Background: The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a compulsory one-year programme for graduates of tertiary schools including doctors. This study was conducted to explore the perceived benefits and challenges of serving corps medical doctors. The study would influence policy making so as to improve the experiences of corps medical doctors and help NYSC to achieve its objectives.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 399 medical doctors doing their compulsory national youth service in Nigeria. The research instrument was developed by the researchers and pretested before use. The data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test using p < 0.05. Results: The majority (83.5%) of respondents believed that the scheme offers one or more benefits to corps medical doctors. These include Exposure to new culture (47.6%), Gaining of medical/surgical skills (36.3%) and finding lover/spouse (4.5%). Similarly, most of respondents (89.2%) reported one or more serious challenges. Some of the perceived challenges reported include; No provision of accommodation (51.6%), poor remuneration (44.7%) and exploitation (41.4%). Majority of the corps doctors expressed dissatisfaction with their job on the scheme reporting that it would have no role to play in their professional development. There was a significant association between job satisfaction and region of deployment (p-value: <0.001), gender (p-value: 0.021) and marital status (p-value: 0.008). The region of deployment and marital status were found to have a statistically significant association with the overall perceived challenges with p-value of 0.012 and < 0.001 respectively. Treatment at Places of Primary Assignment (PPAs) was mostly reported to be fair and it had a statistically significantly association with region of deployment (p-value: 0.012), location of medical school (p-value: 0.023) and gender (p-value: <0.001)Conclusions: The overall perception of NYSC among corps doctors is poor and majority have suggested that the scheme be scrapped or revamped.

Background The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a compulsory one-year programme for graduates of tertiary schools including doctors. This study was conducted to find out the benefits and challenges of the programme among corps medical doctors as well as their treatment in their places of primary assignment (PPAs). The study would influence policymaking so as to improve the experiences of corps medical doctors and help NYSC to achieve its objectives. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 399 medical doctors doing their compulsory national youth service in Nigeria. The research instrument was developed by the researchers and pretested before use. The outcome variables were: overall benefit, overall challenge and overall PPA treatment. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test using p < 0.05. Results Majority of respondents (83.5%) believed that the scheme offered one or more benefits to corps medical doctors (overall benefit). These benefits include exposure to new culture (47.6%), gaining medical/surgical skills (36.3%) and finding a lover/spouse (4.5%). Similarly, most of respondents (89.2%) reported one or more challenges (overall challenge). Some of the challenges reported include; no provision of accommodation (51.6%), poor remuneration (44.7%) and exploitation of corps doctors by their employers (41.4%). There was a statistically significant association between overall benefit and region of deployment (p value: 0.013). Region of deployment and marital status were found to have a statistically significant association with the overall challenge with p-values of 0.031 and < 0.001 respectively. Overall treatment at PPAs was mostly reported to be bad (77.2%) and it had a statistically significant association with marital status (p-value: 0.002) and religion (p-value: 0.024). Conclusion Most respondents reported poor PPA treatment and this calls on the government and other stakeholders to take drastic measures to improve the welfare of corps medical doctors in order to positively influence their perception of the scheme and encourage their continued participation.