₦airaland Forum

It is not uncommon to see internship students being used in our public hospitals to do the jobs meant for fully engaged staff. This trend portends a serious danger as it puts the lives of patients at risks! Interns are students undergoing the last part of their training! They're are ment to be taught the practical aspects of their professions by fully licenced and engaged professionals in the facility!

However, what we now have in many public hospitals is a situation where these interns are taken in place of full staff members and the result is that errors upon errors are made by these interns at the detriment of patients! Many patients have died while others have suffered economic losses as a result of this dangerous trend.

In an ideal situation, interns are not meant to interface directly with patients. It is the job of fully licenced staff members of the hospital to care for patients while delegating minor duties to the interns.

The minister of health must rise to the occasion and put a stop to this anomaly! MDs should be made to employ fully licenced staff members and avoid using interns to do jobs meant for licenced professionals because these interns are not yet fully licenced to practise their professions! We have enough licenced professionals in the various healthcare fields who are ready to take up jobs in our hospitals! Let's stop putting the lives of patients at risks with this dangerous practise! Enough is enough!

I had an experience with a doctor who had to Google the symptoms of what she suspected was the ailment with my son.

She ended up that a test had to be conducted.

Upon the arrival of the doctor, we discovered it was just a minor thing and only a few medications were recommended.


These guys still need to learn from experienced doctors but in Nigeria, they're allowed to attend to patients with little or no supervision at all!


Meanwhile, congratulations to everyone who loves and wants to see a new Nigeria, to you I dedicate my FTC

OK to the rescue

Peter Obi and Kwakwanso will be our president and vice, come 2027

The young shall grow

We need to keep them busy

Very dangerous. I have personally seen how negligent(obviously out of limited knowledge) some of them can be. And the main officers there enjoy using them, as they help reduce their work.

While the concern for patient safety is valid, the conversation also needs balance.

Interns in public hospitals are not simply “students being used to replace staff.” In many healthcare professions, internship is a compulsory transition stage between classroom learning and full professional practice. Doctors, pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, and others cannot become competent professionals without supervised hands-on experience with real patients.

The real issue is not the existence of interns — it is poor supervision, understaffing, and weak healthcare funding.

Public hospitals in Nigeria are often overwhelmed. Many facilities are dealing with staff shortages caused by migration of healthcare workers, delayed recruitment, poor salaries, and inadequate government funding. In that environment, interns sometimes end up carrying responsibilities beyond what should normally be assigned to them. That is a systemic failure, not proof that internship itself is dangerous.

Completely removing interns from direct patient interaction is also unrealistic. Healthcare is learned through practice. A medical doctor cannot become confident by only observing from a distance. A pharmacist must eventually interact with prescriptions. A nurse must handle patients under supervision. The key phrase is under supervision.

Many of the fully licensed professionals being demanded today were once interns who needed experienced mentors to guide them.

Rather than calling for an end to interns participating in patient care, the focus should be on:

Ensuring proper supervision by senior professionals

Hiring more permanent healthcare workers

Improving hospital funding

Creating clear boundaries for what interns can and cannot do

Holding hospital management accountable when interns are overworked or left unsupervised


Blaming interns alone risks targeting young professionals who are also victims of a struggling healthcare system. The solution is to fix the structure that forces them into roles they were never meant to handle alone. Patient safety matters, but so does building the next generation of competent healthcare professionals.

Jman06:
It is not uncommon to see internship students being used in our public hospitals to do the jobs meant for fully engaged staff. This trend portends a serious danger as it puts the lives of patients at risks! Interns are students undergoing the last part of their training! They're are ment to be taught the practical aspects of their professions by fully licenced and engaged professionals in the facility!

However, what we now have in many public hospitals is a situation where these interns are taken in place of full staff members and the result is that errors upon errors are made by these interns at the detriment of patients! Many patients have died while others have suffered economic losses as a result of this dangerous trend.

In an ideal situation, interns are not meant to interface directly with patients. It is the job of fully licenced staff members of the hospital to care for patients while delegating minor duties to the interns.

The minister of health must rise to the occasion and put a stop to this anomaly! MDs should be made to employ fully licenced staff members and avoid using interns to do jobs meant for licenced professionals because these interns are not yet fully licenced to practise their professions! We have enough licenced professionals in the various healthcare fields who are ready to take up jobs in our hospitals! Let's stop putting the lives of patients at risks with this dangerous practise! Enough is enough!

That's how an intern in a Federal medical centre gave me heart and injection that was not meant for his particular kind of heart disease. It killed my father in less than 3 hours. Someone that was already scheduled for discharge the next day.

frank417:
Very dangerous. I have personally seen how negligent(obviously out of limited knowledge) some of them can be. And the main officers there enjoy using them, as they help reduce their work.

It’s not only happening in public hospitals — it also occurs in private hospitals.

I remember an incident where a woman had just delivered through CS, and an intern walked in and said, “sorry.” The grandmother nearly lost it because she assumed the worst from that statement.

What the intern actually meant was, “sorry, I couldn’t read what you wrote.”

That moment captured the danger of placing inexperienced interns in situations that require trained professionals. In healthcare, poor communication and inadequate supervision can create unnecessary panic — and in more serious cases, put lives at risk.

femi4:
The young shall grow

We need to keep them busy

Will you allow an intern doctor perform a surgical operation on you?

They are suppose to be there to learn

Deeprooted:
I had an experience with a doctor who had to Google the symptoms of what she suspected was the ailment with my son.

She ended up that a test had to be conducted.

Upon the arrival of the doctor, we discovered it was just a minor thing and only a few medications were recommended.


These guys still need to learn from experienced doctors but in Nigeria, they're allowed to attend to patients with little or no supervision at all!

Similar thing happened to me oh I was told to do a surgery only for me to go to another hospital and they said surgery has never been done on that kind of thing

Deeprooted:
I had an experience with a doctor who had to Google the symptoms of what she suspected was the ailment with my son.

She ended up that a test had to be conducted.

Upon the arrival of the doctor, we discovered it was just a minor thing and only a few medications were recommended.


These guys still need to learn from experienced doctors but in Nigeria, they're allowed to attend to patients with little or no supervision at all!

That experienced doctors was also like that young doctor at some point.

A doctor that Google is a safer doctor!

Note the word "doctor" not a "non doctor that google".

Dogalmighty17:
That's how an intern in a Federal medical centre gave me heart and injection that was not meant for his particular kind of heart disease. It killed my father in less than 3 hours. Someone that was already scheduled for discharge the next day.

What is the name of the injection?
What is the heart disease?

Nigerians!

Nackzy:
They are suppose to be there to learn

They are there to practice under supervision.

Not just to learn.

Indeed. In this country we allow extreme rot in every sector and this is because the leaders do not use the same services as the masses.

How can a big hospital be short staffed or experienced doctors chill at home and come to work only when they feel like? sometimes you'll see nurses on the phone calling them to come to the hospital..

And these novices called interns would be the ones available to do trial and error on patients. I can't count how many patients have been carelessly killed by the mistakes of these inexperienced interns.

You'll take your relative to the hospital and you'll see the way students will just crowd the ailing person, stretching their necks looking and using the person as a specimen without any dignity. They'll say it's a teaching hospital.. but no privacy or dignity is accorded the patient at all.
I can imagine how pained the family of the 'specimen patient' battling for their lives would be, but can't do anything.

In this life where you can be anything... Be rich!!!

femi4:
The young shall grow

We need to keep them busy

Not without supervision, Mr Femi. They should be understudying a senior colleague.

Exaggeration.

If you don't want, don't use a teaching hospital.

More likely op is pissed at being handled by baby doctors

Jman06:
It is not uncommon to see internship students being used in our public hospitals to do the jobs meant for fully engaged staff. This trend portends a serious danger as it puts the lives of patients at risks! Interns are students undergoing the last part of their training! They're are ment to be taught the practical aspects of their professions by fully licenced and engaged professionals in the facility!

However, what we now have in many public hospitals is a situation where these interns are taken in place of full staff members and the result is that errors upon errors are made by these interns at the detriment of patients! Many patients have died while others have suffered economic losses as a result of this dangerous trend.

In an ideal situation, interns are not meant to interface directly with patients. It is the job of fully licenced staff members of the hospital to care for patients while delegating minor duties to the interns.

The minister of health must rise to the occasion and put a stop to this anomaly! MDs should be made to employ fully licenced staff members and avoid using interns to do jobs meant for licenced professionals because these interns are not yet fully licenced to practise their professions! We have enough licenced professionals in the various healthcare fields who are ready to take up jobs in our hospitals! Let's stop putting the lives of patients at risks with this dangerous practise! Enough is enough!

I am not against intership for these doctors but it should be done with supervision

GloriousGbola:
Exaggeration.

If you don't want, don't use a teaching hospital.

More likely op is pissed at being handled by baby doctors

And why wouldn't he be pissed? Who doesn't want the best hands when battling with something as sensitive and important as their lives??

When it happens to you, you'll understand and eat your words.

pocohantas:
Not without supervision, Mr Femi. They should be understudying a senior colleague.

I don't know how hard this is for Femi to understand.

We don't even like intern mechanics to work on our cars without supervision from their Oga, how much more when it's our very lives at stake??

interns are not meant to interface directly with patients.

@OP before I respond to you, do you mean students going for clinical posting or graduate Interns?

Seems you don't know who an intern is.

Stop commenting or creating threads on things you do not know nor understand.

That is how they are trained, they are the ones to take over.

I've experienced a googling doctor, too

Right in my presence.

We Nigerians can amuse me. Their supervisors have japa to where they are paid better and we don't want interns. Lol.

Was reading this earliar. Makes me think some basic healthcares might not be affordable without interns, who of course must be trained and supervised very well by supervisors who are sufficiently rewarded to not japa.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/10/why-is-being-a-mother-so-expensive-in-the-united-states

femi4:
The young shall grow

We need to keep them busy

Why not donate yourself to be used as practical to hasten up the "growth"

AngelSlay:
While the concern for patient safety is valid, the conversation also needs balance.

Interns in public hospitals are not simply “students being used to replace staff.” In many healthcare professions, internship is a compulsory transition stage between classroom learning and full professional practice. Doctors, pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, and others cannot become competent professionals without supervised hands-on experience with real patients.

The real issue is not the existence of interns — it is poor supervision, understaffing, and weak healthcare funding.

Public hospitals in Nigeria are often overwhelmed. Many facilities are dealing with staff shortages caused by migration of healthcare workers, delayed recruitment, poor salaries, and inadequate government funding. In that environment, interns sometimes end up carrying responsibilities beyond what should normally be assigned to them. That is a systemic failure, not proof that internship itself is dangerous.

Completely removing interns from direct patient interaction is also unrealistic. Healthcare is learned through practice. A medical doctor cannot become confident by only observing from a distance. A pharmacist must eventually interact with prescriptions. A nurse must handle patients under supervision. The key phrase is under supervision.

Many of the fully licensed professionals being demanded today were once interns who needed experienced mentors to guide them.

Rather than calling for an end to interns participating in patient care, the focus should be on:

Ensuring proper supervision by senior professionals

Hiring more permanent healthcare workers

Improving hospital funding

Creating clear boundaries for what interns can and cannot do

Holding hospital management accountable when interns are overworked or left unsupervised


Blaming interns alone risks targeting young professionals who are also victims of a struggling healthcare system. The solution is to fix the structure that forces them into roles they were never meant to handle alone. Patient safety matters, but so does building the next generation of competent healthcare professionals.

Best response to topic... Bravo👌🏽

thrillionaire:
And why wouldn't he be pissed? Who doesn't want the best hands when battling with something as sensitive and important as their lives??

When it happens to you, you'll understand and eat your words.

Do you understand the meaning of the word teaching hospital?

Is English hard for you to comprehend?

What hospitals do you think student doctors are assigned to?

The word intern does not even apply to medical school to start with. A person who has no idea how medical school works being echoed and amplified by more ignorants

The unfortunate curse of the internet where ignorance has its own megaphone

thrillionaire:
I don't know how hard this is for Femi to understand.

We don't even like intern mechanics to work on our cars without supervision from their Oga, how much more when it's our very lives at stake??

Car is going far. We don't let them make our hair sef. Hair that can grow back o.

Nigeria needs to be recolonized. Useless leaders wont pay doctors adequate salaries for them to stay

AngelSlay:
While the concern for patient safety is valid, the conversation also needs balance.

Interns in public hospitals are not simply “students being used to replace staff.” In many healthcare professions, internship is a compulsory transition stage between classroom learning and full professional practice. Doctors, pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, and others cannot become competent professionals without supervised hands-on experience with real patients.

The real issue is not the existence of interns — it is poor supervision, understaffing, and weak healthcare funding.

Public hospitals in Nigeria are often overwhelmed. Many facilities are dealing with staff shortages caused by migration of healthcare workers, delayed recruitment, poor salaries, and inadequate government funding. In that environment, interns sometimes end up carrying responsibilities beyond what should normally be assigned to them. That is a systemic failure, not proof that internship itself is dangerous.

Completely removing interns from direct patient interaction is also unrealistic. Healthcare is learned through practice. A medical doctor cannot become confident by only observing from a distance. A pharmacist must eventually interact with prescriptions. A nurse must handle patients under supervision. The key phrase is under supervision.

Many of the fully licensed professionals being demanded today were once interns who needed experienced mentors to guide them.

Rather than calling for an end to interns participating in patient care, the focus should be on:

Ensuring proper supervision by senior professionals

Hiring more permanent healthcare workers

Improving hospital funding

Creating clear boundaries for what interns can and cannot do

Holding hospital management accountable when interns are overworked or left unsupervised


Blaming interns alone risks targeting young professionals who are also victims of a struggling healthcare system. The solution is to fix the structure that forces them into roles they were never meant to handle alone. Patient safety matters, but so does building the next generation of competent healthcare professionals.

The point is not to stop internship but to curtail reliance on interns which have become the order of the day in many public hospitals! Patients should never be left solely under the care of interns!

I know why I raised this alarm! It is now becoming a norm for many hospitals to rely on these students! Many of them seldom employ fully licenced staff who are meant to train the interns but keep employing interns from year to year. Most times, these interns don't get the expected training and mentorship for the purpose of which they were required to undergo internships!

AngelSlay:
While the concern for patient safety is valid, the conversation also needs balance.

Interns in public hospitals are not simply “students being used to replace staff.” In many healthcare professions, internship is a compulsory transition stage between classroom learning and full professional practice. Doctors, pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, and others cannot become competent professionals without supervised hands-on experience with real patients.

The real issue is not the existence of interns — it is poor supervision, understaffing, and weak healthcare funding.

Public hospitals in Nigeria are often overwhelmed. Many facilities are dealing with staff shortages caused by migration of healthcare workers, delayed recruitment, poor salaries, and inadequate government funding. In that environment, interns sometimes end up carrying responsibilities beyond what should normally be assigned to them. That is a systemic failure, not proof that internship itself is dangerous.

Completely removing interns from direct patient interaction is also unrealistic. Healthcare is learned through practice. A medical doctor cannot become confident by only observing from a distance. A pharmacist must eventually interact with prescriptions. A nurse must handle patients under supervision. The key phrase is under supervision.

Many of the fully licensed professionals being demanded today were once interns who needed experienced mentors to guide them.

Rather than calling for an end to interns participating in patient care, the focus should be on:

Ensuring proper supervision by senior professionals

Hiring more permanent healthcare workers

Improving hospital funding

Creating clear boundaries for what interns can and cannot do

Holding hospital management accountable when interns are overworked or left unsupervised


Blaming interns alone risks targeting young professionals who are also victims of a struggling healthcare system. The solution is to fix the structure that forces them into roles they were never meant to handle alone. Patient safety matters, but so does building the next generation of competent healthcare professionals.

Good point!
It's a systematic problem of the place called Nigeria