I would start by saying it’s a wild race.

 

I just started this and my friend cracked a joke about it and we laughed, but it just simply fuelled my desire to do this. If you can’t help, don’t kill the help, its simple really. For the better half of the past two years, my closest friends have been doctors, so I pretty much have a front row in this discussion. 

 

I just read a tweet from my former roommate who I have a huge respect for and who I consider family, however I wasn’t too pleased, I could confront him directly and we would talk and argue and of course we would resolve the argument and that’s it. However, I’d prefer to just say what has been brewing in my mind recently.

 

 

I am almost done watching the seventh season of ‘’suits” and I could say well I could argue and win any case especially this one with my aforementioned friend. Now here it is, I am right, I could do the job of a lawyer and argue the case, hell, I might even win, but I am wrong to say I could argue the case like a lawyer, what would be right is I could argue the case but not as a lawyer because, whatever knowledge I have gained from watching ‘suits’, it doesn’t qualify me to be a lawyer, to do the job of a lawyer and to say I can indeed do the job of a lawyer, I would need to go through law school and of course get certified. 

 

I am writing up this piece, the second of its kind and it is my own way of pouring out my emotions because I tend to stammer and find it hard to pass my point effectively when talking about matters that agitate me, plus I tend not to be able to keep my cool, Also probably because of my ardent distaste for arguments. Writing is easier,It doesn’t make a poet or even close, it just speaks to me realising my weakness and whilst working to address it which I am, I’d use my strength to get my points through. 

 

My beef isn’t with my friend, it isn’t even with the system, it is with us not learning to in simple words “mind our business”. I don’t know the full story in the current impending strike, well, my fault really as I also don’t have much interest in lotta talk which is characteristic of ‘news’which is were we I am supposed to get the full details, I however like to address matters from a rational angle and it helps me that I listen to people a lot and their undertones and tells me my own share of the story.

 

I would say Doctors are the source of the current strike. The theory of evolution means change is constant and the ability to adapt and also make decisions with the future in mind is key to avoiding certain preventable conflicts. For ages, Doctors have been in charge of the health sector and the downside to that is that they have refused to evolve. The earlier phases of medicine had only doctors at the fore, but evolution also means over time Doctors realised they could deliver by themselves, hence ‘The Help’.

 

Since the help has come the “smart Doctor” would realise, the help needs to feel fulfilled in the role he is set out to play. Now you called for the help and the help is here and truthfully here to stay, so you need to brace up and make the ‘help’ live up to his full potential.

 

From the earlier quoted tweet, He says he can do what JOHESU people do, lest I forget JOHESU is the coalition of all the health workers in the hospital bar the doctor. Now you see the relevance of the earlier comparisms with a lawyer, I am a Pharmacist and you can quote me or go pull up records from anywhere, since I attained the age of reasoning I have never wanted to be a Doctor, I have no dislike for the profession but respect and lately irritation even disgust every now and then when I see write ups and statements especially those by NMA. Some of them have been very derogatory and I’m sure there could be a case to sue for slander but then, I wouldn’t know as I am not a lawyer.

 

As with my pieces I like to switch topics every now and then just to keep u interested and not bored. I hope it does work in my favour.

 

So, back to the matter, Yes indeed my friend can do my job, he dint hear my part, well I can do his job too. What he missed out on is he can do my job but he as sure as hell cant do my job as good as I would just the way I cant do his job as good as he. That there is the reason why I think we are by default short sighted, you need to make an effort to open your eyes and see the bigger picture. 

 

The ‘Help’ are the Nurses, Physios, Lab Scientists and us Pharmacists. A doctor can administer injections, do all the things the nurse does, but what he should realise is he most definitely cannot do these things as well as a nurse would because the nurse has spent all lots of years studying to know how to care for the patient, years that were filled with lots of hard work and sleepless nights and thus qualifying him to be a nurse who is best fit for the job. 

If I were a nurse I would be insulted if anyone told me he could do my job and the person who says it should definitely apologise for that because the insult is also to those who have dedicated their lives to tutoring nurses as u are indirectly saying you just wasted your efforts because I can do this person’s job just because I have insights as to how you to your job. 

 

I had an ankle injury from an accident a couple of years back and I went to a friend who is a Physiotherapist, she knew the right place to touch that eventually was a main source of relief from the pain. I don’t know much about Physios but I Know most people myself included at some stage assumed its all about massage. 

 

Rehabilitation is a major part of healthcare and those that have had relatives who have had physical major trauma would definitely relate better to this as they would testify to how the Physiotherapist played a huge in them recovering from the trauma, hell, just ask someone who had a patient or who was a patient who was able to recover from a stroke. They would tell you who a Physiotherapist is. Imagine if my Doctor friend then says ‘I can do your job’, would you be insulted.

 

I could go on to how important a Med Lab Scientist is or even yet how important I am in this setting, I would save you the stress or better yet leave you to look far and see it yourself, look at the bigger picture.

 

READ PART 1: #JOHESUStrike2018 The Rant: The Pharmaceutical Profession By Pharm. Sani Emmanuel

 

The ‘help’ is needed. The ‘help’ is important else you might as well return back to the stone age and you don’t even want to see the look on my face if you even try to think about it. 

 

I have spent enough time berating the Doctors, here’s why: The fight is meant to be between the JOHESU and the federal government, but somehow it has become one between JOHESU versus NMA and fed. Govt. It is annoying because like I said earlier this entire struggle could have been avoided if NMA were smart enough to realise evolution means you aren’t the only ones in the hospital at least not anymore and as such the others also have needs for fulfilment. If NMA is smart, they would look for avenues to make sure the ‘help’ feels he is getting to the top of his career and growing whlist also getting that fulfilment which being job satisfaction and the best yield from anybody.

 

Before I proceed if anyone that reads this ever misinterpretes ‘help’ to mean maid or servant or even anything close I would say such person is worse than the whites who enslaved the blacks back in the day because they felt there were inferior, I would say you are a racist and deserved to be stoned to death, that is how insulted I would take it. Rather ‘Help’ as I prefer to use the word basically for poetic reasons and to give this piece an attractive feel in my own way, you could equate to a wife, a partner. So ‘Help’ here means partner to put it bluntly.

 

If there is a friend of mine who is a Doctor and who thinks his job is more important than mine and that I might as well be a mere errand boy, I would lose a night’s sleep losing such friend because the true mark of friendship or partnership means recognising what the other person brings to the table and respecting their choices and decisions.

 

And to further fuel more aggression from a Doctor that reads this, I can do a doctor’s job. How, well the same way he can do mine since all I do is dispense drugs, and he can do that, well, I can clerk patients and prescribe medications for them, hell I can probably perform surgery, I’d just need to go observe a surgeon whilst he’s performing one and use my eidetic memory to repeat what he just did as long as it’s the same procedure, you can argue this but with a short sight I might even pull it off, but the fact remains I am not a doctor and I would not do a job as good as a Doctor would because he was trained to be one and no amount of ‘side knowledge’ could make me assume his role. 

 

If I want to be a Doctor, I Should go to Medical school and get certified, same goes for a Doctor, if he wants to do my job, he should go through Pharmacy school and get certified. My certificate or years of study is no joke and it’s a hell of an achievement that I am proud of, so please mind your business, I’m here to help carry out my duty, if you don’t want to assist me in getting to the top of my field don’t freaking stand in my way.

 

When policies were being made over the years for the health sector, a ‘smart NMA’ would ensure the policies were made to favour the ‘help’ and make them feel a full part of the team, but apparently that wasn’t the case, the need to feel superior and way above the rest was the main focus afterall ‘I am a Doctor’ and everyone must know and see even from a distance. For me, I have interpreted the actions by the Doctor as some form of inferiority complex, afterall, if you are indeed confident in yourself, no-one should feel like a threat to you. Let us all wake up, the policies are shit, if they weren’t, there would be such cry for justice.

 

I am of the firm belief that everyone in this race knows the right thing to do, some are to scared to make the bold decisions, let your partner grow, a growth of a partner would directly result in growth for the body as a whole. Everyone is happy and fulfilled and feels the hunger to reach the top of his field and I can but not state in any more obvious tone, If your job satisfies you, you would give your utmost best to it. Hence to correct the last statement my friend quoted, don’t aim to make your patients not feel the strike, aim to speak up for better care and attention to your partner’s needs and demands which would actually be the way to ensure ‘our’ patients get the best healthcare possible.

 

I have spent a better part of two hours typing up this piece even risking my dinner as a result because this really gets to me and I like to think if I was born at a time of slave trade, I would do my part to fight for freedom because nothing good comes easy. You have to bleed and fight for it, despite the oppression and hardship and injustice, evolution meant with time and the sweat of some people, change would come and Obama became president of United States of America. The greatest country in the world led by a race that was once tagged inferior.

 

I am Sani Emmanuel and I am proud to be a Pharmacist, it doesn’t make me a proud person, please let’s shed our pride and personal interests and ‘all do the right thing’.