7.2a) What is an internship?
Description
This article is from the Medical Education FAQ, by eric@wilkinson.com (Eric P. Wilkinson, M.D.)with numerous contributions by others.
7.2a) What is an internship?
In the old days, all physician completed a one year "rotating
internship" after graduating from medical school. Such an
internship consisted of all the major subdivisions of medical
practice: Internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology,
etc. The idea was to provide a broad spectrum of training to allow
the new physician to work in the community as a "general
practitioner."
Today, the closest thing we have to the rotating internships of old
is the "transitional year," also completed after graduating from
medical school. For a few specialties, a year of post-gradute
training is required before beginning a residency in that field.
Many who want to go into these fields fill that requirement with a
transitional year. Fields that require a year before beginning
residency include radiology, neurology, anesthesiology, and
ophthalmology.
In the current lingo, the first year of post-graduate training is
called "internship," and any medical school graduate in the first
year of post-graduate training is called an "intern" regardless of
what that first year of training consists. Most specialties do not
require a transitional year, but instead accept medical school
graduates straight out of medical school.
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