Strike affecting our clinical training, students cry out

Medical students recount their frustration ashealth workers’ strike enters the 68th day,CHARLES ABAH reports

For Vincent Obia, a final year Mass Communication student of the University of Lagos, life nowadays, especially on campus, looks rosy. Everything that borders on his academics seems to be predictable. In fact, the 20-year-old looks certain to join the next batch of prospective National Youth Service scheme scheduled for May. He is looking forward to it with great expectations.

He says, “I thank God for stable academic calendar we have been experiencing for some time now. I am happy that the Academic Staff Union of Universities members and other allied associations are not on strike. I am particularly happy because I did not encounter the kind of experience I had in 2013 when the industrial action embarked upon by ASUU members made us to stay at home for 169 days.

“Again, I am happy all went well in 2014, as I have completed my final examinations and I look forward to going for my NYSC this year.”

This, however, cannot be said of Nnaemeka Onah, a final year Radiology student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as he lay on his bed on Monday morning, not really knowing what to do. On his schedule, he had a clinical posting at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ozalla in Enugu State; but that could not hold. Reason: radiologists, who are to take Onah and his colleagues on their practical course, are currently on strike. They are part of the Joint Health Workers Union members, who embarked on industrial action last November.

The youngster, who smiled weakly in a forlorn attempt to reassure himself that everything was all right, hopes that the ongoing strike does not last so long.

He says, “I am a bit worried because we are no longer taking the practical courses due to the ongoing strike by the health professionals. The workers are not there to guide and put us through the clinical. I honestly wish that this industrial action does not affect our graduation.”

The ugly scenario also plays out for Daniel Johnson, a 500-level student of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, who ordinarily would have been undergoing his practical training at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital but for the strike.

Besides the large-scale effect the health workers’ strike has on the sick and their relations, many Nigerian students, particularly medical-related students are also feeling the consequence of the action.

The unions under the auspices of the JOHESU include the Medical and Health Workers Unions of Nigeria, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, and the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutions and Associated Institutions.

Others are the Nigeria Union of Pharmacists, Technologists and Professions Allied to Medicine and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions.

The workers, who have been at loggerheads with the government since November 16, are demanding among other contentious issues, the implementation the National Industrial Court judgment.

The court, in its judgment, stated that JOESHU members should continue to skip Consolidated Health Salary Structure, that specialists allowance should be paid to JOHESU, and that JOHESU members should continue to be recognised as consultants, while retirement age of health workers be reviewed upward from 60 to 65 years of age.

They are also seeking a change of section 5 of the National Health Bill, which deals with the composition of the National Council of Health.

Apart from Onah and Johnson, medical students at the College of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State have also cried out over their inability to have access to basic practical training facilities because of the ongoing strike.

According to the students, who urged the Federal Government to intervene quickly in resolving the crisis, the strike is negatively affecting them.

A final year Medicine and Surgery student, Mr. Elegbede Adeniyi, while acknowledging the frustration caused by the strike, says the development has tampered with his practical training schedule.

He adds, “The strike is not helping us as medical students. Apart from being hard on the patients, it is affecting our calendar badly. The teaching hospital is the laboratory of the students, and when you decide to lock it, you have equally put a break on students’ training. There are no patients to work with so we are limited to theoretical work. If the strike is called off, we can go back to normal academic and practical work.”

Another student of the college, who simply identified herself as Miss Abosede likens the present situation to the “dark days of Academic Staff Union of Universities strike”.

“When you don’t give medical students the needed exposure for their training, you are indirectly killing their skills. We appeal to the Federal Government and the unions to reconcile their differences so that we can resume our normal studies. The situation we face now is akin to the uncertainty faced by students during the last ASUU strike.”

For Johnson of the Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Histopathology Unit, UNICAL, his date of graduation with this strike looks uncertain.

He says, “Our final examination will start at the end of January. Unfortunately, we have not been able to conclude the laboratory work to get acquainted with certain practical aspects of our programme. Are we going to write the examination without this practical exposure?

“Before now, we received some lectures in the offices of lecturers within the hospital premises but some of these lecturers do not have access to their offices because of the strike. The implication is that we are missing out in terms of tutorials in certain aspects of our courses and the January examinations are by the corner.

“Another painful aspect is that for some of us writing our projects, we do not have laboratory where we can analyse our samples as the only one at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital is closed now.”

Another 500-level student of the same department, Raymond Ekemini, suffers the same fate with Johnson.

He notes,” The ongoing JOHESU strike has elongated the semester because we ought to have gone for laboratory posting for three months. It is a continuous process all through the programme but the strike has denied us access to the laboratory and this has affected us adversely. I am afraid if with this strike we will have the required practical experience as medical laboratory scientists.”

Debola,Adeyeba, a 500-level Nursing student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State says, “It is affecting us because we cannot go for posting. There are also no patients in the wards. We are also supposed to be having our practical examinations now but that cannot hold because of the industrial action.”

A graduate of Optometry from the Abia State University, Chioma Okafor, notes that the work rate at the Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where she is on internship, has reduced because of the strike.

She explains that only a few senior workers come to work, a situation that has made it difficult for her and other students to carry out their internship at an optimal level.

“At BMH, only a few patients are around. As interns, we treat patients under supervision and we give them corrective lenses. But the truth is that we have not been working up to the expected level because of the strike,” she states.