They say Nigerian doctors are leaving Nigeria to seek greener pastures overseas resulting to a shortage of doctors. They also say the doctor to patients ratio in Nigeria is below requirement. I heard medicine is a difficult course to obtain in Nigerian tertiary institutions due to the stiff competition. So if doctors are running away from Nigeria why not lower the grade requirements to study medicine in Nigerian tertiary institutions so that more people can study medicine to counterbalance the numbers jetting out of country? So what exactly is the issue about doctors leaving Nigeria when they can be replaced?

You can't just replace someone with 10, 20, 30yrs of experience with a fresh graduate. And besides that, the conditions that made the experienced doctor to leave for greener pastures will still make your newly trained one to leave one day.

Delivar:
They say Nigerian doctors are leaving Nigeria to seek greener pastures overseas resulting to a shortage of doctors. They also say the doctor to patients ratio in Nigeria is below requirement. I heard medicine is a difficult course to obtain in Nigerian tertiary institutions due to the stiff competition. So if doctors are running away from Nigeria why not lower the grade requirements to study medicine in Nigerian tertiary institutions so that more people can study medicine to counterbalance the numbers jetting out of country? So what exactly is the issue about doctors leaving Nigeria when they can be replaced?

So you want to lower the standards?

The country has more than enough quacks in the health sector.

At present our doctors are more like quacks. Most prescribe drug overdose and kill patients in the process. What we can do is to source for foreign doctors or make it more difficult to qualify as a doctor in Nigeria until they realize that saving lives should be their focus not money making

thesicilian:
You can't just replace someone with 10, 20, 30yrs of experience with a fresh graduate. And besides that, the conditions that made the experienced doctor to leave for greener pastures will still make your newly trained one to leave one day.

When there is someone with 30 yrs experience there is also someone with 25 years experience and then 20 years experience follows behind and so on till you get to a fresh graduate. In other words the experience levels is not only between those with 30 yrs experience and those who are fresh graduates. It varies and decreases gradually. If a doctor with 30 yrs experience leaves the country there should also be someone with 27 yrs experience left behind to replace him or her, therefore I don't think you have made a point yet.

greyham:


So you want to lower the standards?

The country has more than enough quacks in the health sector.

Improving standard is not all about scoring a very high grade as a requirement to gain admission to study medicine. It has more to with mode of training in schools.

peacengine:
At present our doctors are more like quacks. Most prescribe drug overdose and kill patients in the process. What we can do is to source for foreign doctors or make it more difficult to qualify as a doctor in Nigeria until they realize that saving lives should be their focus not money making

That's the typical mindset of the average lecturer or professor in Nigerian universities that contributes to churning out low quality graduates. They want to make it difficult for students to pass by giving poor training and then following it up with very difficult examinations. That's how they feel quality graduates should be produced. The emphasis should be on intensive training and not difficult assessments.

Delivar:

Improving standard is not all about scoring a very high grade as a requirement to gain admission to study medicine. It has more to with mode of training in schools.

So how will lowering the entry requirements improve the mode of training as you earlier said?

I'm pointing this out because you made it sound like lowering entry requirements is the solution

Delivar:

When there is someone with 30 yrs experience there is also someone with 25 years experience and then 20 years experience follows behind and so on till you get to a fresh graduate. In other words the experience levels is not only between those with 30 yrs experience and those who are fresh graduates. It varies and decreases gradually. If a doctor with 30 yrs experience leaves the country there should also be someone with 27 yrs experience left behind to replace him or her, therefore I don't think you have made a point yet.

It seems you don't know the magnitude of the problem at hand. Almost everyone is leaving or planning to leave!

greyham:


So how will lowering the entry requirements improve the mode of training as you earlier said?

I'm pointing this out because you made it sound like lowering entry requirements is the solution

I never said lowering the entry requirements will improve the mode of training. What I am saying is the entry requirement should be lowered and then the quality of training greatly improved. They should both go hand in hand. If the entry requirements is high and you have poor training you will still have quacks, but even if you lower the entry barrier and training is more intensive you will have fantastic graduates. There's no point complaining of doctors taking an exit from Nigeria when there are still millions of Nigerians capable of replacing them when the entry barrier is lowered coupled with adequate training.

thesicilian:

It seems you don't know the magnitude of the problem at hand. Almost everyone is leaving or planning to leave!

But it's not possible for everyone to leave. And that's why I am suggesting the numbers of those studying medicine should increase so no matter how many eventually leaves there will still be many left behind.

Delivar:

But it's not possible for everyone to leave. And that's why I am suggesting the numbers of those studying medicine should increase so no matter how many eventually leaves there will still be many left behind.

True, it's not possible for everyone to leave. But would you rather have employees with poor job satisfaction who are only working for you because they have no choice elsewhere, than to address the major issues that are making them leave in the first place?
Bearing fully in mind that it is not only the doctor that is leaving, even the nurse, engineer, pharmacist, architect, economist, accountant are all involved in this mass exodus.

thesicilian:

True, it's not possible for everyone to leave. But would you rather have employees with poor job satisfaction who are only working for you because they have no choice elsewhere, than to address the major issues that are making them leave in the first place?
Bearing fully in mind that it is not only the doctor that is leaving, even the nurse, engineer, pharmacist, architect, economist, accountant are all involved in this mass exodus.

The problem here is selfishness. Every man for himself. As professionals are leaving they are simply weakening the voice and power of their colleagues left behind and making them so weak to push for reforms and nothing will ever be done about the situation. So don't expect any thing to be done about it since everyone's mind is focused on leaving rather than fighting against the ugly situation. The day we will all decide to stay back and fight is the day things will start to change.

Delivar:

The problem here is selfishness. Every man for himself. As professionals are leaving they are simply weakening the voice and power of their colleagues left behind and making them so weak to push for reforms and nothing will ever be done about the situation. So don't expect any thing to be done about it since everyone's mind is focused on leaving rather than fighting against the ugly situation. The day we will all decide to stay back and fight is the day things will start to change.

You may seem right, theoretically that is. But according to a Benin proverb, (with all due respect,) It is when a child grows up that he'll know what prevented Baba (father) from sewing new agbada (robe) and sokoto (trousers) for the Christmas and New Year.

That sentiment that more doctors are leaving the country is what NMA and their cohorts employ when they want to achieve their selfish ends. They shouldn't be taken seriously!!!

For every medical doctor that leaves Nigeria, we have 50 more who are begging to be employed by government hospitals.

Somebody should remind them that they are not the only ones leaving the country for greener pastures. Engineers, Lawyers,teachers, Nurses, Pharmacists, etc are also leaving! Are medical doctors the only people affected by the harsh economy in Nigeria

Delivar:

I never said lowering the entry requirements will improve the mode of training. What I am saying is the entry requirement should be lowered and then the quality of training greatly improved. They should both go hand in hand If the entry requirements is high and you have poor training you will still have quacks, but even if you lower the entry barrier and training is more intensive you will have fantastic graduates. There's no point complaining of doctors taking an exit from Nigeria when there are still millions of Nigerians capable of replacing them when the entry barrier is lowered coupled with adequate training.

But that was not what you said.

This is what you said

Delivar:
They say Nigerian doctors are leaving Nigeria to seek greener pastures overseas resulting to a shortage of doctors. They also say the doctor to patients ratio in Nigeria is below requirement. I heard medicine is a difficult course to obtain in Nigerian tertiary institutions due to the stiff competition. So if doctors are running away from Nigeria why not lower the grade requirements to study medicine in Nigerian tertiary institutions so that more people can study medicine to counterbalance the numbers jetting out of country? So what exactly is the issue about doctors leaving Nigeria when they can be replaced?

You never talked about the mode of training until someone else mentioned it.

If you must lower entry requirements the learning process must be greatly improved FIRST to have better trained graduates unless you're prepared to handle more quacks in the system.

greyham:


But that was not what you said.

This is what you said



You never talked about the mode of training until someone else mentioned it.

If you must lower entry requirements the learning process must be greatly improved FIRST to have better trained graduates unless you're prepared to handle more quacks in the system.

I didn't include it in my first post because that wasn't what my post was all about. It was more about replacing the exiting doctors. Then your first reply to my post came as follows:

So you want to lower the standards?

The country has more than enough quacks in the health sector.

I then had to tell you lowering grades for entry should not translate to lowering standards, and it has more to to with quality of training.

Delivar:

But it's not possible for everyone to leave. And that's why I am suggesting the numbers of those studying medicine should increase so no matter how many eventually leaves there will still be many left behind.

The number of people studying medicine cannot be drastically increased over night.

Medicine is a Faculty that must be accredited in universities by NUC, NMA etc before it can admit students and give them MBBS degrees.
Some universities are made to admit a particular number of students every year. . . .some 100, some 150 some 200 from a sea of millions of applicants.
That's why the numbers studying Medicine cannot increase dramatically.

I think with international best practice in our health system whereby carrier progression is paramount and research is encourage,we will get it right.

Doctors are econommic migrants

Doctors please go abroad, leave us in peace. I think you have murdered enough people, we wish you well


Buy affordable land, pm me for more information

Yonce:


The number of people studying medicine cannot be drastically increased over night.

Medicine is a Faculty that must be accredited in universities by NUC, NMA etc before it can admit students and give them MBBS degrees.
Some universities are made to admit a particular number of students every year. . . .some 100, some 150 some 200 from a sea of millions of applicants.
That's why the numbers studying Medicine cannot increase dramatically.

Of course, rome wasn't built in a day. If the quota is increased across all unis in Nigeria, it would significantly increase the number of inductees per year. But that's not even remotely a solution