ETK Talks: Turning 33 and reflections

Hey darlings!

Seems I actually am back – I’m writing this just a day after my last post wow talk about the effect of positive feedback! January 21 saw me turn 33 years old and if I’m super honest I wasn’t actually sure what age I was turning this year, I feel like I’m in the blur of my early 30s where everything feels like one movie montage of my “building phase”. Even when starting the year I wasn’t psyched up into wanting to make New Year’s resolutions, the vibe I was getting was just focusing on steady progression on all fronts – because I’ve got a clear path I’m on and just need to keep at it.

The way this birthday cake slipped and fell onto the floor was hilarious lol

As someone who pursued a non-clinical career from within medical school, having no clear career path has been my modus operandi for the greater part of my career. At the time I was so strongly drawn to public health because of a life changing experience back when I fractured my knee during a university football game – that led to my first ever encounter with the actual Nigerian government health sector – and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Prior to then, thanks to good health and general privileges, I’d only ever interacted with private healthcare in Nigeria so I didn’t know how bad things were; looking at people bleeding out on the floor in the hospital waiting area all because they couldn’t afford registration (a measly N500/£2 at the time) – shook me deeply.

At the World Health Assembly 2018 where I worked as the IFMSA pre-World Health Assembly Public relations and social media coordinator

So that led to my why – why did I, a British-Nigerian, have unbridled access to free universal health care in the UK via the NHS but this poor man couldn’t get his open wound even looked at by a healthcare provider despite presenting at a state hospital? That search for an answer led me to studying – in my own time – about health systems and how there’s a whole sector of public health called health systems strengthening (HSS) and I was like – oh yeah? That’s where I’m going. I read up via LinkedIn pages what various people’s career trajectories were leading up to their roles in HSS and boy was there so much variance, but a constant factor I saw was that they all had a masters in public health so I set my mind that I’d do one after med school – which I did! But getting a masters was only one part, I had to figure out the work experience part as I’d noticed that was a key factor too. This led me hunting for unpaid and then paid gigs in public health (in that order) and eventually landed me a public health position in a UK local authority.

This role gave me first hand experience of public health in a first world country which I appreciated but certainly felt stifled by. Public health is very political as I’ve come to understand but this was a role where I was met with pushback and had to learn the corporate art of negotiating. Tell me why I had to push for green spaces to be included in a developers plan in an attempt to help tackle the obesity issue (the program I was managing) and the developers were pushing for parking spaces? So I had to regularly bring back the obesity issue and pressure them into putting the space for the community to exercise into the plan. It felt like I was arguing a common sense point yet, their priority was the profit that would be made from charging for parking – I learnt a lot.

I’m giving this sped up version of my career trajectory to make a point – from the jump I’ve always had to curate my own career, seek out my own opportunities and put myself out there actively – so to be in GP training where each job just lines up after the other, and all I have to do is show up…it feels like a plateau phase lol. Don’t get me wrong there’s a lot to do as a GP registrar; I work full time and also have to study for exams, write reflections on my work experiences, attend trainings, carry out quality improvement exercises, record my consultations for assessments, have some of my examinations observed for assessments – all at the same time as still having a life and personal responsibilities – but the difference is, I know where this ends. I know that should I continue on my steady trajectory in a short time I’ll be a qualified GP – that’s something I didn’t have as a guarantee whilst pursuing a public health career, so I would take a position not knowing what would come next, but I’d make sure to maximize the experience I could get from it while simultaneously searching for which organization needs my skills. I surprisingly didn’t find it exhausting, it was actually exciting living on the edge in a way – but now I appreciate the steadiness that GP training affords me.

Loved doing advocacy and was so honored to have been included in this campaign against malaria – fun fact: Sir David Beckham was also part of this campaign but he do his filming in the morning and mine was in the afternoon so I didn’t get to meet him haha

Is it my age? Is it becoming a mother? I don’t know, but what I do know: I like where I am. It feels like a chance to build capacity but this time with security. Besides, I didn’t lose my previous experience – should I decide to take life by the reins and dabble in public health again, I can! Impossible is nothing.

Till next time,

Dr ETK xo