Residency- a period of advanced training in a medical specialty that normally follows graduation from medical school and licensing to practice medicine
via Merriam Webster
Rome does a funny thing anytime I introduce myself to a new person and we get into the small talk of where I work and what I do.
“Oh I work at the hospital, I’m a resident.”
Rome gives me a death glare and subtly motions for me to go on.
“I’m a resident physician.”
Rome face-palms.
“She’s a doctor!” He basically yells.
This exchange basically happens any time I introduce myself and get into small talk around Rome. He insists that people don’t know what residents are. This bizarre employment, he says , is only known to avid Grays Anatomy fans and even they sometimes are confused about who is whose boss.
So, this is for those of you who are confused about why it seems like I’m still in school, but remember my graduation pictures.
Residency is after medical school, you get paid (finally), and you learn how to treat patients in the specific specialty you’re in. There are pediatric residency programs, neurosurgery residency programs, Obstetrics and Gynecology residency programs, etc. You are a doctor, but you treat patients under the supervision of an attending physician (aka someone who has been in the game for a long time after completing their residency and is your new boss). You round with them (walk around to patient’s rooms, examine patients, and talk about patients with them) and discuss care plans.
It’s a tough job because you are learning to put into practice all of the things you learned in medical school and the subtle art of medicine. You are first line if anything happens to the patient, you are the one who is seeing the patient before your attending sees them, and you are the one making the plans for the patient in a team with your medical students and your attending.
Also, for some of us, it’s our first time having a real job, and it turns out that our first full time job is one where our maximum hours are 80 hours averaged over 4 weeks. Imagine going from 4th year of medical school where you have 3 months of interview/break time, to constantly working and then having 4 weeks of vacation over the entire year. Rough.
After residency, many people choose to further specialize in their field, for example, people who undergo a general surgery residency may choose to do vascular surgery fellowship. This means after their 5 years of typical general surgery residency, they again “match” into another program for their sub specialty and do another few years of training.
This fellowship match is similar to match day during medical school except it is earlier and there are fewer candidates because a lot of people choose to go into practice in their field after residency.
What is an intern then, Analise?
In the field of medicine, it means someone who is in their first year of residency training. Usually the team is run by a senior resident (usually a second year or third year resident) that oversees what the intern is doing and helping them manage the patients, then the attending oversees what the resident is doing.
The progression through residency kind of reminds me of medical school but to a lesser degree – if you’re not careful, you can find yourself consistently waiting to become someone else. When you’re an intern you will be constantly waiting to be a resident, then a fellow, then an attending This is all with the hope that things will be easier/ better at the next stage, when really things don’t get easier but they are just different.
Mind you, things are different based on the specialty that you choose but this is the general format of graduate medical education.
Hope this made things a bit clearer for you!
Love,
Lise, MD