Demographics of collaborators investigating the Nigerian medical and dental interns: A medical internship training in Nigeria (minting) study collaboration

Abstract

Introduction: The internship period is a peculiar time in a doctor’s career, and some have described it as a “nuisance year” during which  the junior doctor assumes many roles at the same time. Junior doctors especially house officers are faced with many unique challenges; this is even more pronounced in poor resource settings like Nigeria. This study aimed to unravel and improve understanding of the  challenges faced by medical and dental interns in Nigeria.

Methodology: A nine-member House officers Research and Statistics Committee (HRSC) was immediately set up to include three senior  colleagues - Senior Registrars and Registrar. To carry out her responsibility efficiently the committee created the House Officers Research  Collaboration Network (HRCN), a 103- member team comprising medical and dental interns from across Nigeria under a collaborative -  Medical INternship Training in Nigeria (MINTING) study.

Result: Out of a total of the 103 House Officers Research Collaboration Network, 80 of them participated in this survey giving a 78% response rate. Ten of the intern Collaborators had additional qualification and seven  of them had BSc as an initial degree. About 66 % of the Collaborators have never authored any publication. Of the 27 that have published  an article; three collaborators are said to have published 15, 13, 16 articles respectively. Male collaborators where more likely to have  published at least one article in the past. Thirty one of the 80 Collaborators have never been in a research collaborative group prior to this  MINTING collaborative.

Conclusion: This commentary is set out to describe in detail Nigerian House Officers initiative in terms of the  structure, functions, operational modalities, and to investigate the demographics of the HRCNcollaborators which showed that over  two third of collaborators have never authored any publication and about a third of them have never been involved in collaborative  research. We also believe the findings will serve as policy guide and benchmark in training the critical medical health force