Title Terminology

[NEOH]

Probably a stupid question, but ...

Can someone explain the differences related to the title's resident, intern, & fellow?

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[erin682]

An intern is someone who has graduated med school in the past year. You are an md but you have limitations as to what you can do. Residency is the time following med school when you specialize into a certain area. Your internship is sort of the 1st year of your residency. Length of residencies vary depend on the specialty. Just about every practicing doctor has completed both an internship and a residency. Fellowship is furthur training into a more specific field. Not everybody does a fellowship.

 

[UCSBMed1]

Just to follow-up on erin's great explanation.

Take an example:

I want to be a Cardiologist!

4+ years of undergrad (BS, BA)
4 years of medical school (MD)
1 year of internship/ 1st year resident in Internal Medicine (liscensed doc now able to prescribe meds with successful completion)
2 more years of Internal medicine residency (Board certified Internist)
3 years of cardiology fellowship (Board certified cardiologist)

Whew! Got it?

 

[UptownDoc]

Probably a stupid question, but ...

Can someone explain the differences related to the title's resident, intern, & fellow?

After you graduate from medical school you enter into a residency program, say Family Medicine. The residency is 3 years long. During these 3 yrs you are a RESIDENT. First year residents are known as INTERNS. Second and third year residents are called UPPER YEARS. Now if after you have completed residency you want to specialize, you do a FELLOWSHIP-- Sports Medicine or Faculty Development, for example.

 

[tupac_don]

Probably a stupid question, but ...

Can someone explain the differences related to the title's resident, intern, & fellow?

Being an intern is absolute minimum to practice as a doctor. Now you technically can practice with only an internship. And you might actually be able to get a job after only one year in certain severly underserved areas. But really for any city hospital you for sure need a residency.

 

[NEOH]

Thank you for the clarifications, everyone! Your explanations really helped.