Residency, Internship and Fellowship

[waimea]

Still learning a lot of what to expect while taking that path to becoming an MD. I noticed that for some specialities, there is a combination of a residency, internship and fellowship tenure. What is the distinction among the three types? Why is a fellowship needed when someone has already invested 3 or more years of training in a residency program? I apologize if this question should have been posted in the premed forum. Aloha.

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[Carbon Klein]

Internship is the first year of your residency. A lot of specialties use either medicine or surgery for their internship.

Residency is the actual post grad training.

Fellowship is specialized training in a particular field...ie. your residency of general surgery can lead to a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship.

[This message has been edited by Carbon Klein (edited 07-20-2000).]

 

[jawurheemd]

internship -- the first year out of med school

residency -- formal training in an area -- may include the internship year

fellowship -- done after residency for further specialization

So, let's say that I wanted to become a cardiologist. I would need to go through 4 years of medical school, 3 years of residency (this includes the intership year), and 3 years of a cardiology fellowship.

Hope this helps