Ajah Jonathan L
Specialty Registrar in Surgery, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria.
SICOT J. 2018;4:36. doi: 10.1051/sicotj/2018008. Epub 2018 Sep 3.
Surgical postgraduate examiners and examinees in Nigeria complain of the low pass rate at all levels of the postgraduate surgical training examinations to which several factors are contributing. For several years there has been being a persistently low surgeon workforce in the country despite having two surgeon producing institutions been for at least 37 years. A review of the probable causes was carried out to shed more light on the matter. At the time of writing there are 52 National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN) and 46 West African College of Surgeons (WACS) accredited post graduate surgery training programs in Nigeria compared with 99 in the United Kingdom (UK) and 1056 in the United States (US). Based on available data Nigeria has approximately 572 surgery residency training slots yearly compared with approximately 646 in the UK and 4225 in the US. Examination pass rate was less than 40% for primary WACS compared with 98% pass rate in USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) 3, pass rate at part I was 28.8% for WACS compared with 37% at MRCS (Membership Royal College of Surgeons) part A and 57% for MRCS part B. For the exit examination or part II WACS pass rate was 31.5% (general surgery) while it was 64% for Fellowship Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) cumulative and 70% in the American board of surgery (ABS). Surgeon per 100 000 population was 0.69 for Nigeria compared with 11.7 and 25.6 for the UK and US respectively. In the last 35 years WACS has produced 1638 surgeons (2.8 times more than NPMCN) in surgery and NPMCN has produced 572. The frequency of examination were twice per year for both WACS and NPMCN examinations, 3 times per year for the USMLE step 3, MRCS (A & B) and Fellowship Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) general surgery. The American Board of Surgery (ABS) is once per year for Qualifying Examination (QE) and 5 times per year for Certifying Examination (CE).
尼日利亚的外科研究生考官和考生抱怨称，在研究生外科培训考试的各个级别中，通过率都很低，这是由多种因素造成的。尽管该国拥有两所至少37年的外科医生培养机构，但多年来该国的外科医生劳动力一直持续短缺。为了更清楚地了解此事，对可能的原因进行了审查。在撰写本文时，尼日利亚有52个尼日利亚国家研究生医学院（NPMCN）和46个西非外科医生学院（WACS）认可的研究生外科培训项目，而英国有99个，美国有1056个。根据现有数据，尼日利亚每年约有572个外科住院医师培训名额，而英国约有646个，美国约有4225个。WACS初级考试的通过率低于40%，而美国医师执照考试（USMLE）第3步的通过率为98%；WACS第一部分的通过率为28.8%，而皇家外科医学院会员考试（MRCS）A部分的通过率为37%，B部分为57%。对于结业考试或第二部分，WACS的通过率为31.5%（普通外科），而皇家外科医学院院士资格考试（FRCS）累计通过率为64%，美国外科委员会（ABS）为70%。尼日利亚每10万人口中的外科医生人数为0.69，而英国和美国分别为11.7和25.6。在过去35年中，WACS培养了1638名外科医生（比NPMCN多2.8倍），NPMCN培养了572名。WACS和NPMCN考试每年进行两次，USMLE第3步、MRCS（A和B）以及皇家外科医学院院士资格考试（FRCS）普通外科每年进行3次。美国外科委员会（ABS）资格考试每年进行一次，认证考试每年进行5次。
