Why Do I...?

#HealthWriting #Journalism #NigerianHealthcare

Image from Vector Stock

I am not sure when my social awakening started.

Could I even describe it as a social awakening?

There is an episode of the American sitcom Black-ish where one of the characters Zoe Johnson, attributes Prince (the pop singer) to be the reason she became socially conscious. Socially conscious of ills in society like racism, sexism, class-ism, all of the other –isms that exist.

I wish I had someone to point to, or a particular point in time to point to that would define my own experience with this, but… do I?

I really do not. I think we all just have to deal with random injustices in our own lives, on a daily basis, and sometimes, we look up out of our own problems, and find that we are not alone in them. We are not the only ones that have to deal with all of the things we have to deal with.

The whole world is lined, from one end to another, with different sets of problems. Being conscious of them, is inevitable. I mean, we can choose to look away. But would it be honest if we did?

Would it be the right thing to do if we decided to ignore all of the things that tear society apart, and instead focus on the microcosm of our own experiences? I doubt it would be right.

For me, observing the world (and the issues therein) has made me more aware of the truth of the sort of society that I live in. And it especially shows in my non-fiction writing where I tend to focus a lot on marginalized sections of society. Particularly, the economically marginalized in society (read, the poor). And I focus on an aspect of their lives that I feel quite strongly about; health.

WHO, WHY AND HOW?

I am from a pretty middle-class background. I grew up very quietly in the very, very noisy Lagos.

It is not that I did not know there were poor people before I moved to Ondo for Uni, or that I had not encountered many poor people in Lagos (the poverty in Lagos is a very particular and grotesque kind), it is more like I did not understand the daily realities of poverty and how much it costs people to be in that state.

I became a med student, started my clinical postings, and I saw the saddening, and avoidable health issues that are created by poverty, and often, worsened by it.

It made me want to get to the root of the issue. Because it was not only poverty on an individual level that made people sick, and unable to avoid the treatment that they needed to get better, but the poverty on the institutional level contributed to it as well.

Government spending on healthcare in Nigeria is very, very low. Much lower than what is recommended. That is not very encouraging.

During the lockdowns, schools got closed, even medical schools. So I was at home, thinking about what to do with all of the free time that I suddenly had.

Turns out, the inspiration would not be so far away.

We started online classes, and one of the courses we had to do was public health.

Public health is a pretty interesting angle to look at diseases, and healthcare from.

Instead of looking at micro-organisms, or blood cells or listening to a patient’s lungs, you get to see the picture of what happened to them before they got there. Why does this patient, who belongs to this particular demographic, come down with this particular group of illness?

And what do the patterns of behaviour, of economic access, of even location, have to do with who gets sick with what.

I was bored enough at home to find this concept to be interesting. Ha-ha.

So, before the lockdowns started, I was talking to a doctor about why so many Nigerian doctors are leaving the country for jobs abroad. Leaving behind a health system that is already understaffed Nigeria has 0.4 doctors per 1,000 people, meanwhile the standard is 0.9 per 1,000.

He told me some reasons, which I found to be interesting, and advised me to go on and do further research, take a look and find out why this pattern had developed, not only among doctors, but other health workers too.

I did, and so this article published in Stears Business was born.

It felt like such a dare when I sat down to write it. I had absolutely no experience with medical journalism, and I was pitching an article draft to a very research-heavy, and exacting publication. Somehow, I got in!

It was such an exciting experience working with the deputy editor at Stears. I highly recommend them.

It was from this small question that someone asked me that I started what would be my journey in medical journalism. Doing deep dives, and asking questions, not only from that public health angle that I found to be interesting, but also from a more humanitarian angle. I really wanted to know why things happen the way they do.

And maybe a part of me hoped, maybe we could find a solution if we know what was really wrong?

ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES.

Here is one thing, any one that tries to do anything social work related, even if it is only writing articles on healthcare, that person needs to be really, really careful about how they go about it.

The evils in society are a cesspool. A deep, unending abyss of chaos. If you jump in with both feet, be rest assured it might take a while to come back out. If you ever do.

I am glad I learnt this early on. And that I learnt it, not the hard way.

It can be quite frustrating to look at how things affect innocent people downstream, and then look at the callousness of the people in charge of making things better.

Seeing these things, requires a lot of heart. A lot of courage. And quite frankly, it requires establishing firm boundaries between yourself and the work that you do.

As important as it is, you cannot let it consume you. Establishing boundaries helps to prevent this.

Here are some of the tips I have learnt in doing this. Not only for medical writing/writing with a social bent. Any kind of writing needs a certain amount of distance between the work and the creator so that you don’t yunno … get attached in an unhealthy way.

Here are some of the things I have learnt;

1) Take breaks while writing those projects. Spend some time away. Get some distance, it relaxes your mind. Plus, it gives you perspective that you can definitely add later on to the project.

2) Remember that all projects have their ending date. At some point, you need to polish it to be the best it can be, and just get on ahead to the next project.

3) Focus only on the one thing you want the project to do. Don’t get excited about every single other thing you want to talk about, and then try to cram it into the project.

4) Toni Morrison said this best You are not the work you do. The work you do is the work you do. You are who you are. You are who you are, not a summary of the number of projects you have written, or of the quality you so desperately desire for them to be.

Those are just some of the things that have helped me.

What has helped you?

Let me know in the comments!