On getting a housemanship placement15 mins read

Welcome back to my space. 😀

So in my last post, I wrote about how I occupied myself post-graduation/pre-housemanship.

This post is about how I got my housemanship placement in a place I never would have thought of.

I started my housemanship programme in October 2018, about 3 months after I was officially inducted into the medical profession and roughly 6 months after writing (and passing!) my final professional exam in medical school. At the beginning of 2018, I never would have imagined myself doing my housemanship anywhere outside of Lagos, specifically LUTH.

At some point before my induction, I got wind of another place other than LUTH to complete this compulsory 1-year programme (Lagos State HSC), which came with the promise of better working hours and better accommodation. I sat for the placement examinations and attended the interview however, I didn’t get in. I was later offered a placement there but on a supranumerary basis meaning, I’d be working without getting paid. That didn’t sound like a great deal to me and I wasn’t in a hurry to start the programme anyway so I declined.

All this while, LUTH was yet to employ new houseofficers so I was just chilling for them while enduring every new info of ‘the list is coming out next week’. Luckily for me, around that period, I got an offer to be the medical doctor for a promotional campaign team which I accepted. I wrote about that here.

Before I left Lagos for the campaign, I randomly applied for a housemanship placement at UNIMEDTH, Akure. I didn’t really believe that I’d accept a job outside of Lagos because I was almost certain at that point that LUTH will offer me a job, so my application was just something to do to ensure that I didn’t have all my eggs in one basket. I was called for an interview in the 4^th week of the campaign as soon as I got to Ibadan which was the last city on our list.

I got the message on a Sunday and the interview was on a Tuesday. I had to figure out how to get another doctor to cover for me at the campaign site so that I could leave Ibadan for Akure on Monday in order to meet up for the interview. I was lucky enough to have a classmate who lived close to the hotel where we were lodged at Ibadan and he agreed to cover for me for that period.

The journey to Akure that night (I didn’t leave Ibadan till around 5 pm) was actually a horrible one, it rained heavily as soon as our bus left the pack and it continued raining all the way to Akure. The bus had a leak in the roof just above my seat  at the back of the bus so I was completely drenched by the time I alighted.

Other events happened along the way, like when the cartons of chicks the driver carried in the boot to deliver to someone at Akure fell off the road because the cartons got soaked and tore (remember the leak). We were notified about 15 minutes after the unfortunate event by another driver who waved us down. Our bus driver then had to pack the bus and take a bike in the rain back to the junction where it happened. He was lucky to get some of the chicks back and we then had to put the chicks inside the bus.

The rest of the journey was punctuated with the sounds of chicks making whatever noise chicks make. The bus also broke down about 1 hour away from Akure andt I was already irritated partly because I wasn’t even sure I wanted to get a job outside of Lagos and I was just going for this interview to be safe. I just couldn’t get angry because it would have been pointless. All I could hope for was that the interview went well because at that point, I had read nothing to prepare. I also knew nothing about the current affairs of Ondo State which I heard will be part of the interview questions, apart from the medically related ones. I eventually got to Akure around 9 pm, ate, showered and slept.

The next morning I got ready on time in order to revise some things and familiarize myself which the affairs of Ondo State. I got to the interview venue and went to see one of the staff who helped me to submit my application form (I couldn’t have left Lagos to come all the way to Akure just to submit a form, and the application process wasn’t online). I told him I hadn’t revised anything so he proceeded to tell me the names of some prominent personalities in Ondo State, as well as the CMD and PS of UNIMEDTH, Akure.

I later went to join the other applicants waiting for the interview and mingled with them. It was kinda new for me because I generally always had my classmates or friends around for such things but here in Akure, I didn’t see anyone I knew, from my medical school or otherwise.

Fortunately for me, one of the ladies I met finished recently from LASUTH in Lagos, her cousin was also my classmate so we were able to get off on a good note. She took me to meet some of her classmates from LASUTH and in the process, I revised with them over the current affairs and medical stuff and even made some new friends.

In typical Nigerian style, an interview slated for 9 am didn’t start until well past 12pm (which some will say is even a good time considering that other placements can keep you waiting till 4 pm. Unbelievable!). I was eventually called in around 12:45pm.

We were about 25 all seated in a room with 6-8 assessors at a table in front of us. We were to pick one question each from 2 bags, one medical and one current affairs and stand as we echoed the answers out to a room full of strangers who will hear your pus or your stuff, which ever you ended up moving. My heart was literally in my mouth at this point because I had heard different people’s questions while waiting. Some had medical questions painting a clinical scenario and asking how it could be managed.

At that point it was already like 5 months post exams and I hadn’t read anything medically related in a while, save for what I revised that morning. The current affairs questions I heard were also another cause for alarm as peple were asked weird things not even related to Ondo state, like who was the first professor of mathematics in Nigeria and what year NYSC was established. I didn’t understand the purpose of such questions but it wasn’t in my place to understand at that point. I just hoped to the heavens that I would get a reasonable questionable (which I knew the answer to).

The lady I met earlier was sitting immediately before me and as she went to pick her questions my heart kept pounding. I can’t remember what her medical question was but I will never forget what the current affairs question was – mention 2 types of family unit. I was dazed at that point and she will later tell me that she herself almost burst out laughing.

It was finally my turn to pick my questions and I said a quiet prayer as I walked up to the day, picked my questions and handed them over to the examiner. My heart rate at that point must have been approaching 120 bpm because I could almost hear my heart beating.

My medical question was to define and state the difference between maternal mortality ratio and maternal mortality rate. I immediately remembered the tutorials and lectures I had in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 400 and 600 Levels where these terms were defined and differentiated. I couldn’t remember the exact definitions of both terms but I knew the basic difference. I also knew that we used MMRate in Nigeria due to the lack of a proper census system, one of the many inadequacies of our country. So I rattled off what I could about the definitions, stated the differences and ensured that I indicated which was used in Nigeria and the reason why.

One of the examiners wanted to protest my definition but the others agreed that it was fine and I heaved a sigh of relief. My next question, the current affairs question, was to name the head of service of Ondo State. Luckily for me the man I mentioned earlier who helped submit my application had mentioned the name to me that morning and I said it with confidence – Mr Akinpotu. The personal who protested my first answer stated that it was ‘Barrister’ and not ‘Mister’ but once again, the others came to my defense that it made no difference. I felt blessed.

It was time to submit my credentials, license and statement of results and then I noticed that I had one important document missing. I had had my documents sent via public transport to Akure from Lagos as they were not on me when I left Lagos for the campaign trip. Luckily for me, right from my first year in the university, I made the habit of always uploading my important documents to my mail so that I could have access to them at anytime and anywhere. So I pleaded with the board of examiners to allow me go print it out from my email and they obliged.

At the printing shop, there was an issue with their internet connection and even though I had downloaded it on my phone by then, I couldn’t send it to the system any way because I was using an iPhone at the time.

My battery was at 5%, I didn’t come with my charger and no one had an iPhone charger nearby. I was distraught at that point because each document carried some marks and if I didn’t get to submit, I would lose marks, also there was no proof that I finished from medical school and passed all my exams.

At that point the lady I met at the interview called to ask me where I was. We had exchanged numbers before going in but I had completely forgotten at that point. I told her my predicament and asked if I could send it to her via whatsapp so she could connect her phone to the system or send via Bluetooth to the printer since she used an android. She agreed and I immediately sent it. Shortly after, my phone battery died. I was happy to have been able to send it to her before it did. I was eventually able to print out my document and take it back in time to the board room for submission.

All this while, I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave Lagos to live in Ondo. I did the interview just because.I went back to Ibadan to join the rest of the campaign team and proceeded to Lagos at the end of that week. Two weeks after returning to Lagos, I got a call from Tolu telling me that she got a call from the HMB of Ondo state that she had been offered successful at the interview and offered a housemanship placement.

I hadn’t gotten a call from them yet and my phone was switched off all day so I assumed that I was probably called and my line was switched off. I didn’t want to think of the other possibility. The next day my mom helped me to check for my name on the list at the HMB office and I received the news that I was also offered a housemanship placement. I wasn’t sure if my performance at the interview influenced my placement or not but I was glad that I could boast of acing the interview nonetheless.

I was excited at getting the job, but I was still a bit skeptical about leaving Lagos and living in Ondo State for the next one year. Thankfully I had a period of one month to consider accepting the employment offer before it could be revoked so I used that time to stylishly wait for LUTH while also preparing myself mentally to relocate to a new state for my house-job. Two weeks after, LUTH finally sent out their highly coveted employment text messages – and I didn’t get one. I was shocked for some moments because I really thought I’d get it but I immediately got over myself and thanked God that I had a job already which made the experience less painfully. At that point, I didn’t have a choice anymore as getting house-job placements didn’t exactly come easy so I prepared and got ready to move out of Lagos for 12 months. It was decided that I will be leaving Lagos and at that point, I was glad to have taken the initiative to put my eggs in different baskets.

I said my good-byes and set out to experience a new environment and meet new people in Ondo state.

P. S: Sometime in December 2018, about 8 weeks into my first posting as a house-officer in Ondo State, I received a text message from LUTH offering me a placement as a house-officer. The text was several weeks too late as I had settled in pretty well here, so I declined it.

• CMD: Chief Medical Director
• HMB: Hospital Management Board
• Houseofficer: A medical doctor undergoing house-job.
• House-job: Also known as housemanship. A period of one year (two in some countries) during which newly inducted medical graduates are assigned to hospitals and trained under consultant doctors (with many more years of experience and certifications).
• HSC: Health Service Commission
• LUTH: Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
• LASUTH: Lagos State University Teaching Hospital
• NYSC: National Youth Service Corps
• PS: Permanent secretary
• UNIMEDTH: University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital.

This post is about how I got my housemanship placement in a place I never would have thought of.

I started my housemanship programme in October 2018, about 3 months after I was officially inducted into the medical profession and roughly 6 months after writing (and passing!) my final professional exam in medical school. At the beginning of 2018, I never would have imagined myself doing my housemanship anywhere outside of Lagos, specifically LUTH.

At some point before my induction, I got wind of another place other than LUTH to complete this compulsory 1-year programme (Lagos State HSC), which came with the promise of better working hours and better accommodation. I sat for the placement examinations and attended the interview however, I didn’t get in. I was later offered a placement there but on a supranumerary basis meaning, I’d be working without getting paid. That didn’t sound like a great deal to me and I wasn’t in a hurry to start the programme anyway so I declined.

All this while, LUTH was yet to employ new houseofficers so I was just chilling for them while enduring every new info of ‘the list is coming out next week’. Luckily for me, around that period, I got an offer to be the medical doctor for a promotional campaign team which I accepted. I wrote about that here.

Before I left Lagos for the campaign, I randomly applied for a housemanship placement at UNIMEDTH, Akure. I didn’t really believe that I’d accept a job outside of Lagos because I was almost certain at that point that LUTH will offer me a job, so my application was just something to do to ensure that I didn’t have all my eggs in one basket. I was called for an interview in the 4^th week of the campaign as soon as I got to Ibadan which was the last city on our list.

I got the message on a Sunday and the interview was on a Tuesday. I had to figure out how to get another doctor to cover for me at the campaign site so that I could leave Ibadan for Akure on Monday in order to meet up for the interview. I was lucky enough to have a classmate who lived close to the hotel where we were lodged at Ibadan and he agreed to cover for me for that period.

The journey to Akure that night (I didn’t leave Ibadan till around 5 pm) was actually a horrible one, it rained heavily as soon as our bus left the pack and it continued raining all the way to Akure. The bus had a leak in the roof just above my seat  at the back of the bus so I was completely drenched by the time I alighted.

Other events happened along the way, like when the cartons of chicks the driver carried in the boot to deliver to someone at Akure fell off the road because the cartons got soaked and tore (remember the leak). We were notified about 15 minutes after the unfortunate event by another driver who waved us down. Our bus driver then had to pack the bus and take a bike in the rain back to the junction where it happened. He was lucky to get some of the chicks back and we then had to put the chicks inside the bus.

The rest of the journey was punctuated with the sounds of chicks making whatever noise chicks make. The bus also broke down about 1 hour away from Akure andt I was already irritated partly because I wasn’t even sure I wanted to get a job outside of Lagos and I was just going for this interview to be safe. I just couldn’t get angry because it would have been pointless. All I could hope for was that the interview went well because at that point, I had read nothing to prepare. I also knew nothing about the current affairs of Ondo State which I heard will be part of the interview questions, apart from the medically related ones. I eventually got to Akure around 9 pm, ate, showered and slept.

The next morning I got ready on time in order to revise some things and familiarize myself which the affairs of Ondo State. I got to the interview venue and went to see one of the staff who helped me to submit my application form (I couldn’t have left Lagos to come all the way to Akure just to submit a form, and the application process wasn’t online). I told him I hadn’t revised anything so he proceeded to tell me the names of some prominent personalities in Ondo State, as well as the CMD and PS of UNIMEDTH, Akure.

I later went to join the other applicants waiting for the interview and mingled with them. It was kinda new for me because I generally always had my classmates or friends around for such things but here in Akure, I didn’t see anyone I knew, from my medical school or otherwise.

Fortunately for me, one of the ladies I met finished recently from LASUTH in Lagos, her cousin was also my classmate so we were able to get off on a good note. She took me to meet some of her classmates from LASUTH and in the process, I revised with them over the current affairs and medical stuff and even made some new friends.

In typical Nigerian style, an interview slated for 9 am didn’t start until well past 12pm (which some will say is even a good time considering that other placements can keep you waiting till 4 pm. Unbelievable!). I was eventually called in around 12:45pm.

We were about 25 all seated in a room with 6-8 assessors at a table in front of us. We were to pick one question each from 2 bags, one medical and one current affairs and stand as we echoed the answers out to a room full of strangers who will hear your pus or your stuff, which ever you ended up moving. My heart was literally in my mouth at this point because I had heard different people’s questions while waiting. Some had medical questions painting a clinical scenario and asking how it could be managed.

At that point it was already like 5 months post exams and I hadn’t read anything medically related in a while, save for what I revised that morning. The current affairs questions I heard were also another cause for alarm as peple were asked weird things not even related to Ondo state, like who was the first professor of mathematics in Nigeria and what year NYSC was established. I didn’t understand the purpose of such questions but it wasn’t in my place to understand at that point. I just hoped to the heavens that I would get a reasonable questionable (which I knew the answer to).

The lady I met earlier was sitting immediately before me and as she went to pick her questions my heart kept pounding. I can’t remember what her medical question was but I will never forget what the current affairs question was – mention 2 types of family unit. I was dazed at that point and she will later tell me that she herself almost burst out laughing.

It was finally my turn to pick my questions and I said a quiet prayer as I walked up to the day, picked my questions and handed them over to the examiner. My heart rate at that point must have been approaching 120 bpm because I could almost hear my heart beating.

My medical question was to define and state the difference between maternal mortality ratio and maternal mortality rate. I immediately remembered the tutorials and lectures I had in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 400 and 600 Levels where these terms were defined and differentiated. I couldn’t remember the exact definitions of both terms but I knew the basic difference. I also knew that we used MMRate in Nigeria due to the lack of a proper census system, one of the many inadequacies of our country. So I rattled off what I could about the definitions, stated the differences and ensured that I indicated which was used in Nigeria and the reason why.

One of the examiners wanted to protest my definition but the others agreed that it was fine and I heaved a sigh of relief. My next question, the current affairs question, was to name the head of service of Ondo State. Luckily for me the man I mentioned earlier who helped submit my application had mentioned the name to me that morning and I said it with confidence – Mr Akinpotu. The personal who protested my first answer stated that it was ‘Barrister’ and not ‘Mister’ but once again, the others came to my defense that it made no difference. I felt blessed.

It was time to submit my credentials, license and statement of results and then I noticed that I had one important document missing. I had had my documents sent via public transport to Akure from Lagos as they were not on me when I left Lagos for the campaign trip. Luckily for me, right from my first year in the university, I made the habit of always uploading my important documents to my mail so that I could have access to them at anytime and anywhere. So I pleaded with the board of examiners to allow me go print it out from my email and they obliged.

At the printing shop, there was an issue with their internet connection and even though I had downloaded it on my phone by then, I couldn’t send it to the system any way because I was using an iPhone at the time.

My battery was at 5%, I didn’t come with my charger and no one had an iPhone charger nearby. I was distraught at that point because each document carried some marks and if I didn’t get to submit, I would lose marks, also there was no proof that I finished from medical school and passed all my exams.

At that point the lady I met at the interview called to ask me where I was. We had exchanged numbers before going in but I had completely forgotten at that point. I told her my predicament and asked if I could send it to her via whatsapp so she could connect her phone to the system or send via Bluetooth to the printer since she used an android. She agreed and I immediately sent it. Shortly after, my phone battery died. I was happy to have been able to send it to her before it did. I was eventually able to print out my document and take it back in time to the board room for submission.

All this while, I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave Lagos to live in Ondo. I did the interview just because.I went back to Ibadan to join the rest of the campaign team and proceeded to Lagos at the end of that week. Two weeks after returning to Lagos, I got a call from Tolu telling me that she got a call from the HMB of Ondo state that she had been offered successful at the interview and offered a housemanship placement.

I hadn’t gotten a call from them yet and my phone was switched off all day so I assumed that I was probably called and my line was switched off. I didn’t want to think of the other possibility. The next day my mom helped me to check for my name on the list at the HMB office and I received the news that I was also offered a housemanship placement. I wasn’t sure if my performance at the interview influenced my placement or not but I was glad that I could boast of acing the interview nonetheless.

I was excited at getting the job, but I was still a bit skeptical about leaving Lagos and living in Ondo State for the next one year. Thankfully I had a period of one month to consider accepting the employment offer before it could be revoked so I used that time to stylishly wait for LUTH while also preparing myself mentally to relocate to a new state for my house-job. Two weeks after, LUTH finally sent out their highly coveted employment text messages – and I didn’t get one. I was shocked for some moments because I really thought I’d get it but I immediately got over myself and thanked God that I had a job already which made the experience less painfully. At that point, I didn’t have a choice anymore as getting house-job placements didn’t exactly come easy so I prepared and got ready to move out of Lagos for 12 months. It was decided that I will be leaving Lagos and at that point, I was glad to have taken the initiative to put my eggs in different baskets.

I said my good-byes and set out to experience a new environment and meet new people in Ondo state.

P. S: Sometime in December 2018, about 8 weeks into my first posting as a house-officer in Ondo State, I received a text message from LUTH offering me a placement as a house-officer. The text was several weeks too late as I had settled in pretty well here, so I declined it.

• CMD: Chief Medical Director
• HMB: Hospital Management Board
• Houseofficer: A medical doctor undergoing house-job.
• House-job: Also known as housemanship. A period of one year (two in some countries) during which newly inducted medical graduates are assigned to hospitals and trained under consultant doctors (with many more years of experience and certifications).
• HSC: Health Service Commission
• LUTH: Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
• LASUTH: Lagos State University Teaching Hospital
• NYSC: National Youth Service Corps
• PS: Permanent secretary
• UNIMEDTH: University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital.