Educating The Next Generation Of Healthcare Professionals In Africa

In rightly educating our healthcare professionals we secure the future of healthcare in Africa.

The way we educate the next generation of healthcare professionals must change if we ever want to be rightly represented in the global theater of leadership and innovation in healthcare. 

In Nigeria, there are learning methods/techniques/structures that are still used in top institutions that have long gone into extinction. 

When we subject students to archaic and expired learning methods, we produce ill-prepared young people to face the world. 

We push them out into an advanced world, and they are stuck, not knowing what to do with the “old stuff” you have injected into their minds. 

The world is in constant flux. It’s not waiting for anybody. 

Now we are having more young folks bagging advanced degrees at very young ages. It’s not a new happening, but it’s getting more frequent. This shows us how fast the world is changing. 

And it’s never going to slow down. It gets faster with each decade going by. 

One may be forced to wonder what the world will look like in the next let’s say fifty to hundred years. That’s if any of you reading this article will be around. 

However, what baffles me is how slow Africa is advancing…

How slow… 

We are behind. 

We have always been left behind, crawling behind; termed the third world, and looking onto the West for democracy and leadership and to the East for industrial strength and inspiration. 

This inability has caused us to suffer as a continent. We have produced some of the worst leaders the world has ever known [and a handful of good ones who are silenced by the army of corrupt, foolish, and senseless leaders we have].  

And it looks as if it will never change soon. 

Africa needs to stand up and realize that it has the power to change. And this power will not come from America or China. It will come from within, from inside. 

We have the people. We have the strength and the natural resource needed to create a super nation. 

Why are we not making use of it? 

If we want to start preserving our future, we must critically look at the way we educate our people. 

The Right Education For The Future of Healthcare

Healthcare professionals who are being educated in today’s world in Africa need to understand the direction the world is headed. 

It’s not business as usual. 

Physicians who are being trained today need to understand that the digital culture is drastically changing the way healthcare is being delivered. 

Nurses must know how to interact with patients in an age that has come to heavily rely on digital technologies. 

They must be exposed to innovation and leadership early in their education. Let them be taught how to think — differently if needed. 

Gone are the days when we force people to think the way we want them to think. 

Now, people must find out for themselves what makes them unique, and what inspires them. 

This is how they go on to become great, change the world and make it a better place for all of us to live in. 

I have been writing and reading about innovation, leadership, and creativity in healthcare for some time now and through my writings and readings, I have realized a lot of things, especially about healthcare professionals in Africa. 

Why do you think many of us are leaving Africa? 

Many leave because they know that they can get out there what Africa will never give them. 

The ability to think differently and not get crucified for doing things differently. 

In our institutions, we have placed policies that will keep killing brilliant minds. 

If we ever want to grow past mediocrity and smallness we need to create policies that can adapt, adjust and accommodate change. 

Education is a powerful force. If used properly, it can change a whole generation of people. If used wrongly, it can destroy a whole nation. 

We need to sit down and review how we educate our healthcare professionals. 

This is not just about the healthcare ecosystem alone, it’s about other industries. 

I know we might not be able to do much if the government does not support us, but we can do something. 

We can connect to the universal community of leaders and innovators and create shockwaves that will generate positive effects that even the government itself can not deny. 

Bur how many institutions will think disruptively? 

How many will decide to stand out? 

Right now in Nigeria, higher institutions are on strike. 

To some of my readers who don’t understand what this means, read this article to gain more understanding of the incessant strikes in Nigeria crippling the education sector. 

You Can Standout! 

I have always been an advocate of Digital Transformation [and technology in general]. 

From a young age, I have always been fascinated by how things WORK! 

And I observed that I mix this fascination with science with the magic of art. Hence my deep interest in writing, reading, arts, culture, and history. 

Young folks need to know that they can think differently [and do differently]. 

They can decide to remain in the prison a weak educational system forges for them or decide to think outside the box and explore the world.

One of the sole reasons why I started Care City is to let healthcare professionals in Africa know that they can do more. 

And the world has become a small village, thanks to the internet that connects all of us. 

You can tap into the knowledge resources of those in Germany and China and use it to build something here in Nigeria. 

It will not be easy, but it’s possible, and many people are doing it every day. 

You need advanced degrees. It’s unwise to downplay the need to pursue advanced degrees. 

Go for it. It exposes you to things you may never know if you stay within the confines of a basic degree or education. 

But what you must also know is that we people are different. 

Some have been built to remain vocational. 

They think with their hands and on their feet, and they may never get a Ph.D., a master’s, or even a bachelor’s. 

That does not make them inferior leaders or innovators. What matters most is how we can use what we have to change the world. 

Why have a Ph.D. that will not change the world? It’s a waste of precious time and good money.  

Education should bring the best out of an individual. This is what it’s designed to do. 

When you study the best institutions in the world there is this spirit they all have in common. 

These world-class citadel of learning are able to construct an environment that allows students to think freely, experiment, and learn a lot from mature, experienced, and enthusiastic teachers. 

Education Should Bring Freedom To The Mind

This is what it should do. If it doesn’t do this, instead if it manipulates and keeps people under, then it’s darkness. 

The greatest physical gift I and my siblings were given was a good education. Our parents made sure we got it. We may not have gone to the best schools, but we were taught that life is all about learning. 

The more you learn, the better you become. This is the true spirit of education. 

We don’t want to produce more Nurses, Doctors, Pharmacists, and healthcare professionals who will become professional zombies. 

We want to produce healthcare professionals who are smart. Professionals who will go out there and think, create and cause changes. 

They will question existing structures and methods. They will challenge old and outdated ideas and work to develop and design ideas that will make the healthcare ecosystem a better place. 

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