With all the stress medical doctors are not even rich. What a waste.

Wonderful writeup

I dunno if it is moral/ ethical to say what I would do? (I actually did it?)
I love lounging, I love reading novels, I am very very lazy and found my way into medical school because of my "outstanding, unheard of brilliance"

I would not, could not, did not let medical school get the better of me....well, apart from the inevitable dealing with that must occur on a cellular level )
So for 2ndMB, I chose to read Biochem and Physio....passed them, and had Anatomy resit (I actually became a Biochem and Anatomy god as a result

For 3rdMB, I chose to read and pass the dreaded and crazily voluminous Pathology....at the expense of Pharmacology (it was so glaring that that was what I did-why, during Pharm viva, my 3 questions were-...1, what happened? 2, did you read Pharm at all!? (Eyes roll), and 3, okay name one agonist, just one (I could not! Jeez,lol)
Again, after reading for the resit, I became a Pharm royalty. I still actually know a biiiig load of Pharm

Well, for finals I buckled up the one time, read like others and passed all three, graduating with my class (but of course)...with no one being the wiser!
But, this is a very wrong thing to tell people to do, except if you were a pleasure lover like me, no holds barred kind, this pleasure can just mean sitting down for hours and just being, just doing absolutely nothing....dear Lawd, I am terrible

But, I live by my own rules and define my reality...and can be one hell of a good and dedicated doctor (in another life though, I would choose the arts, and be a painter, or a writer....I can actually be all these too, but I am LAZY
You know what? I will write, and paint, and doctor, and live, and soar...promise to self)
Cheers
Nice piece!
(We need Psychiatrists and Psychologists like no man's business in these climes...sadly, people live like animals in the cruel and harsh reality of life here.....)

Wonderful piece... Its not easy afterall.... Doctors una dey try sha

pesinfada:
very much is xptd of a doctor!


So less is given much is xptd.



90% of doctors are frustratd during clinics

I tell you, 95% sef.

Dr I crave your indulgence. Please how can you be Reached? I honestly wouldn't mind having your number. Please mine is 08028764916.

None read this epistle

Wow... great piece


I left university of Benin medicine and surgery in 2007, weks before my MB. I never regret the decision any single day.

Am a pre clinical student...the problem here is pressure... itz jst too much

hellohgy:
Wow......such a nice piece on medicine and turmoil experience....

am also a newly admitted student to study medicine ....Pls wat ur advise for me.....

because of ppl are scaring me oooo..

My Advice for you

* You can make it. Those you make it have two eyes as you have.

* But the fact remains. MBBS in Nigeria is never an easy Job. Believe me it has surpass all what you have think of before.

* Sit up and get it done. There is no two ways about it. It is not a course for the most brilliant but for people with patience and dedication.

Famocious:
CONCLUDING PART OF STRESS AND MEDICAL SCHOOL: PART III

THE WAY FORWARD

As medical students and future doctors, you have to learn how to survive and look after your emotional and psychological wellbeing. Stress is going to be your middle name. How can you possibly cope? What should be done?

Interventions have to be on two levels:

A) College-wide intervention efforts: Orientation for medical students, support in pre-clinical school including evolving the roles of Demonstrators in Anatomy for example, Seminars for Lecturers towards improving the study/work environment – and specifically eliminating emotional and verbal abuse e.t.c. The Dept of Psychiatry can also provide counselling and support mechanisms – including training and utilizing volunteer peer counsellors in every class. But this is outside your control so they remain recommendations for the College to consider and possibly implement. Professor Olayinka Banjo Omigbodun is the Head of the College Counselling Unit. Dr Adefemi Afolabi, Immediate Past CMAC has recently started co-ordinating a Mentor-Mentee training workshop for all teachers, residents and student representatives. These are positive steps in the right direction.

B) Individual efforts: I will focus more on this aspect, because these are practical things YOU CAN DO. My suggestions are by no means exhaustive, so feel free to comment and add to the list. What worked from my experience include:

1. Take control of your life and emotions: Your happiness and emotional wellbeing is in your hands. No one else owes you. It is not the responsibility of your classmates, roommates, family or teachers to make you happy and comfortable. They can lend you a helping hand, or make it easier (or more difficult as the case may be), but the onus ultimately is squarely on your shoulders. And no one else.

Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted as saying that “No one can make you feel inferior, without your permission”. Similarly, no one can make you unhappy without your permission.

You can’t control how others will treat you, but you CAN control how YOU REACT. And this is a lesson for life: In your family life, neighbourhood, work environment e.t.c.; you can only do your best but it may not be good enough. You will be unfairly criticized, humiliated or unappreciated. What will you do? Get angry, feel humiliated, stop trying, give up? Or shrug it off and keep trying to be a better you, every day of your life? Since the school environment is outside your control, the challenge is for you to keep your head above the water and make progress. How? By controlling how you react to adverse situations. Besides, tough times don’t last forever, good times will come around again. So enjoy the experience and the journey. Lament less, and learn to laugh at yourself.

2. Power of friendships: Cultivate friends who will always have your back, and invest heavily in your relationships. Enjoy every single day that you draw breath, appreciate your friends, roommates, family and so on. What helped some of us through medical school was a strong band of friends who became brothers and sisters over the years. We went through thick and thin together – marching on like soldiers. I believe in investing heavily in relationships, because you never know when you will be down and need to draw on that goodwill to help you. No one can go through life without ever needing to lean on another’s shoulder at one point or the other. The religious groupings and the former Arhema provided much needed camaraderie to many.
And when you graduate, and get married, treasure your family and invest your emotions and time on them. When your career is over, and you become a stranger on the corridors where you once held sway, you may have nothing to fall back on besides family.

3. Get a life: Have friends outside medicine, and engage in extra-curricular activities to enrich your life and distract you from work related events. Sports, social clubs and the arts, are possible outlets for de-stressing. Ibadan Medical School is particularly blessed with a wide array of student organizations where you can acquire additional all-round skills. I particularly recommend THE FORUM, which is a student organization that is focused on the acquisition of leadership and management skills. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: I was a member of THE FORUM, and it contributed immensely to my all-round learning. DOKITA, PlayHouse, Sinfonia, Press Organizations are other alternatives.

Go to UI and watch entertaining shows by students of Theatre Arts Department. Join the University of Ibadan LOM of JayCees. Participate in inter-block or inter-group activities. Join the Debating Club. Follow current affairs. Learn history and all sorts of odds and bits from individuals who have a knack for them. If you are not particularly good at sports, you can be very good as a member of the supporters’ club. Have fun and celebrate life and being alive. It is a gift. Treasure the moments and memories.

4. Avoid taking drugs and substances: It is very easy and often very tempting to turn to drugs and take something that would make you forget the stress and just make you feel good. The dangers include addiction and negative health impact. Some people smoke cannabis, others take alcohol or smoke cigarettes. Cannabis is particularly risky as it may be helpful initially but may cause a chronic syndrome characterized by a lack of motivation (Amotivational syndrome). Believe me, this is the last thing you want to happen to you, as a medical student – to lack motivation. Even when highly motivated, it is a struggle to make progress. If you lose the motivation and no longer care about anything, it will be an uphill task to persevere and succeed.

5. Look at the big picture and stop taking yourself so seriously. Nothing in this world is worth your happiness. The things that appear so ‘huuuge and bigly’ now, will pale into insignificance in a few years’ time. So just give it time. If you feel so terrible because you failed an exam today, do some honest introspection after the inevitable pain and disappointment subsides. Subsequently, resolve to work harder instead of feeling sorry for yourself and feeling humiliated. If you then passed the following year, would it really matter in 10 or 20 years’ time? I can assure it would not. I ‘lost’ 2 years as an Engineering student before coming back to medical school, but if I did not tell you now, would you know? And in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter who graduated before the other? I can bet you that what truly matters is whether or not you are happy and fulfilled, regardless of when you graduated or what specialty you are in.

6. Lastly, if it’s not working for you, CHANGE it: It is never too late to change. Never be afraid of change. Pursue what makes you happy, I know doctors, graduates of COMUI, who graduated MBBS and then decided that what they have always wanted was to become a pilot and have gone to aviation school afterwards. Others have gone into Banking, Health Economics – including a classmate who is now a Health Economist at the World Bank, because of his outstanding brilliance in the field of Health Economics. Some others have completed Residency in one specialty only to change their minds and pursue another specialty. Some changed mid-way during Residency. Bottom-line: whatever makes you feel alive and gives you joy, pursue it. Don’t let the looks of ‘are you crazy’? How can you abandon residency? How can you change after passing Part I? You will be seen as a failure e.t.c. hold you back. Some have left Nigeria after Residency to start all over abroad. A few others have done the reverse journey - albeit, a much fewer sample.

In conclusion, I leave you with good wishes from Tai Solarin: may your road be rough. But I hasten to add: May you come out at the end, unscathed, smiling, wiser and stronger…..and none the worse for the journey. Hopefully rejuvenated, skilled yet humb
le and compassionate. Dedicated to the service of humanity. And God help us all.

Jibril Abdulmalik
Consultant Psychiatrist, UCH, Ibadan.

who asked ya to sign up for medical school ya can always decline if ya can't dnt complain just do ya Best anyway am also a final year .medical student will be a doctor in a month time good luck to all medics all over Nigeria

aladon10:
who asked ya to sign up for medical school ya can always decline if ya can't dnt complain just do ya Best anyway am also a final year .medical student will be a doctor in a month time good luck to all medics all over Nigeria

He is not complaining. He is a consultant.

hellohgy:
Wow......such a nice piece on medicine and turmoil experience....

am also a newly admitted student to study medicine ....Pls wat ur advise for me.....

because of ppl are scaring me oooo..

fistly you need to be meticulous in all you do and avoid careless mistakes like knowing when to use "i'm" and "am".

tensazangetsu20:
With all the stress medical doctors are not even rich. What a waste.

Who told you everyone does it for the money?

The wealth and prestige that goes with the profession is secondary to prolonging human life

victons:
Am a pre clinical student...the problem here is pressure... itz jst too much

Just take it one day at a time. That's what I was told

Bo se ri gele niyen.

nice write up... bt they re lucky since they only offer 3 courses in 200L...... here in ABU is five......d ones mentioned with pharmacology and community medicine

God bless you for this wonderful write up.
It encapsulates all the high and low of studying medicine. I pray this write up can be published in forums where new and old medical students can have access to it. Many will definitely be helped by looking through the eye of one who conquered all the demons of studying medicine. Once again God bless you Doctor.

victons:
Am a pre clinical student...the problem here is pressure... itz jst too much

Sorry bro, there will always be pressure but find a way to cope/ manage the pressure while you forge ahead.

Good things of life hardly come easy..

Cheers

Asu015:
nice write up... bt they re lucky since they only offer 3 courses in 200L...... here in ABU is five......d ones mentioned with pharmacology and community medicine

Sure! N u must pass all,once u fail two, auto-repeat...
May God help us...

My nephew just finish his exams awaiting result for clinical, when asked i hope you will succeed his response was dull, i pray he succeeds. Op ,thank u for enlightening me because i was beginning to wonder if d boy takes his course very serious.

imhere:
My nephew just finish his exams awaiting result for clinical, when asked i hope you will succeed his response was dull, i pray he succeeds. Op ,thank u for enlightening me because i was beginning to wonder if d boy takes his course very serious.

Clinical. You shouldn't worry much. The implication is less when compared to clinical.

Lovely piece.. brought back many memories of med school.Untold stress is in all medical schools in Nigeria, not minding if you focused on UCH. I guess if facilities are improved upon and medical students welfare is put into focus,it'll reduce the stress.You actually gave a precise summary. Thanks Sir!

I tell u... medical school z another name for stress

merahki:
I dunno if it is moral/ ethical to say what I would do? (I actually did it?)
I love lounging, I love reading books, I am very very lazy and found my way into medical school because of my "outstanding, unheard of brilliance"

I would not, could not, did not let medical school get the better of me....well, apart from the inevitable dealing with that must occur on a cellular level )
So for 2ndMB, I chose to read Biochem and Physio....passed them, and had Anatomy resit (I actually became a Biochem and Anatomy god as a result

For 3rdMB, I chose to read and pass the dreaded and crazily voluminous Pathology....at the expense of Pharmacology (it was so glaring that that was what I did-why, during Pharm viva, my 3 questions were-...1, what happened? 2, did you read Pharm at all!? (Eyes roll), and 3, okay name one agonist, just one (I could not! Jeez,lol)
Again, after reading for the resit, I became a Pharm royalty. I still actually know a biiiig load of Pharm

Well, for finals I buckled up the one time, read like others and passed all three, graduating with my class (but of course)...with no one being the wiser!
But, this is a very wrong thing to tell people to do, except if you were a pleasure lover like me, no holds barred kind, this pleasure can just mean sitting down for hours and just being, just doing absolutely nothing....dear Lawd, I am terrible

But, I live by my own rules and define my reality...and can be one hell of a good and dedicated doctor (in another life though, I would choose the arts, and be a painter, or a writer....I can actually be all these too, but I am LAZY
You know what? I will write, and paint, and doctor, and live, and soar...promise to self)
Cheers
Nice piece!
(We need Psychiatrists and Psychologists like no man's business in these climes...sadly, people live like animals in the cruel and harsh reality of life here.....)

you are my role model

aladon10:
who asked ya to sign up for medical school ya can always decline if ya can't dnt complain just do ya Best anyway am also a final year .medical student will be a doctor in a month time good luck to all medics all over Nigeria

Just imagine say, you come meet this writer for your medicine long or short case, then you go understand why he write this stuff...
Success in your exams

afechosen:
Lovely piece.. brought back many memories of med school.Untold stress is in all medical schools in Nigeria, not minding if you focused on UCH. I guess if facilities are improved upon and medical students welfare is put into focus,it'll reduce the stress.You actually gave a precise summary. Thanks Sir!

Some of our teachers need reorientation sha... Sometimes after ward rounds, you go just dey ask yourself, "na so I dull?" Then you go vex page book for 6 straight hours only to come the next ward round and consultant say present this patient.. As you dey read biodata, patient start to follow you argue say you pronounce the name without adding his/her title.. The consultant go start another round of insult and humiliation for patient's present.. Kia! You go wan quench

After reading dis piece it actually tripled alot of pressure for me as a first time aspirant of medicine in UNILLORIN for dis years utme guyz dis piece got me real scared

Suprnov3r:
Wow... great piece


I left university of Benin medicine and surgery in 2007, weks before my MB. I never regret the decision any single day.

what do you do now sir?

Is it true that u use to read 13 hours straight every day.....pls aw true is DAT for a medical student.

because me I am scared oooooo

hellohgy:
Is it true that u use to read 13 hours straight every day.....pls aw true is DAT for a medical student.

because me I am scared oooooo

Reading for 13hours is the easiest route for failure in medical school.
You must read Atleast 19-20hours daily if you must remain in medical school.