I hadn’t been in a hospital ward in almost 2years when I started my internship in July 2021. I had spent the years after school dabbling in other activities different from nursing; data analysis, coding, writing, finance or anything that seemed interesting to me. By the time I resumed General Hospital(GH), Odan the 27th of July 2021, to start my internship, I had duly forgotten all the skills I had learnt in nursing school, or so I thought. On my first day, after the customary introductions and orientation, I was posted to LASEMS; LASEMS(Lagos State Emergency Service) is one of the two-part emergency sections in GH; they take care of the surgical emergencies. The other part is called “Casualty”; they handle the medical emergencies.
I wasn’t the only nursing youngling in LASEM that day; there were student nurses from one of the nursing schools in Lagos. To be honest, those students were better nurses than me that day; I remembered trying to break an ampoule of diclofenac, and my hands started shaking. One of the student nurses had to take the injection from me and administer it correctly while educating me as she did; I couldn’t complain; at this point, the roles became reversed. She became the teacher, while I became the student. I stood and listened to her in humility and penitent while listening to all she had to say; all my sins of stabbing clinical postings as a student have finally found me out.
Despite my supposed humiliation that day, I had my greatest lesson in the internship, perhaps, the biggest lesson I will learn in life. Never be proud to learn from anybody, even your juniors, and never be too cocky to request your help when it’s needed. So it turned out that I hadn’t forgotten all I had learnt in nursing school; all I needed was the environment to put me back in shape; by my second week, I was already performing at the level an intern should be. The jitters I experienced on the first day were because of the anxiety of not knowing what I needed to know.
My General Hospital posting lasted five months; Theatre, Casualty, LASEMS and the wards. They were all arranged in the order in which I enjoyed them. Theatre, which was top of my list, wasn’t all rosy; it was gruelling most of the time. Some of my colleagues, Ope and Yoma, described their stay there as mortifying, and I did agree with them. But it was the place I learnt the most, that’s why I loved it. While I was a student, I stabbed nearly all the theatre postings I was supposed to attend, so I came into the internship as a complete nonce on how things worked in theatre.
On my first day in day in Threatre, the nurse who I was supposed to shadow looked deep into my face and knew immediately there was zilch knowledge about theatre in my skull. My other colleague, Anjola, who we were posted to the theatre together that day, breezed through the question the nurse asked as though she had read them before coming to work that morning while I swore that I had never heard nor seen the things she was asking about in my entire life. “School fees ti jona”
May the forces keep that nurse wherever she is today; she taught me all I needed to know to function effectively as a nurse in the theatre. By the time I ended my posting there, I had become someone who could handle things for myself without needing strict supervision. Sometimes, all it takes is a gentle and understanding teacher to make someone fall in love with the worst of subjects.
The section for medical emergencies known as the Casualty was my second-best posting in GH; oh my, it was stressful, but I loved it; the adrenaline, the autonomy and the suspense for what was coming next. I did witness some miracle in there too.
One night, I was part of the team on the first watch(Iykyk). At about 2 am, a green pathfinder jeep drove in; at the back was this hefty man, unconscious, drooling from the mouth, with his wife jittery and shaking all over the place, screaming “Egbami Egbami”. My tired self was like, “Good lord, not this night”. We checked his blood gas level; it was low. As a form of first aid, we gave him 50% dextrose diluted in water; while we asked the wife some questions. Less than 2min after the administration of the dextrose via IV*, the unconscious man woke up; the first thing he said was, “Where is my phone?” We all busted into laughter.
There wasn’t anything special about the wards save the plethora of very eccentric and funny patients' stories; that would require another blog post(I hope I have the time and energy to write that).
GH was memorable. One last thing that happened that is worth sharing was when a memo came from the Health service commission and kicked me out of the position of Nurse intern leader that I had appointed myself, “Who sent me in the first place” was the question I asked myself after I saw the memo.
I was destined not to like Lagos Island Maternity Hospital which was my second posting, but the angels in Island maternity will not allow any of such. From my school days, I had hated anything that had to do with maternity health; I was probably the only one in my class who didn’t sit the midwifery exams. I detested everything about it, especially the “joke name” used to describe guys who specialise in that side of healthcare; “Midhusband”.
I took a week off to rest during the interregnum between GH and LIMH(I got into trouble for that). Upon resumption, all my thought of not liking my stay in LIMH dissipated into the air; the good nurses in that place will not allow that. They held my hand figuratively and told me there was no reason to hate midwifery with all the screams and gory sights while teaching me all I needed to know. Although they laughed at me as they did so, I didn’t care. Their kindness almost won me over, but the hate was too rooted to remove.
If hospitals were humans, LIMH was the party bird. There was always one celebration or the other. I liked the effort LIMH put into having a working system and making staff comfortable at work; you won't always find that in your average Nigerian hospital.
As an intern, I could see the efforts they were trying to put in place to have a working system. Although the “Nigerianness” will always show up one way or the other, one must commend the effort. Did I mention that on new year’s day, I was on call for 24hrs in the emergency room, and I did not bring any food nor make any arrangements not get food that day; LIMH that day was a mother that would not allow her son to starve. Thanks to former apex nurse; Mrs Modupe Cole, now Director of Nursing Services in HSC, I had my three square meals that day with big chicken in each of the meals.
By March 2022, I was off to Massey Street Children's Hospital for my final posting. Before I got to Massey, travellers from the land beyond had already brought tales of a terrible place with long and stressful working hours, bad working conditions and no electronic medical record. I could not believe I was returning to using a pen to write using paper and biro after becoming a master in EMR in GH and LIMH.
The tales turned out to be true. Massey ended up the least liked of all my postings. If I had my way, I would have used the worst adjective to describe that place, but the memories of the beautiful babies we cared for won’t allow me to do that, although they almost frustrated me with their crying. Another reason I don’t want to talk bad about Massey is; that one of my most memorable internship experiences came from there.
Massey has an annexe in LIMH; it’s called B3; B3 is a neonatal intensive care unit where they care for babies delivered in LIMH who require medical attention. During my rotation in B3, I became a “father” to this particular set of twins. They were born prematurely, and their mother hadn’t fully recovered yet, so I was responsible for them anytime I was at work. Whenever any of them started carrying, the nurse I worked with always teased me by saying, “Marvellous, your babies have started crying”, to which I laughed before responding to their needs. They were so tiny; the smallest one did not weigh more than 1.5kg; he fitted right into my palms. I finished my rotation in B3 before they were allowed to go home, so I left them there.
Last week, during my final shift in Massey, I saw them again; their guardian had brought them to Massey because they had developed some mild symptoms; oh my! I couldn’t believe my eyes; the teeny tiny babies I cared for had added a lot of weight, with fresh skin, looking so healthy. I was shocked; it was the proper send-off gift. It showed me that the work we do despite the conditions saves lives and gives people another chance in life. I couldn't be happier.
Overall, my internship year was splendid. I met amazing people; Anjola, Esther, Yoma, Onome, Onyinye, Ope, and Toyosi. I could go on and on, mentioning different names. I must stop here. It turned out to be a great year despite my initial reservations; I am grateful for that.
P.S: I am now officially unemployed, if you have jobs for me, I am very much open, before hunger finishes me here…
This was beautiful to read! Loved the pictures and how I could go through the postings with you via words.✨
Good write up I enjoyed every bit just as if I was part fo the journey.
Congrats Man