Career

Tales of a House Officer in Nigeria

By Janet
June 3, 2017

A house officer (in Nigeria) is a doctor who is doing a compulsory one year internship (called housejob), by working in one of the recognised health institutions

Read medicine they said. It’s a professional course they said. A doctor would always have a job they said. Doctors are paid well…they said. They said so many things about medicine and well, being a doctor in general. But you never know how much it hurts, unless you are in the persons shoes.

I looked forward to starting my housejob for quite a few reasons:

The pay, as little as it is, is much appreciated.
Wanted to get it over and done with so as to move on with my life.
I welcomed the challenge of being a blogger and a practicing doctor.
Needed to put my clinical experience to work before all the data I acquired in medical school wiped off from my memory.
Meet new people. I am not the most friendly person out there but recently, I find it interesting to meet new people and of course make new friends.

After reading all these reasons, you would think I was overly eager to start housejob right?

But that was not the case. I started housejob 10 months after I finished medical school (had I stayed back in Ghana, I would have started 2 months after school but that’s not today’s story). So back to my point, I could have started earlier than I did but remember the reasons above, so although I was looking forward to starting house job, I wasn’t willing to work for free because it contradicted no 1 and I dared not work outside Abuja because of nos 2 & 3. It took a while to get what I wanted but I wasn’t pertubed because I was 100% convinced that Gods got me.

I’m currently doing my housejob at Maitama District Hospital (MDH) and I must confess that I’m loving it; the stress, the copy and paste (if you watched my weekend vlog, you would understand this) and of course the people. The stress is tolerable because it’s a secondary institution and therefore has less stressors than a teaching hospital for example. I’m still trying to find a balance between being a doctor and a blogger but I think I’m a step closer to figuring it all out.

The work load (as a house officer) is not overwhelming, thankfully, so I believe I’ll find that balance sooner than later. Although some days I just feel like picking up my bags and running away. Just call off the whole ‘damn’ show but I won’t cos na the work wey we dey do.

I’m currently in the Paediatrics posting, gonna be there for the next two months. I was initially dreading this department because we have a bitter-sweet relationship ie I have never really appreciated paediatrics as a branch of medicine. To me, paediatrics is synonymous with terror but on the other hand, I love cute babies. And the children that we see here are just the cutest chubby little munchkins. It seems their mothers feed them with baby fertilizer lol..just joking.

I thought being a house officer in Paediatrics was going to be annoying to say the least but I’ve got awesome colleagues who make it seem like a scoop of ice cream…easy. Shout out to you guys! I luy’all.

As for the copy and paste, go watch my weekend vlog video.

Now to the people (staff)…I have met so many characters in this hospital. A lot of them are really nice and would go out of their way to help out, and a few are just plain a**o****. And then there is (are) the eye candy (ies) *clears throat*. I have some gist for you guys but hmmm let’s just head on over to snapchat; PHIEEPHIEE, add me up and let’s have fun. “All work without play makes the doctor a boring one…LBJ.”

Hope you enjoyed reading this. Kindly leave a comment down below. Let’s chat…I respond personally to all comments.

With Love,

Janet.

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