training and service delivery. Doctors of all cadres strive to work additional hours to make more money so as to pay statutory bills, meet societal expectations and fulfil personal demands. Adequate supervision and mentorship is therefore elusive at the moment.
There are 48 medical schools in Nigeria (MDCN, 2023) with an output of 3000-3500 doctors annually (NMA, 2023).⁴ The doctor: patient ratio still stands at 1:10,000 which is a far cry from the World Health Organisation’s (WHO)  recommendation of 1:600.⁵ The challenges of medical training in Nigeria .include irrelevant medical courses, students’ burnout syndrome, biased administrative processes, paucity of technologically-advanced teaching aids, increased workload of lecturers, difficulty in standardizing examinations and reduced trainees interest in acquisition of knowledge and skills. There is now a strange zeal to acquire the certificates and zoom-off to other climes. Most medical curricula have been in use for several years and need to be reviewed in tandem with international educational guidelines. The national universities commission has indeed in recent times carried out some review⁶ but more need to be done. Next is the controversial issue of professional bullying which is usually counterproductive. It is an antiquated tradition that should be jettisoned. Trainees need mental stability, job satisfaction and enabling environment for optimal knowledge acquisition.