Health internship: An overview
While the producers of "Scrubs" exaggerate the situation for comic effect, it is true that after 12 years of school, 4 years of college and 4 years of medical school, there is still much to learn. Those first 20 years of school provide all the foundation, all the information and skills necessary to embark upon workplace medical training, and thereafter a medical career as a licensed practitioner. The bridge taking up that gap - between all that schooling and future work as a licensed physician - takes the form of a health internship.
Usually lasting one year, starting in late June, a health internship is a period of hospital-based training which takes place under the supervision of attending physicians. It transforms an academic student into a medical practitioner who is fully conversant with the daily requirements, workload and pressures of the physicians role. Interns learn by treating a variety of conditions - the more an intern sees of different patients, the more conditions and diseases they handle, then the more proficient they become at both diagnosis and making decisions about treatment. During the internship, knowledge gained in the workplace is further built upon by attending lectures and conferences. Health internships serve the needs of both the intern, and the providing hospital. Knowledge is gained by one, and manpower gained by the other. Naturally, take-up of this opportunity is very keen on both sides which means that while health internships are arguably the most rewarding form of work-based training that exists, they are also among the most intense and challenging.
There are two types of internships: transitional, and specialty track. Transitional is fairly straightforward - completion of the internship, along with completion of stage three of the USMLE or COMLEX-USA creates a licensed medical practitioner who may enter the workplace in a general capacity.
Most post-intern physicians go on to take a specialty track, that is, they remain under supervised guidance for another two to seven years (depending on the specialty) in order to gain thorough training inside a specific sector of medicine. This further training period is referred to as a residency. There are many specializations available, e.g. anesthesiology, emergency medicine, sports medicine, family medicine, dermatology, etc.
Residency generally follows an internship year, but if specialty is known ahead of time, the internship can be included as the first year of residency. Both an internship, and the first year of residency (if it serves as the first post-academic placement) are referred to as PGY-1 (Post Graduate Year 1). Likewise, the following years are referred to as PGY-2, PGY-3, etc. 'Fellowship' can follow on from a residency - this is a further period of work based training which focuses on a sub-specialty.
Whether used as the final year of preparation for the workplace, or as a stepping stone to further specialization, the medical internship is one of the most important years in the journey of a medical practitioner. It is natural, and wise, to have questions ahead of time. This website has been designed to provide many of the answers.