residency vs. internship

[frubeak]

I've read through posts talking about residencies and internships and am confused about the difference. Does everyone have to do an internship before applying to residency? How long is an internship? how long is a residency?

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[deleted109597]

How old are you?

 

[frubeak]

20. pre-med. someone please help?

 

[TxMed]

internship= 1 yr, can be surgical or medical
residency= 2-4,5,6 yrs (depending on program and specialty)
fellowship=1-3 years

all of these take place after medical school. internship and residency are pretty much required if you want to practice medicine in the states. pm me with any more questions.

-tm

 

[Winged Scapula]

I've read through posts talking about residencies and internships and am confused about the difference. Does everyone have to do an internship before applying to residency? How long is an internship? how long is a residency?

Internship is generally just considered to be the first year of residency. So an intern = first year resident and usually = Post-graduate year (PGY) 1.

You typically do your internship and residency in the same hospital and apply for them at the same time (ie, during your 4th year of medical school). There are some instances in which you may not go directly from internship to residency:

1) you did not match into an advanced residency position
2) you didn't know what you wanted to do, so decided to take a 1 year (usually referred to as a preliminary or transitional year) intern year to make up your mind
3) you decide medicine is for the birds and live in a state where you can get a medical license with only 1 year of post-graduate training (this is not recommended for many reasons)

So again, internship is simply the first year of residency. Residency can be anywhere from 2 more to 6 more years, depending on the specialty you choose. Many super-specialties have further training after residency, called fellowship - these can be 1 to 3 years in length.

 

[dara678]

you may also do your internship in a hospital other than the hospital where your residency is located in certain specialties, such as radiology, anesthesiology, and ophthalmology. this is because these specialties only provide training for the PGY-2 year and above, while requiring that you still do a PGY-1 year. in these cases, the intern year is also called the "preliminary" year.