History of US Medical Residency System ?

[hopeful84]

I have an oddball but serious question. A friend of mine has a big brother who's a doc. My friend's mom said that the US medical residency system was started by a guy who was on cocaine. She said that he could stay up for three days straight (thanks to the cocaine) and so he thought that everyone else could too - and that's where the long hours in residency come from. Is there any truth to this? I tried Google but was unable to find anything.

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[Shaz]

The US medical education system was almost completely invented at Hopkins: everything from the prereq's required to get into medical school, to the four year program, to the residency system that is currently used today. Before hopkins, schools like columbia and harvard med only required that potential applicants be able to read and write, and the education itself consisted only of attending a few "seminars" a week. One of the founders of Hopkins, who basically invented the techniques of anasthesia during surgery, became addicted to the drugs he used on paitents: opium. Look that up.

 

[MadameLULU]

The US medical education system was almost completely invented at Hopkins: everything from the prereq's required to get into medical school, to the four year program, to the residency system that is currently used today. Before hopkins, schools like columbia and harvard med only required that potential applicants be able to read and write, and the education itself consisted only of attending a few "seminars" a week. One of the founders of Hopkins, who basically invented the techniques of anasthesia during surgery, became addicted to the drugs he used on paitents: opium. Look that up.

we can also thank hopkins for the 80 hour work limit

 

[uptoolate]

Interesting- in the early part of residency history, only unmarried men could be residents b/c it was believed wife and family would be distractions. With the onset of one of the World Wars (I'll say WWI), a huge cohort of medical grads enlisted before residency and got married before they went overseas,expecting they might not survive. As a result, post-war there were a ton of married med school grads and an numerous unfilled residency positions, so the rules have to be lifted. At Hopkins they would lock the residents in at night so they couldn't leave. The a huge gate around the original Dome is still standing- that would get locked up. I know a current faculty member whose dad was in the post-war cohort. In the evening, his mom would bring him down to the gate and hold him up over it so he could kiss his dad good-night.