By Asenath Were
Uganda Christian University’s medicine and dentistry programmes that saw their first graduation held last year are excited to continue on the path of graduating more students to serve in various capacities in the field. The School of Medicine and School of Dentistry graduated 54 graduates last and they believe the numbers will continue to grow.
The Dean of the School of Medicine, Dr. Gerald Tumusiime, stated that more people are now applying to be admitted to the institution’s medicine and dentistry programmes.
Dr. Tumusiime notes that the increase is due to the students’ holistic training at UCU. “However, what is unique about them is that people who interact with them tell us that they see in them what we teach them as core values,” he highlighted.
Additionally, they are perceived as godly health workers. Even non-Christians perceive them as individuals who prioritise God in their services.
“For example, some students have gone for placement at the Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care in Africa located in Kampala Uganda, which deals with terminally ill babies. Our students, much as they are university students, have that humility to deal with those most suffering, poor communities within our country,” Dr. Tumusiime emphasised. The students exhibit integrity and diligence in their services. As a result, they exhibit the virtue of servanthood and assume leadership of whatever they do, he stated.
“In actuality, our students have excelled in their internships, at Kawempe, for example, our student was the best in obstetrics and gynaecology, and in Mityana, our student excelled in paediatrics yet again. In other words, our uniqueness and motivation to continue come from the product that the public sees out there,” Dr. Tumusiime said.
One of the 45 medical students who graduated from the School of Medicine last year, Angella Nakiganda, said that UCU assisted her in determining a dress code that is both highly respectable and very classic.
“It puts me in a state where I am always official on days I should be, and even in my casual looks, I fit in because the dress code is very professional, elegant, and very good compared to what I see other doctors put on,” she pointed out.
Nakiganda also mentioned that she discovered she had been taught everything she needed to know while doing her internship at Mulago Hospital. “The truth is, I was taught very well. I never knew that I was working with the best of the best.”
Nakiganda pointed out that her lecturer, Dr. David Muyanja did a good job because she realised that everything he taught her is what she came across during her internship at Mulago.
She added that she still uses the same notepad she used for surgery and anaesthesia in her fifth year of internal medicine. The patients recover when she applies the practical lessons she was taught. She is appreciative of the entire year she spent doing her internship since she learned everything she needed to know and the best method possible; as a result, when she practices, it is just like she is repeating what she was taught.
Jethro Tendo Ddungu, a graduand in the second cohort, values the principles UCU has taught them, particularly integrity. He claims that, in contrast to other medical professionals who treat patients for financial gain, he has never seen any UCU students act in this way. “We maintain the same attitude with every patient,” he said.
An internship is one year of practice for all medical and dental surgery doctors and as highlighted by Dr. Tumusiime, internship is part of the doctor’s training. After getting the university degree, you may choose to practice medicine or not, thus one is required to have completed the internship before you can get the practicing license.
When you pass an internship, The Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council gives you full registration as a medical doctor in Uganda and then they can give you a certificate of good standing in case you want to go practice outside Uganda.
Even though there have been many achievements, Dr. Tumusiime acknowledged that the medical school is dealing with a number of issues, one of which is a lack of infrastructure and room to handle the rapidly expanding student body.
He noted however, that the school is collaborating with the university administration to make sure that they have a facility with enough classrooms, laboratories, and a hospital, at the very least. Only then will the school be able to open up more spaces for students.
In light of the increased demand from students to enroll in medical school, UCU Deputy Vice Chancellor of Finance, David Mugawe, noted that they are currently considering expansion. “We want to see that we grow our facilities, increase our laboratories, the teaching capacity as well as the teaching staff,” he said.
Dr. Tumusiime has encouraged individuals who wish to pursue postgraduate studies in this area to do so, emphasising that although UCU does not currently have a postgraduate school, it is a chartered institution and that students should be aware that they will be admitted into other universities both in Uganda and elsewhere.
“We are also working together with the School of Dentistry, and the Faculty of Public Health, Nursing and Midwifery to see how we can fix into a fully-fledged academic training centre where we can have a hospital. Because for us to train good doctors, we need a hospital and good laboratories,” he said.
