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| 12th Induction/Oathtaking Ceremony, UNICAL. Source: diagnoscope.wordpress.com |
This blog post is specially tailored for the young Medical Laboratory Science graduate that has been issued the provisional licence and administered the professional oath to practice. Below are few things I feel you should consider doing before heading for the one year mandatory internship programme.
The information I am sharing with you is aimed at ensuring that you have something significant to show for your internship at the end.
1. Start packaging your Curriculum Vitae/Cover Letter and Apply–
Now that you have being inducted, you need to hit the ground running and start applying for internship positions in hospitals you see advertisements and those you don’t. No need to waste time, time is of essence. But before that you must ensure your Curriculum Vitae meets acceptable standards. You can as well as send your CV and cover letter to some big private Laboratories that accept interns. Laboratories like Clina Lancet, El-lab, Pathcare etc. See their Human Resource email address for you to forward your CV/CL here.
2. Start analyzing your future and plans–
It’s usually too late to start analyzing your plans in the middle of the internship programme. During the internship period you maybe carried away as well other ideas may crop up in your head that are not in line with your most pressing demands. You may even be too busy to start marshaling out plans for your life.
So you need to start making plans that will make meaningful contributions and impact your future positively on the long term, in earnest. Now that you are yet to secure the internship space is the best time to plan what you actually want to achieve during the internship, what percentage of the money you will be paid will go into your savings etc.
NYSC pays peanuts and job security immediately after service is usually not assured so you should plan your future upfront, right before the internship starts.
3. How to Utilize your internship Money—
What do you intend to do with the money when it starts coming? Will you want to invest in shares, upgrade your wardrobe, buy a landed property or start a business? Now that you’ve not secured the internship placement is when your mind will be clear and undisturbed to start considering and contemplating on this, because when the money start coming you won’t remember anything anymore. That’s how some scientists round up their internship programme without having anything to show for it or fall back on.
The best time to plan is now that the money hasn’t started coming, truth be told majority of persons usually don’t know what to do with the money when it starts coming. So now is when you must make up your mind on how you will utilize the money when it starts coming.
Don’t be deceived the jobs are not readily available because of the large number of scientist and technicians, universities and colleges of health technology churn out everyday. Some hospital even prefer going for technicians other than scientists so as to cut down on cost. So prepare yourself for the future now.
4. Consolidate your laboratory bench confidence and Competence. ––
Which areas of laboratory bench work were you having deficiencies in during your clinical laboratory posting and will want to build on?
Well, clinical postings and the likes may have exposed you to some aspects of laboratory bench work but during that period you were restricted to a certain limit.
The most you are allowed to do is to perform a particular test procedure under the watchful eyes of the scientist on the bench, i.e perform tests assisted.
So list those areas out and keep in a safe place pending when you secure an internship placement. When the internship eventually comes endeavor to go back to the list you’ve made and ensure that when you are posted to a particular bench you listed as having deficiency you take advantage of it and master it over and over again.
Internship is the period you can build capacity on whatever area you were having difficulties on. Internship is the time you can learn everything and anything about laboratory bench work, afterward you are on your own. So master everything you see during your internship. Some of the automations you see and operate during your internship programme can only be seen again under the rarest circumstance.
I hope this helps, do well to share this post with friends, leave a comment as well as subscribe to the blog to recieve notification of new posts.
Thank you.
