Views of early career doctors on residency training and clinical practice in Nigeria: A qualitative report from charting study

In Nigeria, Early Career Doctors (ECDs) constitute a significant number of the doctor's health workforce and play a crucial role in health service delivery. However, there is a paucity of data concerning attitude, perception, and challenges in training and skill acquisition faced by ECDs undergoing residency training in Nigeria. This study is a component of Challenges of Residency training and early career doctors in Nigeria (CHARTING study) a multicentre and multidisciplinary study that explored the views of ECDs on residency training and clinical practice in Nigeria. Methods: Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted among fourteen respondents, to address specific aspects of the residency training program and encourage respondents to express themselves about issues relevant to their personal experiences as regards the assessment of practice and proffer recommendations. Discussions were digitally recorded with an audio recorder. Audio-recordings was transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analysed, and coding was done using NVivo 12 program. Results: All the study participants expressed various degrees of dissatisfaction and challenges such as lack of up to date knowledge, poor&contingent rewards, workload distribution, lack of mentorship, and unequipped facility during the residency training program. Majority of the study participants considered the program is currently skewed towards service delivery at the detriment of training and research. Conclusion: The study provided robust information on the knowledge of the trainees' perception of the residency training program in Nigeria as well as the challenges of residency training among ECDs as regards their experience and practice; it also proffered recommendations to mitigate the challenges. Keywords: Career, Internship, Postgraduate, Registrar, Trainee, Residency, Doctors, Dentist, Early Career Doctors, Nigeria, Education, Graduate Medical, Residenc

Trainees collaboratively investigating early career doctors' themes: a nard initiative in Nigeria

Early career doctors (ECDs) are faced with many unique challenges; this is even more pronounced in low resources setting like country Nigeria. To unravel and improve understanding of these challenges the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) initiated a trainee driven research initiative. NARD initiated the Research and Statistics Committee (RSC), a six member team derived from her membership. In an attempt to carry out her responsibility efficiently the committee created the Research Collaboration network (RCN), a 43 member team comprising ECDs from across Nigeria. The key themes to be explored under this initiative include demographic, work and psychosocial issues as it affect ECDs in Nigeria. This article is set out to describe in detail the NARD initiative in term of the structure, operational modalities and agenda for the year 2018/19.Keywords: Research, Early career doctors, Residents Doctors, Nigeria, Junior Doctor

Knowledge of senior secondary school students in Nigeria about Head and Neck Cancer:Implications on prevention strategies

BACKGROUND: The high prevalence of the risk factors of head and neck cancer (HNC) amongst senior secondary (high) school students in Nigeria is an issue of serious public health concern. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the knowledge of HNC among them. METHODS: This cross-sectional study surveyed 2,530 senior secondary school students in Nigeria, assessed their knowledge of HNC, using a self-administered questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using the SPSS version 25 software. RESULTS: The mean (±SD) age of the respondents was 16.34 (±2.0) years. More than half (1418; 56.6%) of them were males, 530 (20.9%) were schooling in the north-central geopolitical zone of Nigeria, 1,860 (73.5%) were in public schools, 554 (21.9%) were boarding students, and 817 (33.5%) were in Senior Secondary (SS) 3 class. Only 789 (31.2%) respondents were aware of HNC, out of which: 69.2% of them had below-average scores in their overall assessment on HNC; 256 (32.4%) had ever received education on HNC and 81.2% indicated a positive interest in knowing more about HNC. The factors predicting above-average score on knowledge about HNC among the respondents were: being in SS3 class (OR=1.73; 95% CI=1.17 – 2.56), having been educated about HNC (OR=1.69; 95%CI=1.21 – 2.35) and having the interest to know more about HNC (OR=1.88; 95%CI=1.21 – 2.92). Bivariate analysis showed that these factors had statistically significant association (or relationship) with above-average score on knowledge about HNC (pvalues<0.05). CONCLUSION: Majority of the surveyed students were willing to know more about HNC. The use of a properly planned massive school-based HNC education programs may go a long way in educating this population group on HNC

Challenges of residency training and early career doctors in Nigeria study (charting study): a protocol paper

Introduction: Early career doctors (ECDs) make up a significant proportion of the workforce of medical/dental practitioners in Nigeria. ECDs play pivotal roles in the Nigerian healthcare system. However, several factors affect ECDs in their career endeavours, ranging from poor remuneration to psychosocial problems (such as burn out, job dissatisfaction, etc.). While other countries have tried to investigate these factors and their impact, no national inquiry has been done yet in Nigeria. This demonstrates the critical need to conduct a nationally representativestudy exploring these factors, such as demographic, workplace and psychosocial factors, among ECDs in Nigeria. This article is a protocol paper for the challenges of residency training and early career doctors in Nigeria study; charting study to be conducted under the auspices of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria(NARD).Methods: The Charting Study would be a mixed study design, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative study designs and access data from structured questionnaire, focus group interview and secondary data available to the association.Conclusion: The outcome of this study will provide great insight into various issues affecting ECDs in Nigeria and make necessary recommendations.Keywords: Nigeria, early career doctors, junior doctors, physicians, dentists, workplace, psychosocial issue

Caduceus or Rod of Aesculapius.pdf

<div>Caduceus and Rod of Aesculapius are commonly used</div><div>symbols in the medical field worldwide, but they do</div><div>not historically have the same strength of connection</div><div>with medicine. It is important to revisit the issue thereby</div><div>pointing the attention of medical policy and decision</div><div>makers on the adoption of these symbols and</div><div>reminding those that may already know of this</div><div>continuous misrepresentation.</div