The University of Uyo on Thursday administered physician’s oath on 28 medical doctors, who recently completed their training in the institution’s college of health sciences.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Enefiok Essien, said that the ceremony (Sponsio Academica) marked 13th of its kind, having inducted 53 doctors in 2018.
Essien, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Inyang Udofot, urged the young doctors to be guided by the ethics of the profession.
He tasked them to uphold secrets of their patients and maintain the patient-doctor confidentiality.
He equally expressed concern over the challenges posed by the social media to many ethical ideals in the field of medicine.
He said, “The advent of social media today poses a great challenge to many ethical ideals in medicine.
“The secrets of patients and their autonomy risk being violated by just a chat or tweet.
“Hence, you are therefore reminded that the patient-doctor confidentiality is sacrosanct and must never be breached.
“On the part of the university, we shall continually strive to provide appropriate infrastructure and environment conducive for training to the best of our ability.
“The university has so far complied with requirement of the council in terms of infrastructure, equipment and manpower.
“We believe that with this in place, our request for increase in student quota will be granted.’’
He charged the inductees to be good ambassadors of the institution and advised them to remain in Nigeria to practise their profession instead of seeking for greener pastures abroad.
He said that the institution had complied with the requirement of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) in the area of training, manpower and infrastructure.
Earlier, the provost of the college of health sciences, Dr Augustine Umoh, described the medical practice as “tortuous” and encouraged them to be compassionate to their patients.
He said, “Compassion to your patients is not negotiable. Show compassion to the sick and you have done a huge part of the care.
“Remember too that what goes around comes around and that you also could be a beneficiary of such compassion as we are all but humans.
“Many physicians forget about themselves as they toil to save humanity but it is important to note that it is only a healthy doctor that can provide patient care.”
Dr Ekpenyong Edet, who responded on behalf of the doctors promised to uphold the ethics of the medical profession.
“The future of the world rests on us, let us give our very best,’’ he said.
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