Views of early career doctors on residency training and clinical practice in Nigeria: A qualitative report from charting study

Abstract

In Nigeria, Early Career Doctors (ECDs) constitute a significant number of the doctor's health workforce and play a crucial role in health service delivery. However, there is a paucity of data concerning attitude, perception, and challenges in training and skill acquisition faced by ECDs undergoing residency training in Nigeria. This study is a component of Challenges of Residency training and early career doctors in Nigeria (CHARTING study) a multicentre and multidisciplinary study that explored the views of ECDs on residency training and clinical practice in Nigeria.

Methods: Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted among fourteen respondents, to address specific aspects of the residency training program and encourage respondents to express themselves about issues relevant to their personal experiences as regards the assessment of practice and proffer recommendations. Discussions were digitally recorded with an audio recorder. Audio-recordings was transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analysed, and coding was done using NVivo 12 program.

Results: All the study participants expressed various degrees of dissatisfaction and challenges such as lack of up to date knowledge, poor&contingent rewards, workload distribution, lack of mentorship, and unequipped facility during the residency training program. Majority of the study participants considered the program is currently skewed towards service delivery at the detriment of training and research.

Conclusion: The study provided robust information on the knowledge of the trainees' perception of the residency training program in Nigeria as well as the challenges of residency training among ECDs as regards their experience and practice; it also proffered recommendations to mitigate the challenges.

Keywords: Career, Internship, Postgraduate, Registrar, Trainee, Residency, Doctors, Dentist, Early Career Doctors, Nigeria, Education, Graduate Medical, Residency