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Housejob Archives - SISIKUNMI https://www.sisikunmi.com/tag/housejob/ Live. Learn. Inspire Thu, 17 Oct 2019 06:06:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.sisikunmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cropped-cropped-cropped-wp-1604087001228-1-32x32.png Housejob Archives - SISIKUNMI https://www.sisikunmi.com/tag/housejob/ 32 32 Lessons from housejob https://www.sisikunmi.com/career/lessons-from-housejob/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lessons-from-housejob https://www.sisikunmi.com/career/lessons-from-housejob/#respond Sun, 13 Oct 2019 17:30:33 +0000 https://sisikunmi.wordpress.com/?p=128 I’ve finally completed my housejob year. đŸ„łđŸ„ł When I left Lagos to Ondo last year, it seemed like a journey so far away but as with everything in life, it all comes to an end at some point. At the start of 2018, I never would have thought that I’d find myself living outside of Lagos for a year. But that’s exactly what happened! And in retrospect, I’m glad that I didn’t accept the offer to move back to LUTH when I got the employment text then. This is not to say I never nursed the idea of staying back, or even wished I could be in Lagos even when it was clear that it wasn’t possible. These feelings became stronger in the last half of the year but there was really nothing I could do about it. All in all, I’m grateful for the experience that was this year. I had a fun time doing my housemanship in Ondo State. I know for a lot of people, it’s abnormal for fun and housemanship to be in the same sentence. But that’s how it was for me; also, fun is relative. I got the opportunity to work in 2 hospitals over the period of one year, spending 6 months in each place. The first hospital was in a rural area. The hospital (State Specialist Hospital, Ikare-Akoko) had medical officers and consultants and a number of the things you’d see in a city hospital. This is where I completed the paediatrics and obstetrics/gynaecology postings. The hospital staff felt like family because the hospital wasn’t so big. The indigenes were also nice, although they could be stubborn and have their moments. A lot of doctors wouldn’t want to work in a rural area. I also didn’t want to. I remember when I got to the hospital the first time, I literally wanted to run out. I couldn’t believe that I was there. For like 10 mins I was freaking out and almost cried. I remember telling some of my friends at that moment that I might have gone for my NYSC early. After I built up the courage to stay, I began to enjoy it. The months I spent there are easily the best of my house job year and the other house officers I met were also the best – they’re one of the reasons I’m glad to have stayed back in Ondo State. The second hospital was State Specialist Hospital, Akure, now University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital Complex, Akure. This is where I completed my surgery and medicine postings. Being in the city, the hospital had more patient load as well as a higher calibre of doctors. The conversion to a teaching hospital was during my time there and in retrospect, I am thankful for that. There was a huge difference between the training in a teaching hospital setting and that in a General Hospital setting. For me, the major downside to interning away from my comfort zone was missing my friends. I don’t particularly fancy going out that much so I didn’t miss the party life of Lagos. The calm and sanity I experienced this one year were bliss and I really wish the state was a bit more developed to encourage people to stay back. This is not to say that I didn’t miss the ‘Lagos life’ a bit. At this point, I’d share some lessons I picked up from this entire journey. It was a real experience. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Getting an internship placement post-graduation can be quite tough in Nigeria. You’ll be doing yourself a disservice by applying to only one place for your internship. The best bet is to apply far and wide. Some times, you might have legitimate reasons to want a particular place but if that’s not it, then just try everywhere you can. Do it afraid, you’ll never know if you don’t try. A lot of times during the year, I had to ‘do it afraid’. It is usually daunting when a new task is before you and it seems like you have no idea what to do. Most times just trying your hands at it helps build your confidence and you can ask for assistance along the way. Life is in phases. I remember feeling very anxious at the start of the year. I saw the older house officers doing stuff and I was just feeling bad because I couldn’t do them at the time. Now that seems very silly of me. I had no reason to be anxious because, at that phase, I was just starting. I shouldn’t have judged myself by their skills at the time. Those things I was anxious about are things I can do confidently now. The journey matters more At the start of housemanship year, I just wanted it to be over already. Maybe being far from home added to this. However, along the way, I realized that finishing is not just what matters but actually the process and how I went through it. The start and the end are static points, it’s the journey in between that really matters; it’s the experiences and lessons learnt during this year that built me up. This applies to every phase of life – the journey matters more. I hope to carry these lessons along with me and imbibe them as I move on to other things in life. I will still be sharing the feature posts I mentioned in my last post so don’t stay away for too long. Or better still, subscribe so you can get notified once it’s up! Cheers to new beginnings!

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]]> https://www.sisikunmi.com/career/lessons-from-housejob/feed/ 0 Being unapologetic about your growth. https://www.sisikunmi.com/career/being-unapologetic-about-your-growth/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=being-unapologetic-about-your-growth https://www.sisikunmi.com/career/being-unapologetic-about-your-growth/#comments Thu, 02 May 2019 06:15:30 +0000 https://sisikunmi.wordpress.com/?p=289 One of the reasons why I decided to finally start this blog is to document and share my experiences going through life, along with lessons learnt from them. I find some sort of release in doing this via writing, hence my preference for Twitter over Instagram on my social media list. The most recent experience I had was deciding to change my work place from a rural area to a more urban centre. This might sound like a no-brainer but it wasn’t exactly that for me. I am one to ponder a lot on things, almost to a detrimental level. I used to worry about this part of me in the past, but lately, I have come to embrace it. I decided to find the strength in what I once considered a weakness, that strength being the ability to analyse any situation I find myself in and find one or two lessons in it. As you’ll know if you have read this post about how I got my internship placement, I got a placement through the Hospital Management Board, Akure which oversees all the hospital facilities under the Ondo State Government. Different States in Nigeria have their different boards with the Lagos State equivalent being Health Service Commission. Under the HMB, houseofficers (and some other interns) are usually posted to any of 4 general hospitals in the state – 2 of which are in not so developed areas of the state (there is now a teaching hospital in Ondo State, so this posting method will probably change soon). (Un)Fortunately for me, I was posted to one of the less developed areas at the start of my housemanship. I initially freaked out at the time and really didn’t want to go but eventually I did. I was also notified that if I wanted, I could request to be posted to a different hospital after 6 months. Upon resuming at the hospital, I met some other houseofficers who were in their last of 4 postings (meaning they decided to stay the full year). I asked about their experiences and they gave their different accounts with the major highlight being the hands-on experience they had gotten, which is usually not the case in some other hospitals. Some told me to stay the full year, while others suggested I get reposted after 6 months. I decided to let my personal experience be the deciding factor. Throughout the first 6 months there, rotating through paediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology, I can say that I really did have a good time. This is a statement which is hardly ever heard from the lips of a houseofficer in Nigeria. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a lot of work doing. Contrary to that there was a lot to be done, seeing as we were just 6 houseofficers when I joined (at some point we were just 2 and I had to help out in paediatrics, NICU especially, while being on call for weeks in my O and G posting). I think the fact that the work I got to do felt purposeful made me not realize how much work I had to do. Also the hospital staff was really accommodating and (almost) everyone made the work go smoothly. In spite of how smoothly I had it going, I knew deep down that I couldn’t in good faith finish my housemanship year there. It would have been a disservice to myself. I knew that I wanted more with my housejob experience which I don’t think I would get staying back. At the time, it wasn’t a particularly easy decision to make. Earlier this year, I wrote a post on making choices and how I was getting better at it. Some new houseofficers also resumed around this period and I felt like my leaving might also influence them to leave, thereby leaving an understaffed hospital facility worse for the wear. This was where my overthinking cap came on and I began wondering if I really should do it. At the end of the day, after doing all the analysis in my head, I realized that the only thing holding me back was my guilt for leaving and it made me wonder why exactly I felt guilty. Besides leaving to go to a more developed area, I was leaving primarily to help my career, to expose myself to an environment which I believed will help me get better. Once, I understood that, I felt every feeling of guilt disappear. I was finally at peace with my decision. I shouldn’t feel guilty or apologetic about my growth. I have heard different tales about this new place and how the workload is more and many others and I have decided to embrace all of it and anymore other thing that arises as a result of the decision I made. It might not seem like much of a big deal but I have also realized that our lives are made up mostly of small moments like this which lead ultimately to the big ones ahead. Learning whatever we can whenever we can is paramount to our overall growth. After two long weeks, I finally finished the processing for my reposting and resumed at State Specialist Hospital, Akure last week. I was posted to the department of Surgery and all has been well so far. I’ll definitely do a recap at the end of the posting like I did for Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynecology. I’m owning this and will make the best of it. Have you ever had to make a decision similar to this? Do you have any weaknesses like mine? Have you found the strength in it? Do you just want to say a word of encouragement or two? Let’s meet up in the comment section below!

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]]> https://www.sisikunmi.com/career/being-unapologetic-about-your-growth/feed/ 9 Post graduation: What now? https://www.sisikunmi.com/career/97-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=97-2 https://www.sisikunmi.com/career/97-2/#comments Sat, 02 Mar 2019 20:19:14 +0000 https://sisikunmi.wordpress.com/?p=97 This post is about my post-graduation/pre-housejob experience and how I was able to keep myself busy all those long months. I sat for (and passed!) my final professional examinations in medical school in April 2018. As with many other students, both medical and otherwise, it was such a relief to FINALLY be done with school – all the late night reading, exams and waiting anxiously for results to come out. Even though a lot of older colleagues will always say things like “just the beginning”, “reading never ends” and all the other similar stuff, at that moment, it was just enough to know that I was done with that phase and could move on to other things in life. I was finally free to do whatever, whenever. It was bliss. This bliss lasted all of a couple of weeks before it turned to boredom. I’d like to state here how fleeting the happiness achievements bring can be. Don’t get me wrong, I totally dig having achieving your goals and ticking stuff off your year plan/bucket-list. However, we can all admit that the ‘high’ we get from achieving these goals, never lasts forever. This is what motivates us to do more and exceed our set target. It is the reason why after becoming a medical doctor, you want to become a resident then a consultant (and the equivalent in other professions), and even at that level you still want to be more. This goes to show that attaching your happiness to a particular achievement, although it could be a great motivation, can be harmful in the long run. My days became routine-like, with nothing significant to fill them up and I just couldn’t wait to be inducted and start my housemanship year. As the boredom set in, I tried to find some productive things to fill my days with. I had foreseen this turn of events and had a number of things planned to occupy myself in my enforced free time. Although I didn’t get to do all, I was able to do a few which kept me occupied. In my pen-ultimate year as an undergraduate, I had to conduct a research as part of the requirements for graduating. I got to present my research findings at local and international conferences, although I eventually didn’t get to publish it in a journal. I found that I enjoyed the process to an extent and didn’t find it as difficult as some of my classmates. So prior to writing my final exams, I reached out to a colleague who was into research and asked if I could learn more under him and he accepted. I also took an online course on Cousera and got my certificate for free (I applied for a waiver and got it!). I learnt quite a lot this period (and also made some money) and I was glad I took that step. While still learning more about research, I reached out to one of my consultants who had mentioned while I was still in his unit as a medical student that he would need research assistants for a project he was working on so I got involved in that too. This was a bit tasking because it involved data collection (which is one of the most tedious aspects of carrying out a research) but I carried on with it because I didn’t have so much else doing, plus I was earning from it.  All this while, I was chilling on LUTH to release their houseofficers’ list while also attending interviews and looking out for other openings. There was always news that the list of successful candidates will be pasted ‘soon’ – this soon could be “the end of the week”, “in 2 weeks’ time” and so on but that list still never came at the stated time. The last major activity I got involved in prior to starting my housejob was a promotional campaign where I was the team medical doctor, offering basic check-ups and medical advice. The campaign required travelling with a team of about 6 other people, including one nurse, to 7 South-Western Nigerian cities – Akure, Ado-Ekiti, Oshogbo, Ile-Ife, Ilorin, Offa and Ibadan – within a period of 4 weeks. It seemed like fun but I also had some reservations because I could get called by LUTH at any time and will need to resume in like 2 weeks and being so far away from Lagos then wouldn’t be a good idea. In spite of my reservations and after consulting with some friends, I decided to take the plunge and accept the offer and handle anything that came along the way. The campaign experience was a good one, I got to travel, meet new people and speak lots and lots of Yoruba. I am glad I didn’t pass up on the offer because of LUTH as the long awaited list didn’t come out while I was on the trip. Post ‘roadtrip’, I decided to take time out to rest a bit while also taking up some other research jobs. In retrospect, I realize that most of the things I did were research related and also involved making some money on the side. I also did some work on finding out more about different aspects of medicine in order to figure out what I want to do going forward. I haven’t honed in on my specific field yet but my choices have been informedly narrowed now, thanks to my search. About two weeks after I got back, I received a text from a friend saying that she got a call from an organization that we had both been interviewed by the Health Management Board, Akure for housemanship placement (I had applied there while waiting for LUTH – putting my eggs in different baskets, and went for the interview in the middle of my ‘roadtrip’). I panicked initially because my phone had been switched off all of that day so I didn’t receive any call. I called my mom and she helped me visit the office and found that my name was on the list of employed applicants. I was relieved. Concerning this job offer, I was elated and worried at the same time. Elated because I finally had a job, worried because I didn’t want to leave Lagos, for several reasons. 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 stylishyly wait for LUTH while also preparing myself mentally to relocate to a new state for my housejob. Three weeks later, 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 housejob placements didn’t exactly come easy so I prepared and got ready to move out of Lagos for 12 months. I said my goodbyes, packed my stuff and boarded a bus to Ondo State to begin another phase of my journey. Housejob: 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). LUTH: Lagos University Teaching Hopital.

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