NewStats: 3,262,149 , 8,176,236 topics. Date: Sunday, 01 June 2025 at 12:37 AM 6o4sn

Resident doctors kick as NUC upgrades pharmacy, physiotherapy, optometry to ‘doctor ‘ status

The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has voiced strong opposition to the recent decision by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to upgrade the nomenclature of degree programmes in Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, and Optometry from bachelor’s degrees to “Doctor” status in Nigerian universities.

The NUC implemented these changes in January, explaining that the decision was driven by the need to incorporate more clinical and practical sessions, improve foundational course coverage, enhance clinical skills, and address all speciality areas comprehensively. In response, the association expressed significant concerns that the move may have unintended consequences. “Conferring the title ‘Doctor’ on multiple professional groups without public education or structural clarity may confuse patients, worsen interprofessional tensions, and enable quackery in an already fragile health system. Teamwork in care delivery depends on clear roles and trust”, the association stated in a communiqué published on its official X handle on Thursday.

NARD noted that over the past two decades, agitations by other health worker groups have increasingly focused on competing with medical doctors, rather than driving systemic improvements.

The association further argued that globally, there is no precedent where pharmacists, physiotherapists, or optometrists in public institutions earn more than medical doctors, explaining that patients typically seek doctors for diagnosis and treatment decisions—a fact reflected in salary structures and clinical governance worldwide.

While the NUC cites “global best practices”, the association pointed out that countries like the UK and do not grant the “Doctor” title to pharmacists or physiotherapists after undergraduate training, except through a PhD, emphasising clear clinical boundaries and robust governance.

“We believe all healthcare professionals should take pride in their unique roles. If one wishes to become a medical doctor, there is a rigorous, defined pathway for that”, the statement added.

The association has therefore urged the NUC to reconsider this change and instead pursue policies that strengthen collaboration, clarity, and excellence in healthcare.

https://businessday.ng/news/article/resident-doctors-kick-as-nuc-upgrades-pharmacy-physiotherapy-optometry-to-doctor-status/

What manner of fvckry is this....?? This country seff.....some pple will just wake up and start getting dirty ideas borne our of envy and greed...

Who ever wants the medical Dr title and the salary scale of a doctor should pay the price and do the job......

.so why did they leave nurses, medical lab professionals, and other medical related jobs out of the equation?

Spits!!

Anybody that's not satisfied should resign

They should better face their training jobs. Residents are students and should hold no opinion when Professors in NUC are talking.

Some years ago, they were trying to stop post-graduate schools from awarding PhDs to other professions..

Very infantile people.

Face your training and leave other professions out of your insecurities. In countries like Cuba there are more physicians than car mechanics. They are not fight other professionals in the medical field.

Nigerian resident physicians, you did not invent the study of medicine, the countries that invented and developed the study of medicine and healthcare do not have their residents fighting everyone instead of facing their clinical jobs.

You even borrowed the title 'Doctor' from Scholars of the medieval times.

Ikaeniyan0:
Anybody that's not satisfied should resign

Simple. They should all leave before Ogun kee dem Mama

A Pharmacist's title in the USA is Dr. And after his name he puts a bracket (Pharm.D)


Medical Doctors are not the owners of Dr title. What they were itted to study is MBBS and not Dr. Show me proof they were itted to study Dr. and Dr. was written on their ission letter. Rather it was Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

The real Dr. are the Ph.D holders and it is called Dr of Philosophy (Ph.D). Yet they don't get angry that medical doctors call themselves Dr that they didn't study for because what they studied is MBBS.

There is love in sharing.

Like I said, Dr title does not belong to anyone and in America, Pharmacists are referred to as Dr with (Pharm.D) in bracket



There is something called "healthcare team collaboration", read up on it.

Pharmacists study Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Anatomy, Physiology, so what do you study that we don't study ?


Pharmacists education in Rx school is being expanded to 6 years to incorporate clinical and patient-oriented education and clinical care, hence the introduction of the prefix Dr. followed by (Pharm.D).

In USA, Medical Doctors write their name as Dr. followed by (MD). Pharmacists Dr. followed by (Pharm.D).

That is how it is done because they're both clinical scholars.

Even Kelechi wey get one small chemist for my street na "doctor" dem dey call am.. what's the biggy?

advanceDNA:
What manner of fvckry is this....?? This country seff.....some pple will just wake up and start getting dirty ideas borne our of envy and greed...

Who ever wants the medical Dr title and the salary scale of a doctor should pay the price and do the job......

.so why did they leave nurses, medical lab professionals, and other medical related jobs out of the equation?

Spits!!

A Pharmacist's title in the USA is Dr. And after his name he puts a bracket (Pharm.D)


Medical Doctors are not the owners of Dr title. What they were itted to study is MBBS and not Dr. Show me proof they were itted to study Dr. and Dr. was written on their ission letter. Rather it was Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

The real Dr. are the Ph.D holders and it is called Dr of Philosophy (Ph.D). Yet they don't get angry that medical doctors call themselves Dr that they didn't study for because what they studied is MBBS.

There is love in sharing.

Like I said, Dr title does not belong to anyone and in America, Pharmacists are referred to as Dr with (Pharm.D) in bracket

kokoA:
Even Kelechi wey get one small chemist for my street na "doctor" dem dey call am.. what's the biggy?

A Pharmacist is not a chemist.

A Pharmacist's title in the USA is Dr. And after his name he puts a bracket (Pharm.D)


Medical Doctors are not the owners of Dr title. What they were itted to study is MBBS and not Dr. Show me proof they were itted to study Dr. and Dr. was written on their ission letter. Rather it was Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

The real Dr. are the Ph.D holders and it is called Dr of Philosophy (Ph.D). Yet they don't get angry that medical doctors call themselves Dr that they didn't study for because what they studied is MBBS.

There is love in sharing.

Like I said, Dr title does not belong to anyone and in America, Pharmacists are referred to as Dr with (Pharm.D) in bracket

So there is a justification for that, everybody is a healthcare team member.

advanceDNA:
What manner of fvckry is this....?? This country seff.....some pple will just wake up and start getting dirty ideas borne our of envy and greed...

Who ever wants the medical Dr title and the salary scale of a doctor should pay the price and do the job......

.so why did they leave nurses, medical lab professionals, and other medical related jobs out of the equation?

Spits!!

What is the etiology of the word 'Doctor'? Is 'Doctor' written on their double-bachelor MBBS certificates?

Ebubu7:


A Pharmacist's title in the USA is Dr. And after his name he puts a bracket (Pharm.D)


Medical Doctors are not the owners of Dr title. What they were itted to study is MBBS and not Dr. Show me proof they were itted to study Dr. and Dr. was written on their ission letter. Rather it was Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

The real Dr. are the Ph.D holders and it is called Dr of Philosophy (Ph.D). Yet they don't get angry that medical doctors call themselves Dr that they didn't study for because what they studied is MBBS.

There is love in sharing.

Like I said, Dr title does not belong to anyone and in America, Pharmacists are referred to as Dr with (Pharm.D) in bracket

Hahahahah!! ..Love in sharing...?? what kind of dirty justification is this? You are just doing one sided argument with pharmacist, failing to see this is a move aimed at getting the same pay scale as medical doctors without doing the job of doctors....even PhD holders in other niche are not in same pay scale as doctors.....

..I asked. what happened to other degrees in the medical niche...why don't y'all start giving doctors and start paying them same salary ...

Where do we draw the line...Why don't we start giving doctor titles to ant, biochemist, microbiologist, ...

And yes pharmacist are drug scientist...if they want academic Dr title they should go and get PhD..

Okay, for equality

advanceDNA:


Hahahahah!! ..Love in sharing...?? what kind of dirty justification is this? You are just doing one sided argument with pharmacist, failing to see this is a move aimed at getting the same pay scale as medical doctors without doing the job of doctors....even PhD holders in other niche are not in same pay scale as doctors.....

..I asked. what happened to other degrees in the medical niche...why don't y'all start giving doctors and start paying them same salary ...

Where do we draw the line...Why don't we start giving doctor titles to ant, biochemist, microbiologist, ...

And yes pharmacist are drug scientist...if they want academic Dr title they should go and get PhD..

If we fight for the same pay as Doctors, that is because we get a 6 years training as well.

Fight for a higher pay for Doctors should be your concern.

Pharmacists are drug scientists but are now being brought closer to patients.

The NUC directive has already been implemented. Im sure NUC had broad consultation even with the Ministry of Health before implementing it. Nothing can be done anymore. Your lamentations are quite unfortunate and very late.

In USA, Pharmacists are approved by American government to use Dr. prefix.

Dalohad:


What is the etiology of the word 'Doctor'? Is 'Doctor' written on their double-bachelor MBBs certificates?

People that were itted to study MBBS ? Their ission letter from JAMB and chosen university reads "ission into MBBS" and their certificate reads "MBBS (bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery)" as well.


Why are they forcing everyone not to answer Dr when they don't own it.

Ebubu7:


A Pharmacist's title in the USA is Dr. And after his name he puts a bracket (Pharm.D)


Medical Doctors are not the owners of Dr title. What they were itted to study is MBBS and not Dr. Show me proof they were itted to study Dr. and Dr. was written on their ission letter. Rather it was Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.

The real Dr. are the Ph.D holders and it is called Dr of Philosophy (Ph.D). Yet they don't get angry that medical doctors call themselves Dr that they didn't study for because what they studied is MBBS.

There is love in sharing.

Like I said, Dr title does not belong to anyone and in America, Pharmacists are referred to as Dr with (Pharm.D) in bracket

This really made sense. Personally, I don't even border myself on Naija medical political bruhaha. The ego tipsy of the medics is because of the colonial mentality they still held on to.
Na only Naija dem dey raise shoulder.

Ebubu7:


If we fight for the same pay as Doctors, that is because we get a 6 years training as well.

Fight for a higher pay for Doctors should be your concern.

Pharmacists are drug scientists but are now being brought closer to patients.

The NUC directive has already been implemented. Im sure NUC had broad consultation even with the Ministry of Health before implementing it. Nothing can be done anymore. Your lamentations are quite unfortunate and very late.

In USA, Pharmacists are approved by American government to use Dr. prefix.

Hahahahaa....U must be a cómedian....are u the only one that spent many years in school.??
..engineers also pend many years in school too, should they get medical Dr titles as well and get paid for not doing what doctors do ...

. U ddnt go through their extensive training.......their course context is far voluminous than yours....
.a doctor learns the course of many medical science course combined including your course.... anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, etc.
..they still get learn all the branch of medicine, ..... Cut people open and fix them up......go through rigorous residency program.....

.u don't even do their job......u now want to down play their sacrifice with your just because u spent 5 years in school because u want their pay....oga all u do is dispense drugs do tors say u should ..u won't even have a job with a medical doctor

U are being biased and becos of ur gr33d, and envying doctors for the money they make yet you don't do quarter of what they do.....

.... Make a biochemist come and be claiming he because he also had to learn plenty biochemical pathways like a pharmacist he should get get ur title and get paid like you...see how u will feel

Go and get an MBBS and the training that follows if u want to get their pay ....... Smàll yænsh dey shake....

It is really unfortunate that NARD would issue this kind of statement when they suppose to be at forefront in the healthcare sector to preach harmony within the sector and continuous professional development of other health professionals so as together as a team they can deliver outstanding services. How can the award of DPT or PharmD or DO be a problem to the medical doctors? These professions using the doctor titles doesn't take away the medical doctors responsibility and roles in the health sector and vice versa. Infact if nigeria system is working well, nobody would even trangress beyond their professional boundary because of medicolegal cases as it is the situation in the UK, US and other sane countries because a healthcare professiinal know he/she can easily loose their license if they don't make timely referral.

The NARD reference UK, where their first degree is generally 3 years, and even at that educational providers in the UK know that doctorate degree for these professionals should be the ideal and look up to the US where it is a norm- for instance Robert Gordon University UK is now awarding DPT (https://www.rgu.ac.uk/study/courses/958-dpt-
doctorate-of-physiotherapy).

While I'm not current with the salary structure in Nigeria for healthcare professionals, my understanding is that the use of doctor titles for these disciplines doesn't translate to the same salary level to the medical doctors just as it obtained in the US and other developed countries, so why are the medical doctors threatened by the development of others professionals. One thing I'm sure of is that many medical doctors particularly those that are well exposed would disagree with this NARD statement as this smell of envy, discrimination and sentiment rather than the patient best interests

advanceDNA:


Hahahahaa....U must be a cómedian....are u the only one that spent many years in school.??
..engineers also pend many years in school too, should they get medical Dr titles as well and get paid for not doing what doctors do ...

. U ddnt go through their extensive training.......their course context is far voluminous than yours....
.a doctor learns the course of many medical science course combined including your course.... anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, etc.
..they still get learn all the branch of medicine, ..... Cut people open and fix them up......go through rigorous residency program.....

.u don't even do their job......u now want to down play their sacrifice with your just because u spent 5 years in school because u want their pay....oga all u do is dispense drugs do tors say u should ..u won't even have a job with a medical doctor

U are being biased and becos of ur gr33d, and envying doctors for the money they make yet you don't do quarter of what they do.....

.... Make a biochemist come and be claiming he because he also had to learn plenty biochemical pathways like a pharmacist he should get get ur title and get paid like you...see how u will feel

Go and get an MBBS and the training that follows if u want to get their pay ....... Smàll yænsh dey shake....

While I do agree with you that there is tendency for these professionals to start demanding for increase salary, howver I don't believe they would be unreasonable to start demanding for the same salary as a medical consultants.

That said, your information about mentioning that only doctors study anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and biochemistry is wrong other health professionals such as Nurses and phyical therapist also take these courses. Outside these courses, they also take their own professional courses that trained them to be professionals in their field.

It is really troubling to find professionals fighting over titles rather than outcoming their services, really unfortunate and pathetic.

simple87:


While I do agree with you that there is tendency for these professionals to start demanding for increase salary, howver I don't believe they would be unreasonable to start demanding for the same salary as a medical consultants.

That said, your information about mentioning that only doctors study anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and biochemistry is wrong other health professionals such as Nurses and phyical therapist also take these courses. Outside these courses, they also take their own professional courses that trained them to be professionals in their field.

It is really troubling to find professionals fighting over titles rather than outcoming their services, really unfortunate and pathetic.

But Pharmacist don't do half of what doctors do
Pharmacist training and education isn't even up to half of the volume of what doctors have to go thru...
.why on earth will they be fighting for same medical doctor title and pay grade ...

Even those with PhD in academics can be saying they wan same pay grade with a consultant oncologist or gynaecologist. its absurd...they don't do the same thing

..sounds like witchcraft to me...

advanceDNA:



But Pharmacist don't do half of what doctors do
Pharmacist training and education isn't even up to half of the volume of what doctors have to go thru...
.why on earth will they be fighting for same medical doctor title and pay grade ...

Even those with PhD in academics can be saying they wan same pay grade with a consultant oncologist or gynaecologist. its absurd...they don't do the same thing

..sounds like witchcraft to me...

While I acknowledge your perspective, I do share a different view though, every professionals involve in the patient care are important because they collaborate with each other to improve the outcome. That said, the medical consultant still remain the head of the multidisciplinary team and should endeavour to take input from other professionals including the Pharmacist who is knowledgeable in drugs and drug interactions to improve the outcome, this is the way it is being practiced in the developed world. There should be mutual respect and not a show of ego, afterall they are all in the service because of the patient. A Pharmacist spending 6 years would study more courses before graduating thereby having more depth in patient care that ultimately improve outcome which also add to the success story of the team, therefore why should anyone be against this.

Here is a link [https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/08/health/canada-doctor-raises-trnd/index.html] of a protest in 2018 when doctors in canada rejected salary increase for only themselves, but asked that the government should increase for thr nurses and other health professionals, and improve funding of the health care system. Sadly in Nigeria, our doctors are protesting against the professional development of their team . It is well.

This is the crap 💩 that happens when
characters with questionable educational
credentials that Populate get into power...
Characters like Buhari, Tinubu and others.



They lower educational standards because
they justify coming this far in life without too
much bookwork.



Under APC, one day, one day, army recruit fit become
Chief Of army staff..

Y

Senseless fight about a mere title

Nigerians and titles sha




What's so special in another person bearing doctor as name?


In other climes, you might meet a doctor and won't even know he is one because he is being addressed by his name even by the nurses. Your first name should always be the priority.

When it comes to prescribing the best medication pharmacist are the best

advanceDNA:

Spits!!

Stop foaming in the mouth and spitting your dirty saliva all over the place in the name of commenting on the thread.

NUC did what they did after much research and consideration. This is done according to the global best practice and not for political or personal reasons.

If you don't like it, go to court.

We have said it before...

Doctor of Medicine is a double degree... Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery...

It's wrong to equate just one degree because of 1year internship to Doctor level.


They are not same.