When it comes to our health, I believe this is one of the basic things any elected government official or leader at any level should want to concern him or herself with but sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case most of the time. Right now, I’m in the university of Benin studying physiology and I have less than two years to finish my BSc degree. Prior to when I gained admission into the university, I have heard a lot of persons talk about how poor the school healthcare system is but then, I promised myself not to conclude on anything until I see things for myself.
It was on a Tuesday, I can remember that day very well because something unpleasant happened to a friend. After we closed from our Bible study, everyone was in a haste to go home because it was during the raining season and the rain was really unpredictable. Everywhere was flooded and my friend mistakenly slipped and fell on one side of her body. It was quite serious because she couldn’t stand on her own and we had to rushed her to the school’s healthcare center.
On getting there, to my surprise there was no power output, the place, as I always like describing it, looked like an haunted house. Thank goodness I went there with people, I would have been really frightened. Obviously, since there was no electricity, there was no way they could do a good job and we had to take her home and do what we can since nothing was really out of the ordinary. I personally helped her massaged her body with a balm that was recommended by a pharmacist after she took her bath.
Ever since I had that experience with the school’s health center, I finally confirmed what others have been saying. A lot of cases have been heard of students that lost their lives when they were taken to that health center and there are so many possible reasons for this. Naturally, I have always thought that schools will have the best of things because they make graduates in different fields every year, so why so many lapses? Especially for a school like mine! We make really good doctors and health professionals yearly but our healthcare is suffering.
There are several ways I believe our health care center can be improved. So without further ado, let’s find out my suggestion on how to make things better.
As we all know, every year we have really sound graduates from different departments related to health. The school administrators should be able to take note of most of these best graduating students and use their knowledge to work in these health centers for the minimum of a year and then the next graduates do the same the following year and so on. By so doing, you don’t only solve the problem of not having enough hands to work but you also give these graduates more opportunities to become better in what they have practiced in school. And they should be well paid or compensated as well, which is where the government should step in.
Also, like the situation I encountered at the health care when there was no power output, I believe the same best graduating students of the faculty of engineering can also be used to solve the problem there. I’m very sure that most of these students have really brilliant ideas that can help solve the problem of electricity if they have good support and motivation. The school system should encourage students to always give their best and encourage their ideas as much as possible, as that will solve some problems faced at the school’s healthcare center.
There are other aspects in the healthcare that requires every faculty to get involved and I believe if the school can work on the gift of Human Resources given to her, it will help solve more than 70% of the problems we are having in different fields especially in our healthcare centers. And in turn, when these things are properly put in place, it will extend to the community and even beyond. Students won’t have any reason to even worry about what they will do after school because there will be jobs waiting for them at different places as long as they went through school and school went through them.
I believe these suggestions will help most of our failing healthcare centers especially those ones we have in Africa. Too sad that most of our professionals are going abroad to work for those outside their countries and this is due to the bad management of human resource we have been blessed with in our different countries here in Africa. If only this suggestions can be given a try, I’m very positive that things will be way better than it is now. Our graduates need to be engaged and this is one of the best ways I believe we can do that.
This is my response to the question asked in the healthy-bees community and I’d love to invite @justfavour and @sperosamuel15 to also share their responses with us.
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It's good suggestion you've made for real... It will go a long way, the main challenge lies in government accepting with the terms because I won't even lie to you, no doctor that just graduated would love to stay back and work for the school for a whole full year, the payment aspect aside
This is because none of us spends nothing less than 6yrs in school plus extra 2years left to be spent in total for housemanship and NYSC
Adding the service in school will make it a total of 9years, damn! That's almost all our youthful age🤣🤣
I actually wanted to mention that aspect of NYSC but then, it's not as if anyone forced you guys to study medicine or did they? 🤣
Well, that's on a lighter note. The thing is, I have heard cases of many people dying at the healthcare center here in my school and it's really sad that most of the best doctors Nigeria has produced came from this school too. Personally for me, if as an employer I find out that the school you graduated from as a doctor has a quack health care center, I will rethink having you in my hospital.
The idea is, as a doctor, your major aim should be to save lives but these days, it's for another reason and that alone is scary. But then, I blame the system more because it played a major role in this.
Thank you for your contribution. I know it is a suggestion that will require some other aspects to be addressed first before it can work well.
The thing is that these ideas as beautiful as they may be feels so distant for real because in as much as the main purpose should be to save lives, doctors aren't paid an ideal amount
A country that pays politicians and many others professions more than the so called profession saving lives... Nah! It's not even comparison but let's just say any country paying these doctors below what can sustain them obviously leaves them to cater for themselves
These same doctors that work nonchalantly at school centres own private hospitals where their patients receive top care treatments whenever they come and can you blame them? No one jokes with whatever feeds him and if you can't feed the doctors at places you employed them, they will scavenge around elsewhere.
It's painful and it's more painful that the solutions aren't even around 😢
I can't even write my post in response to this now with this rage for real! It'll just be an endless posts because believe me! As someone in the system, I'm not even happy at all
Hehe, I know all of these things and it’s obvious how much the whole system has failed, beginning from the simplest unit which is the family.
It’s sad that our doctors and health professionals are not paid just enough to help them survive and that has directly affected the whole health system.
You shouldn’t back out on making your suggestions, you have to and I’m sure that even as you do it, you will figure our some ways you as someone in the field can do better and also encourage your colleagues too.
It’s definitely not an easy process but then, if you give up on it, I give up too, then it means we are accepting what we have now as the new norm. Someone once said that, what you are not changing, you are accepting and it’s the reality of so many countries today, particularly Nigeria.
Not that I don't know that, it's just that Nigeria is filled up with people who just don't want to change at all... People who aren't devoid of ideas but just fails to implement any
It's sad
Thank you. 🥰
Great post! You’ve offered some insightful suggestions for improving healthcare, especially by involving graduates and leveraging student expertise. How do you think schools can effectively integrate these graduates into the system without overwhelming them?
By paying them like any other company they work with would do. If we have our schools employing our graduates and even paying them more than what they can find out there, I’m very sure it will be the students wishing that they are part of the lucky ones. Then the problem of being overwhelmed won’t even arise.
I believe our schools are more than capable of doing this not to mention the government but then, the greed of man won’t just let them do the right thing.
Great idea