1. I Read the text and answer the questions.

1. When can students apply for post-graduate residencies?

2. What is minimum training requirement necessary for obtaining a general license to practice medicine?

3. What makes new physicians complete the internship requirement as their first year of residency?

4. How many years are physicians trained in residencies for different specialties?

5. Can residency be followed by a fellowship? What is it?

6. What is the difference in training at medical school and residen­cy?

7. What branches of medicine can be chosen for in-depth training in residency?

8. Is duration of training in residency equal for all specialties?

9. Whom does the term junior resident refer to?

10. What are senior residents?

11. Whom do they call attending physicians or attendings or “consul­tants”?

Postgraduate Education

During the last year of undergraduate medical education, students apply for postgraduate residencies in their chosen field of specializa­tion. These vary in competitiveness depending upon the desirability of the specialty, prestige of the program, and the number of applicants relative to the number of available positions.

Historically, post-graduate medical education began with a free­standing, one-year internship. Completion of this year continues to be the minimum training requirement for obtaining a general license to practice medicine in most states. However, because of the gradual lengthening of post-graduate medical education, and the decline of its use as the terminal stage in training, most new physicians complete the internship requirement as their first year of residency.

Notwithstanding the trend toward internships integrated into cate­gorical residencies, the one-year “traditional rotating internship” (sometimes called a “transitional year”) continues to exist. Some resi­dency training programs, such as neurology and ophthalmology, do not include an internship year and begin after completion of an in­ternship or transitional year.

Each of the specialties in medicine has established its own cur­riculum, which defines the length and content of residency training necessary to practice in that specialty. Programs range from three years after medical school for internal medicine to five years for sur­gery to six or seven for neurosurgery. This does not include research years that may last from one to four years if a PhD degree is pursued. Each specialty training program either incorporates an internship year to satisfy the requirements of state licensure, or stipulates that an in­ternship year be completed before starting the program at the second post-graduate year (PGY-2).

Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident phy­sician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree (MD) and who practices medicine under the supervision of fully licensed physicians, usually in a hospital or clinic. A residency may follow the internship year or include the internship year as the first year of resi­dency. The residency can also be followed by a fellowship, during which the physician is trained in a sub-specialty. Successful comple­tion of residency training is a requirement to practice medicine in many jurisdictions.

Whereas medical school teaches medical practitioners a broad range of medical knowledge, basic clinical skills, and limited experi­ence practicing medicine, medical residency gives in-depth training

wilhin a specific branch of medicine. A medical practitioner may choose a residency in anesthesiology, sports medicine, dermatology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine/pediatrics, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, pediatric medicine, psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, radiology, radiation oncology, surgery or other specialties.

A resident physician is more commonly referred to as a resident, or alternatively as a house officer. The residents collectively are the house staff of a hospital. This term coines from the fact that resident physicians traditionally lived the majority of their lives “in house”, i.e. I lie hospital. A first-year resident is often termed an intern. Depending on the number of years a specialty requires, the term junior resident refers to residents that have not completed half their residency. Senior residents are residents in their final year of residency. Some residency programs refer to residents in their final year as chief residents or “Se­nior Registrar” (often in surgical fields). Post-residency physicians are referred to as attending physicians or attendings or “consultants”.