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A medical intern is a term used for a physician in training who has completed medical school. An intern has a medical degree, but does not have a full license to practice medicine unsupervised. In other countries medical education generally ends with a period of practical training similar to internship, but the way the overall program of academic and practical medical training is structured differs in each case, as does the terminology used (see medical education and medical school for further details).
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Australia
In Australia, medical graduates must complete one year in an accredited hospital post prior to receiving full registration; this year of conditional registration is known as the intern year.
Egypt
In Egypt, medical students graduate after 6 years of college as Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery. However, they must complete one year in a university or public hospital before receiving full registration; this year is the intern year, and is divided into Rotations in which interns are required to spend 1-2 months of training per department, according to a rotation schedule.
Iran
In Iran, internship is an 18 months period at the end of the 7 year long medical education which should be done in one of the university hospitals. Then, medical students can graduate and work independently as a Medical Doctor (MD) or participate in National Comprehensive Residency Exam and continue to study in desired subspecialty. If they decide to work as a General Practitioner, they should first do their service for a period of 2 years in underserved areas recognized by Iranian Ministry of Health, as part of the commitments to the ministry. Medical Internship offers a schedule that rotates through all the major and minor specialties, including emergency medicine, family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, surgery, dermatology, ophtalmology, ENT, infectious diseases, and psychiatry.
Sweden
The Swedish equivalent to an internship is the allmäntjänstgöring ("general practice"), which is a requirement for obtaining a medical license. Its duration is at least 18 months , but usually lasts a bit longer, around 2 years in most cases. After the allmäntjänstgöring, the student can complete a test to receive their medical license. Then follows specialisation practice ("specialisttjänstgöring"), the equivalent of residency.
United Kingdom
The British equivalent of an intern is a Foundation House Officer, although the title of Foundation Doctor is being encouraged in hospitals.
United States
A medical internship typically lasts one year (a loose term) and usually begins in late June. Internships come in two variations, transitional and specialty track. After a physician has completed an internship and step three of the USMLE or COMLEX-USA, he or she can practice general medicine. However, the majority of physicians complete a specialty track medical residency over two to seven years, depending on the specialty. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) no longer uses the term intern, but refers to all postgraduate physicians in training as residents. However, the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) continues to require osteopathic physicians (D.O.'s) to complete an internship before residency. Residents are indeed full time registered doctors capable of diagnosing any illness and treating it.
Israel
In Israel, medical graduates must complete one year in an accredited hospital post prior to receiving full registration; this year of conditional registration is known the intern year
Transitional and Prelim
Some residencies start at the second year (PGY-2), including Anesthesia, Radiology, Physical medicine and rehabilitation, and Neurology. There are two kinds of internships outside the context of a "categorical" residency:
- "Prelim" internships are done in either internal medicine or surgery. Interns spend 12 months focusing on either internal medicine or surgery.
- "Transitional internships" or "traditional rotating internships," offer a schedule that rotates through all the major specialties, including emergency medicine, family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery[1].
Some applicants prefer transitional year programs because they generally aren't as strenuous as a prelim year. However, a prelim year can provide better preparation for the second year of residency.
In popular culture
In the first three seasons of the popular television drama Grey's Anatomy, many of the main characters were surgical interns at Seattle Grace Hospital, where the series takes place.
In the first season of Scrubs, JD and Elliot are medical interns, and Turk and Todd are surgical interns.
See also
- Intern
- Not to be confused with: Internists
References
- ACGME.org (pdf) - Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Glossary
- Man.ac.uk - 'A Doctor's Life: A personal (and probably biased) guide to how doctors in the UK are trained and work within the structure of the National Health Service' (last updated February 2002)
- RookieDoctor.com - Useful for new interns, but also includes tips for family and friends of interns and what they can expect.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 15 August 2008, at 08:32.
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