One year post induction; Life lessons and more5 mins read

You know that two-word phrase ‘time flies’? It seems cliche until you look back and you realise that time actually flies.

It’s been 14 months since my final exams in medical school, 12 months since I got inducted into the medical profession, 9 months since I started my internship and 3 months since I officially graduated. These numbers don’t add up and that’s just because of the disfunctionality in the Nigerian system.

But today is not about Nigeria. Today is about marking a year since I officially became a doctor! It seems like a century ago and yet it seems like yesterday. Time does fly.

I decided to share some of my reflections on the past year.

Things I miss about medical school

To be honest missing medical school seems odd. And most times I’m not sure if I miss being a student itself. I think what I miss are the experiences and the environment.

Living with a community of people

For some people who happened to do their housejob year in a big center where there’s accommodation within the hospital, this might not be something to miss. On my part, I had to move states for my housejob and my hospital isn’t exactly a big one so the number of people to interact with is limited. My accommodation also isn’t within the hospital so all those days of strolling to your friend’s room when you’re bored were basically gone for me. Also having to transport myself to the hospital compared to just walking was a big difference for me; I’ve had to wake up earlier than usual which I don’t really like.

Having preset deadlines

You know when you’re a student and you have tests and assignments to submit by a particular time so that deadline kinda pushes you on? I miss that. I always have quite a number of things planned, but I somehow fall behind my outlined schedule, mostly because I set my own deadline and can’t exactly punish myself when I miss it.

Knowing there was an end

Knowing that there was a definite end to school was good. Because no matter how hard it got, I knew that it would end one day. In housejob, there’s also that knowing that it would end one day, but it feels more like real life where you have to take decisions and you know life isn’t stopping for you to figure it all out and you have to keep going. This all makes sense in my head but I’m having a hard time explaining it.

Things I wish I did in medical school

While still in school, I can say that I was constantly looking forward to the next class that I had little or no time left to focus on other stuff. I wasn’t completely a bookie while in school but looking back now, I can’t exactly say that I did much other than study.

Some of the things I wish I did better:

Be more active in student associations

I was fairly actively in student associations and I wish I did more. Leaving school, I realised that those associations actually help in a way to expose you to different other aspects of life outside of school. It also helps to build connections with people in other schools, locally and internationally and those connections can be useful.

Pay a bit more attention to books

During the course of my practice as a doctor, I’ve encountered situations that I know I’d been taught about in school, but somehow I could not remember them. I’m not sure if paying more attention would have helped and I honestly don’t know if I could have done more than I did while studying as a student. I guess I just wish I could remember every single thing I’ve ever read, but that’s impossible.

Live in the moment

You can only be a medical student once. Even if you go back as a resident, you are a resident not a medical student. At some point I really just wanted to be done with school. I realize now that every phase is important and even if it gets tiring, we should live in that moment and not worry so much about what comes next. As housejob is getting tiring, I remind myself constantly about this. This is the only period of my life that I’ll be a houseofficer.

Things I’ve learnt since medical school

Real life is real

Sometimes, being a student shields you from a lot of things happening outside, especially if you live within the 4 walls of your school. You realise that there’s more to life than good grades, and having good grades alone doesn’t equate having a good life. Life gets real real fast.

Being a doctor is a hell of a job

Working as a medical doctor, dealing with people’s actual lives. It’s not a simple task anywhere, especially when you have to do it in a setting with many systemic problems. I talked more about this here.

Nigeria is in need of resuscitation

Everyone knows this. There are so many things wrong with this country and you can’t tackle one without tackling others. The problems are evident everywhere and it’s more painful when these problems cause preventable morbidities and mortalities.

Time doesn’t wait for you

Even when you don’t have things figured out, time still goes on. This has a way of putting pressure on us but we have to find a way to dispel some of that pressure. You can’t freeze time, all you can do is ensure that you keep moving, keep improving and making progress. Being better today than tomorrow and picking yourself up when you fall.

It’s been an experience practicing as a doctor in Nigeria. I really believe that a change is possible in the system to make things better, across all sectors. I hope this happens in my lifetime.

Cheers 🥂,

Sisikunmi.