Opinion
Medical Internship: Fuss and Fact
By Dr. Ouma Oluga.
Focused Professional Practice Evaluation, often 12 months, is done for several reasons such as to ascertain or award privileges for medical practice. It basically spotlights competence and behavior.
Medical Internship is regarded worldwide as a framework for Evaluating Professional Practice in a focused way.
Practice means these interns have to see patients and perform procedures. Now that is serious. Practice is real work – a lot of technical and complex work that initiates the perofessional into a world of doctor(ship). In our case in Kenya, 27% of all medical work is done by medical interns. You will never notice who is an intern and who is not. It is not education. It is not training. And it is not volunteering. And it is not supervision per se (entirely). 90% of intern work is unsupervised at the time they deliver the service. They are alone with patients, making life and death decisions. Those decisions are evaluated not less than 8 hours later or when the intern calls on the superior.
What an internship policy should do is to define the conditions for which an intern can make decisions by self and those for which the intern MUST call a superior. Internship policy should not talk about pay. So do we understand the difference between evaluation of performance by specialists and supervision or training or volunteering?
The term medical intern has several nomenclature in different countries. In USA, they are house officers. In UK, they are junior drs. In Kenya, Public Service Commission/Department of Personnel Management used to call ‘us’ Medical Officer 2 or Dental Officer 2 or Pharmacist 2. Much of Africa calls them interns. A term not existent in developed world as far medical career is concerned.
In August 2016 when I led the development of first ever the schemes of service for doctors, we retained the names Medical/Dental/Pharmacist 2 as appearance on the payslip. The IPPD – which is the official Kenya Government pay structure – has the terms Medical/Dental/Pharmacist Officer 2. Medical Intern does not appear on the payslip.
For the CBA, We were very clear about the term intern just so that no one mischeaviously plays around it in the future. And 7 years have proven us right. Yet we also tied the payment evidence to the naming used in scheme of services. The PSC graduated the schemes sometime 2019 and called them career guidelines. Still retaining the temr Medical/Dental/Pharmacist Officer 2.
To summarize, you get no certificate after completion of internship and no qualification more than what you got in med school after completion. But if evaluated positively you get registered (permanently in the roll), not licensed. The interns are already licensed. And every year every doctor must be licensed anyway as long as they are still practising. So internship gains you entry for registration as a doctor.
Let us say more about licensing. Licensing is a temporary permit to make medical decisions. And yes it is temporary for all doctors. Whether you are a neurosurgeon or an intern. It lasts exactly 12 months in all countries on earth. Interns get theirs too for one year. Not different from any doctor.
Medical Internship is healthcare regulation in all definitions. And medical internship is work. It is labour and it is service in all definitions. It is employment. In the USA for example, hospitals get reimbursed by government based on numbers of house officers and residents they have.
There is need for us to have a deeper view around what makes healthcare regulation. And what constitutes labour. Internship is both. We must fulfill both obligations.
The writer is a former KMPDU Secretary General.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
Business12 hours ago
Manager Flees Safaricom-Linked Sacco As Fears Of Investors Losing Savings Becomes Imminent
Africa1 day ago
Rwanda Closes Thousands of Evangelical Churches
News2 days ago
Woman Accused in High Defamation Blames AI As Case Exposes How Mombasa Billionaire Mohamed Jaffer Allegedly Sponsored Smear Campaign Linking Joho’s Family To Drug Trafficking
Politics2 days ago
Fears of Fallout As ODM Gives Ruto Fresh Demands For 2027 Support
Business2 days ago
It’s a Carbon Trading Firm: What Kenyans Need to Know About Spiro’s Business Model Amid Damning Allegations of Predatory Lending
Investigations2 days ago
Intelligence Report Links Budding Politician James Mabele Magio To International Scammers Ring
News3 days ago
DCI Raids Nairobi Bar Jirongo Visited Hours Before Fatal Crash
Africa3 days ago
Disgraced Oil Trader Idris Taha Sneaks Into Juba as Empire Crumbles
Sports3 days ago
Joshua Knocks Out Paul in Netflix Bout
Business4 days ago
‘They’re Criminals,’ Popular Radio Presenter Rapcha The Sayantist Accuses Electric Bike Firm Spiro of Fraudulent Practices
News4 weeks ago
Kenyan Driver Hospitalized After Dubai Assault for Rejecting Gay Advances, Passport Seized as Authorities Remain Silent
Investigations3 weeks ago
Money Bior, Lawyer Stephen Ndeda Among 18 Accused Of Running An International Fraud Ring Involved With Scamming American Investor Sh500 Million
Business4 weeks ago
Construction Of Stalled Yaya Center Block Resumes After More Than 3 Decades and The Concrete Story Behind It
Investigations3 weeks ago
Nestlé Accused of Risking Babies’ Health in Africa with ‘Toxic’ Cerelac Product Sold Highest in Kenya
Investigations4 weeks ago
How Somali Money From Minnesota Fraud Ended In Funding Nairobi Real Estate Boom, Al Shabaab Attracting Trump’s Wrath
Investigations3 weeks ago
How Land Grabbing Cartels Have Captured Ardhi House
Business4 days ago
‘They’re Criminals,’ Popular Radio Presenter Rapcha The Sayantist Accuses Electric Bike Firm Spiro of Fraudulent Practices
News3 weeks ago
48-Year-Old Woman Who Pushed 25-Year-Old Boyfriend To Death From 14th Floor Kilimani Apartment Arrested
News4 weeks ago
TSC Announces Major Policy Shift To End Transfer Of Promoted Teachers
News1 week ago
Temporary Reprieve As Mohamed Jaffer Wins Mombasa Land Compensation Despite Losing LPG Monopoly and Bitter Fallout With Johos
-
Business4 days ago‘They’re Criminals,’ Popular Radio Presenter Rapcha The Sayantist Accuses Electric Bike Firm Spiro of Fraudulent Practices
-
News1 week agoTemporary Reprieve As Mohamed Jaffer Wins Mombasa Land Compensation Despite Losing LPG Monopoly and Bitter Fallout With Johos
-
Sports1 week ago1Win Games 2025: Ultimate Overview of Popular Casino, Sports & Live Games
-
Investigations1 week agoFrom Daily Bribes to Billions Frozen: The Jambopay Empire Crumbles as CEO Danson Muchemi’s Scandal-Plagued Past Catches Up
-
Business1 week agoHass Petroleum Empire Faces Collapse as Court Greenlights KSh 1.2 Billion Property Auction
-
Investigations4 days agoDisgraced Kuscco Boss Arnold Munene Moves To Gag Media After Expose Linking Him To Alleged Sh1.7 Billion Fraud
-
Africa3 days agoDisgraced Oil Trader Idris Taha Sneaks Into Juba as Empire Crumbles
-
News1 week agoShanta Gold’s Sh680 Billion Gold Discovery in Kakamega Becomes A Nightmare For Community With Deaths, Investors Scare