St Leo's Hospital, Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Abia State Specialist hospital, Amachara, Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Mar 15;23(1):162. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04135-1.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a compulsory one-year programme for graduates of tertiary schools including doctors. This study was conducted to find out the benefits and challenges of the programme among corps medical doctors as well as their treatment in their places of primary assignment (PPAs). The study would influence policymaking so as to improve the experiences of corps medical doctors and help NYSC to achieve its objectives.
A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 399 medical doctors doing their compulsory national youth service in Nigeria. The research instrument was developed by the researchers and pretested before use. The outcome variables were: overall benefit, overall challenge and overall PPA treatment. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test using p < 0.05.
Majority of respondents (83.5%) believed that the scheme offered one or more benefits to corps medical doctors (overall benefit). These benefits include exposure to new culture (47.6%), gaining medical/surgical skills (36.3%) and finding a lover/spouse (4.5%). Similarly, most of respondents (89.2%) reported one or more challenges (overall challenge). Some of the challenges reported include; no provision of accommodation (51.6%), poor remuneration (44.7%) and exploitation of corps doctors by their employers (41.4%). There was a statistically significant association between overall benefit and region of deployment (p value: 0.013). Region of deployment and marital status were found to have a statistically significant association with the overall challenge with p-values of 0.031 and < 0.001 respectively. Overall treatment at PPAs was mostly reported to be bad (77.2%) and it had a statistically significant association with marital status (p-value: 0.002) and religion (p-value: 0.024).
Most respondents reported poor PPA treatment and this calls on the government and other stakeholders to take drastic measures to improve the welfare of corps medical doctors in order to positively influence their perception of the scheme and encourage their continued participation.
国家青年服务团（NYSC）是一项针对包括医生在内的高等院校毕业生的强制性一年计划。本研究旨在了解该计划对军队医疗医生的益处和挑战，以及他们在主要工作地点（PPA）的待遇。该研究将影响决策制定，以改善军队医疗医生的体验，帮助 NYSC 实现其目标。
对在尼日利亚服义务兵役的 399 名军队医疗医生进行了描述性横断面调查。研究工具由研究人员开发，并在使用前进行了预测试。结果变量包括：整体收益、整体挑战和整体 PPA 待遇。使用描述性统计和卡方检验（p<0.05）分析获得的数据。
大多数受访者（83.5%）认为该计划为军队医疗医生提供了一项或多项收益（整体收益）。这些收益包括接触新文化（47.6%）、获得医疗/手术技能（36.3%）和找到爱人/配偶（4.5%）。同样，大多数受访者（89.2%）报告了一项或多项挑战（整体挑战）。报告的一些挑战包括：无住宿提供（51.6%）、薪酬低（44.7%）和雇主剥削军队医生（41.4%）。整体收益与部署区域之间存在统计学显著关联（p 值：0.013）。部署区域和婚姻状况与整体挑战存在统计学显著关联，p 值分别为 0.031 和<0.001。PPA 的整体待遇大多被报告为差（77.2%），与婚姻状况（p 值：0.002）和宗教（p 值：0.024）存在统计学显著关联。
大多数受访者报告称 PPA 的待遇较差，这呼吁政府和其他利益相关者采取果断措施，改善军队医疗医生的福利，以积极影响他们对该计划的看法，并鼓励他们继续参与。
