ABSTRACT
An unsuspecting motorcycle passenger was ambushed and impaled on the right side of the head with a 30cm serrated meat carving knife during a sectarian crisis in the city of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. The patient escaped running with the knife in his head and was rescued to a military hospital from where he was promptly transferred within 90 minutes of the incident to the Emergency Department of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Jos. Prompt resuscitation and CT brain imaging facilitated a successful neurosurgical intervention and a good outcome in the management of this patient.
ABSTRACT
Although one of the earliest recorded medical publications was recorded in Europe about the middle of the 17(th) Century, the earliest medical publication in West Africa was in the 1920s - three centuries later. However, since then, a number of other biomedical journals have been published, a few of them regularly, and only a fraction of them have met the criteria for indexing in PubMed. This, therefore, has made a large number of medical articles published in Nigeria and West Africa unavailable to the outside world as the search engines would be unable to pick these publications. Despite the efforts of many researchers in Nigeria and other West African countries to publish in medical journals in the industrialized countries, most have not been able to meet the high standards of these journals due to paucity of resources, infrastructure and training. This, therefore, underpins the need for regular update courses on medical manuscript writing in the West African sub-region with a view to enable authors in the sub-region meet the standards set by indexed journals in various parts of the world; such courses will also help journal editors keep abreast with current demands in editing, review process and publication in order to meet the criteria for indexing.
ABSTRACT
The Viva Voce is a form of assessment dating back to antiquity. It is widely used by the English-speaking West African Postgraduate Medical Colleges for intermediate and exit level examinations. Although it is still popular till the present day, there is a growing awareness of its limitation as an examination method. This paper explores the origin, format, advantages and limitations of oral examinations in postgraduate surgical assessment and proffers practical guidelines on its usage.
ABSTRACT
When the result of a medical examination for a group of candidates is bad, it may be because the candidates are bad; or the questions and the format of the examination are improper. The reason may also be because there is no teaching and preparation of the residents or the mode of examination and the methods of assessment are flawed. This paper tries to focus attention on the role of the examiners in conducting a medical postgraduate examination. It highlights the negative impact of the aggressiveness of the evaluators, the unnecessary interruption of the candidate by the examiners and flawed or inadequate assessment of the candidate by the examiners.
ABSTRACT
The major reasons for repeated failures at the Fellowship Examinations in Surgery are due to poor preparation and underrating the scope and depth of the expectations of the examiners. Attention to details and comprehensive answers to every question in the theory, clinical parts of the examination, viva voce and thesis are the linchpins to success. The answers should show mastery and up-to-date information of the subjects under discussion. Adequate preparation for fellowship examination should include reading the appropriate textbooks and surgical journals thoroughly, participating actively in clinical case presentations before peers and trainers, as well as searching the internet for current concepts in the areas of interest.
