| How Experienced is Your Doctor? If you know anyone who has studied to become a doctor, or if you watch TV shows which take place in medical settings, you’ve probably heard terms like "intern" or "resident or "attending." While they are all doctors, they have not all completed their training. Knowing the differences among them will help you determine their experience level.
Medical school usually lasts four years after completion of a bachelor’s degree. The second half of medical school is comprised of clinical, hands-on-patient work, usually in a teaching hospital. Students rotate through various specialties such as surgery, pediatrics, or neurology to learn about each field and then decide which is of most interest to them. You’ll see them in hospitals, but they haven’t finished their training.
Once a medical student finishes these four years, he graduates and adds the M.D. (medical doctor) or D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) to his name. As students finish medical school, they apply for a "residency" program. Some medical schools use the term "intern" to describe the first year of residency. Residency training is also the time when new doctors begin to draw a paycheck for their work with patients.
In some states, doctors are licensed to practice general medicine after finishing medical school and a one-year internship. But most choose to continue their training to specialize in their field of interest.
Depending on their chosen specialty, they’ll be residents for a few more years, or several. For example, to be a general internist, a doctor may study for three more years. To be a neurologist may require six or seven more years. Some highly specialized programs and sub-specialties such as pediatric cardiology require even more training, usually called "fellowships." Further, doctors may take a test to become "board certified" by the governing boards for their chosen specialties.
Once a doctor has completed his residency training, he can practice on his own. If he practices in a hospital, he will be called an "attending physician." His education doesn’t end, however. Post residency, he’ll pursue continuing education requirements so that he stays up to date in his field.
Next time you hear one of those experience-based terms, you’ll understand how much training the doctor has received. And, it may help you determine whether the doctor has the level of experience you need for your best medical outcome.
Update!
Submitted by a subscriber, Dr. Paul Beery, Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio: In addition to indicating the level of a doctor's experience, it's also
important to know that those intern and resident physicians are REQUIRED to have
supervision by the attending physician, who is ultimately responsible for
everything that resident does in caring for the patient. The degree of
supervision is pretty clear, for instance, in the operating room, where the
attending is there for almost everything; however, in bedside care of the
patient or even in minor procedures, the resident may have a higher level of
independence.
Residents are, simply put, receiving on-the-job training, which
is a little scary when the job is taking care of another person. The term
"resident physician" comes from the tradition that many years ago, residents
stayed at the hospital throughout their training (many institutions only allowed
single men). Fortunately, that is a matter of historical tradition only.
The
medical students, interns, and residents now function as a part of the team,
headed up by the attending as well as the patient. The patient should always
feel comfortable and confident that he/she is getting care from the attending,
even if some of that care is administered by the resident. The process is
crucial to give both excellent care to the patient and a solid education for the
resident, who will someday be an attending physician.
..................................
Thanks Dr. Beery!
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