Medical school graduates must complete a residency.
A teaching hospital is a working hospital where medical students and newly graduated doctors can complete their training. They are often, but not always, associated with a university and are sometimes referred to as teaching hospitals. Since many of the active physicians are supervised interns, critics suggest that teaching hospitals may be less safe than regular ones, and that errors due to inexperience are more likely to occur. However, teaching hospitals are often extremely well-funded and may have newer and better technologies and treatments than state or private medical facilities.
Teaching hospitals offer students a variety of specialties in which they can practice before earning a degree.
Practical experience in medical disciplines has been a forbidden part of the learning process for physicians. As early as the 6th century, the first Persian hospitals were used to teach incoming doctors and give them real experience. Today, undergraduate and postgraduate physicians must spend several years in training at teaching hospitals before they are considered fully qualified specialists.
Teaching hospitals can give students practice in emergency room trauma case management.
In the United States, students begin work at a teaching hospital during the second half of their four-year graduate program. At this point, students are considered interns, not full doctors. After graduation, new physicians begin a three-year residency in their chosen fields at university hospitals. Typically, the first year of residency is spent as an intern to advanced resident, learning a variety of different topics. After the internship year, physicians typically choose a specialty and spend several more years training in their chosen discipline.
Other countries, such as New Zealand, have a different process for training doctors. Instead of an undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate training system, medical students take a six-year program, with an introduction to university hospitals in the third year. Unlike the United States, where medical graduates are matched against teaching hospitals through a national database, New Zealanders only have two major schools providing medical training. Globally, the use of training hospitals tends to vary depending on national training programs and the availability of internships at local hospitals.
Understandably, patients may be a bit concerned about being treated at a university hospital. Although in many countries the doctors licensed to practice medicine in hospitals are already qualified doctors, they do not have the same level of experience as their fully trained colleagues. However, interns and residents are often supervised and questioned by their professors, so the attention you receive may actually be more scrutinized and considered. If you are under the care of an intern or resident and feel uncomfortable or worried, ask to speak with the main doctor before agreeing to any suggestions or treatment.
The chaotic world of the university hospital has been an unavoidable backdrop for many successful television shows. The life-or-death situation of any given hospital, combined with the training of young doctors, has led to the creation of at least five popular programs in the United States alone. Grey’s Anatomy, Chicago Hope, House, MD, ER, and Scrubs are all set in teaching hospitals. While these shows often have diligent researchers looking for accurate medical information and can be extremely fun, they should not be taken as a guide to the level of skill and professionalism in a real-life teaching hospital.