The Reality of Optometry Internship Placements in Nigeria

When I was in school I didn’t think much about internship, I expected it to be a time for learning while making some cool cash. Every one of us, back then had different expectations of the one year assigned for it but the generally held idea was that, it was going to be a time to garner experience while putting away that cool cash.

‘Government clinics do not absorb enough interns and most interns have no choice but to settle for private clinics where there is little or no remuneration’, this was the opinion an optometry graduate I talked to in the course of writing this article. When assessing available internship positions, government owned clinics offer higher pay and better hours and this holds greater appeal for new graduates. Considering the number of slots available vis-a-vis the turnout from optometric schools in the country yearly, it would be discovered that only a small percentage of graduates have an honest chance of getting into government establishments. The rest would have to make do with privately-owned clinics around the country.

We all want these government clinics, making the competition fierce. Besides, the general belief is that most of these spots cannot be gotten by merit alone; it would require knowing someone in the system (having long legs). A case of double trouble for those without ‘long legs’.

At present, there are five schools offering the OD (Doctor of optometry) in Nigeria. Every year these schools graduate a number of students. Using the University of Benin as an example, about 50 to 70 graduates are inducted each year with the number of admissions increasing every year. With 22 federal medical centres, several teaching hospitals, general hospitals and other healthcare facilities; there ought to be enough internship slots provided a sizeable number of these facilities take interns, sadly this this is not the case. The unrest in the northern part of the country further reduces the number of available positions. However, it must be stated that these places can absorb an average of 4 interns without hurting their budgets and every licensed optometrist with 5 years post NYSC experience is allowed to train up to six interns.

In my opinion, the number of new admissions in all schools of optometry should be tailored such that a large percentage of would-be graduates should be able to find themselves internship placement with the government. This by itself would curb the need for all the long leg bull shit. It would also help if all government secondary and tertiary facilities were to have optometry clinics. The general feeling is that responsibility for this lies with the Nigerian Optometric Association (NOA) and the Optometrists’ and Dispensing Opticians’ Registration Board of Nigeria. They should push for more policies to be created and implemented to achieve these and the internship programme should be restructured with a view to standardizing the learning experience.  The standardized minimum amount payable to interns should be better canvassed.

However, laudable programmes such as the Family of Optometry Mentors (FOM) instituted by the state chapters of NOA in Abuja and more recently Lagos deserve commendation. These are the kind changes I believe most interns would like to see, it can still get better!