On February 23rd, 2024, I left Lagos, to start a temporary life at UBTH. As part of my medical training, I had to work in a tertiary level hospital as a house officer for a year, following completion of my studies at the university to become a fully licenced doctor. Hence my relocation to Benin.
When I arrived at UBTH, I was brimming with excitement. I liked how quiet the area was, it was very serene, and the locals made it easy for me to find my way around. To be honest, I was a little tired of Lagos and craved a new scenery, that was why I opted for Benin. A city not too far, or too near to Lagos.
Being new to the area, I had no place to stay and had to squat with my good old pal, Sharon. She was very crucial to my initial stay in UBTH.
As per common practice, each rotation during housejob last 3 months and we’d rotate through the 4 major specialty departments i.e. Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G), Internal Medicine and Surgery. However, I was forewarned that I needed to start with the toughest postings (which was either Paediatrics or Internal Medicine). So, I opted to start with Paediatrics.
My time in Paediatrics officially started on the 1st of March 2024, where I was thrown into the deep end with no prior knowledge or onboarding training. I was expected to know everything, and this started changing my view about my choice of institution.
To get into more specifics and juicy details, I’ll break down the departmental reviews into different aspects: work life and team dynamics, seniors, accommodation, food, and extracurricular activities.
WORK LIFE AND TEAM DYNAMICS
In my first week of Paediatrics posting, I was moving like a headless chicken with no direction or understanding. On the first day on duty, I met with the House Officer Representative (HO Rep), who welcomed me. Then I noticed she was moving a trolley with different intravenous (IV) medications and a sheet of paper where doses were calculated. The first thought in my head was “Ahnahn! Na doctor dey give drugs? Na so una dey do for here? Omo!”. I was so shocked, even though she explained everything, I was still lost.
My first night shift experience scarred me, I had to give medications to over 21 babies. Then mid=shift, I was called by the nurses that some babies IV lines had tissued. I began to wonder, “how’s that my business now?”. On intuition, I called my registrar, because I wasn’t excepting them to think a fresh house officer like me would start siting neonatal IV access lines.
By the time I finished the night shift, I still had to give morning drugs and do random blood glucose (RBG) levels for all the babies. Through all these, I was honestly confused as to how these were considered a doctor’s work. Even for morning shift, I would still have to give drugs, summarize patients and do ward work. Eventually, I persevered and finished my Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) posting with the help of my wonderful senior HOs like Ataman, Ann and Emeka.
What I absolutely hated were the unnecessary punishments meted to new house officers, like we’re supposed to be perfect and should always know better. Meanwhile “they” (i.e. the seniors including registrars, senior registrars and consultants) wouldn’t and couldn’t be faultless.
Thinking back, if you ask me today what my best rotation was, I’d say overall, Paediatrics was my best regardless. Because asides from the overwhelming workload at SCBU, our teams had more HOs in my children emergency (CHER) and Ward postings, which made it fun and less stressful.
Next, I moved to Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G), where I was made the House Officer Representative (HO REP) first week into my posting. While I enjoyed some privileges (like fixing my own calls), the unit was toxic, and the workload was exhausting.
Now I hear it has become worse since power changed hands into a seemingly “military regimen”. For context, O&G posting is usually considered “soft”, but with the toxic nature of the work, you’d end up hating the whole place.
Then I moved to Internal Medicine, where my renewed “shege” started. I was posted to Neurology unit and found it intriguing that I was put there on the whims of someone who claimed to be my leader and wanted to punish me because I refused to let her do something while I was the HO Rep in O&G.
And for our seniors to actually accept her vindictive request and reasoning behind it – which led to me being posted to a tough unit – was amusingly laughable. This simply portrayed lack of professionalism. Despite the rancour and vocal threats, I braced up, accepted the challenge and met the most loveable people during this period. Somto, Aniekan, Chidiogo, Idara, Chisom and Seyi, I call them “my fellow people in suffering”.
Even though I never had a sad day in my Neurology posting, I never found myself smiling there. Because as my 3 months drew closer to the end, I started developing palpitations from the exhausting workload. I then realised I hated waking up, hated going to work, and was angry every day.
I remember, when I started, I was put on 3 calls per week. I laughed, and went to my HO Rep’s DM to complain, she laughed too and said there was nothing she could do. Then, she put me on weekend calls for 4 weeks straight. Again, I complained every day, but it all fell on deaf ears. Nonetheless, anchoring on my usual wise words, “Las las, everybody go dey alright”, I stopped worrying. Also, knowing that power was transient, and it would soon end—which eventually did.
Asides the overwhelming workload in Internal Medicine, the lack of gratitude and care from seniors towards understanding one’s plight drowned my feelings. I didn’t even want to bother anymore, I just wanted out and wanted the posting to be over. It was so visible, that after I left a senior always commented when she saw me, that I started smiling after leaving internal medicine. I’d just continue to smile, knowing the bad taste the entire internal medicine left in my mouth.
Likewise, the rude nurses on their wards one had to deal with, the lack of consumables (such as gloves and syringes) to work with, making one travel all the way to A&E to get them by “stealing” like an unemployed idiot and the fearful calls all added to the frustration I felt in the posting. Not to talk about the tiring part of giving medications to over 20 patients at a go, attending to emergencies, and having to prescribe and rewrite prescription every time.
Although Internal medicine was synonymous with headaches for me, my best Consultant was still from there, Dr Jessica Omiunu. I loved that woman, she fought for us, stood with us and made sure we didn’t have to do any unnecessary calls. Also, in all of the horrid circumstances, I met some lovely seniors: Dr Oshomoh, Dr Lilian, Dr Ezenwanbachili, Dr Ebere, and Dr Aisosa.
Then my final rotation in Surgery came, and I could literally see the light at the end of this tunnel. In this posting one had to rotate through 3 units, and mine were: Cardiothoracic Surgery (CTU), General Surgery & Trauma Surgery. Here, I also became the HO Rep and got some perks.
I was told Surgery was fun and light, and CTU actually turned out pretty fun. I rotated into the unit on 1st of December and had the best seniors ever. We were initially 2 house officers in the unit for one week, before I was left alone to man the unit for the remaining 3 weeks of my posting there.
Here my responsibilities were minimal, but I was on call every day, and the mere thought of that was tiring. However (I’m not going to lie), I was pampered in this posting, I enjoyed myself to the fullest, but my entire enjoyment can be said to have been dependent on how one carried his or herself.
Then I moved to General Surgery, and I absolutely hated it there. I had initially thought I didn’t like internal medicine until I got to general surgery. I was the only house officer in unit 2 taking care of our numerous patients. I was so exhausted, and my body was constantly tired.
Everday, it felt like I was never doing enough, there was always something lacking. I’d wake up to messages sent around 9-11pm, of what I was supposed to do, and kept asking “why?”. Like, who does that? And why that time of the day?
Also, the calls we’re excruciating. Because each house officer in the 3 general surgery units would have to cover A&E and multiple wards when on call. My God, after every call, I was knackered! I’d feel tired for days and had no recovery period, because ward work would keep me till 5-6pm every day. I had to stop going to the gym, because I barely had time to eat well, neither was I well rested. I was mad every day, became snappy, short tempered, and wasn’t proud of myself. I just wanted to escape so bad, I had to start counting down, to preserve my mental space.
Eventually my last month in house job came by, and this was in trauma surgery. Due to lack of manpower, we had to do 48hours call back-to-back, with one day of reprieve in between. It was tedious, but funny enough, the workload was light. I especially liked how our consultants had our backs, they were such lovely people to work with. Again, I enjoyed my trauma posting, though I spent majority of my time in the hospital.
SENIORS
Regarding my seniors, even though some were lovely, I was generally disappointed by the disconnect and lack of empathy by many. They seemed more concerned with their own interests than with supporting their juniors, giving response like “during my time…” to unpalatable situation. And churning rigid unproductive routines down our throat, just because “that’s how it’s done” with no modern sensible reason is deplorable. These attitudes perpetuate the profession’s stagnation and prevents us, as doctors, from receiving our due pay.
For instance, expecting us all or making it compulsory to come for morning review, even after a long tiring call with more important patient-care-related tasks pending, is unnecessary and inconsiderate. At these reviews, you’d often find colleagues snoozing, some others hurriedly trying to write patients summaries and most not listening or learning anything, which defeats the purpose of attending. We need to honestly review the performative act of “just show face” when it’s totally unproductive and time wasting.
ACCOMMODATION
Regarding accommodation, after a month into my house job, I was given a room in HOR 1 (House Officers Residence 1). We had 4 HORs, but HOR 1 and 4 were the most palatable ones to live in. If you’re unfortunate enough to be placed in HOR 1, like I was, you might get an unrenovated room with horrible plumbing. Even the renovated rooms had plumbing issues.
We had almost 24 hours of constant electricity, but there was always something getting spoiled in the residence. It got so bad that I labelled HOR 1 cursed. We could go days or even weeks without consistent water, which meant we had to fetch water. To make it worse, I lived on the second floor, so carrying enough water for about 2 days was hectic.
On the other hand, HOR 4 was better compared to HOR 1. They didn’t seem to always have issues like we did, and the hostel is relatively newer. However, it seems it might have been built with substandard materials.
FOOD
The food situation was a different kind of struggle. On my first day, as someone who hated to cook, I realized I’d have to prepare most of my meals since the food at the ARD Lounge was not ideal. When you’re tired, forget about finding good food in UBTH. The few places available were not great, and during night shifts, you had no place to get anything substantial to avoid fainting.
UBTH provided call food every day, but it was bland and often unappetizing. The more days I spent there, the worse the food got. The jollof rice was horrible, and even though I didn’t like swallow, I was sometimes forced to eat it. The rice and stew meal felt like rice with a touch of stew served for beggars. But I guess, beggars can’t be choosers, right?
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
In terms of extracurricular activities, Benin didn’t offer much variety. Everyone just went to the same places, and if a lady participated too often, there were whispers about her. I got tired of my seniors suggesting we go to the same spot – CUBE – and would often go out alone to avoid the gatherings.
My experience at UBTH was overwhelmingly, some days were fun, but most days I hated. The hospital’s priorities were misplaced with unacceptable working conditions. They seem to prioritize making money over their doctors’ health, because even with filled hospital beds and dwindling manpower, they still continue to accept new patients.
On a final note, if someone asks me, “Ucha, do you regret coming to UBTH?” My response will be “yes!”. I keep saying it’s one of the worst adult decisions I made. If I’m asked, “Would you recommend UBTH to anyone?” My response will be “no! not even to my worst enemy”. If I’m asked, “Would you ever work for or think about working for UBTH again?” My answer is “never!”.
Editor’s note:
This is a review written through the lens of Ucha Kalu, a medical officer and graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, who recently completed her medical internship (housemanship) at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH).
