Talk:Residency (medicine)

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1 WHY??
2 Terminology
3 internship is gone
4 Merged title
5 "Resident" disambiguation page?
6 External links

[edit] WHY??

A whole long article, and no mention of the simple question, Why is it called "residency?"

There's some mention of hospital-provided housing in the past. But where was this housing? In the hospital? Next to it? Three miles away?

If they don't live inside the hospital, then why are they called "resident" instead of some other word?

JUST BECAUSE!! Sorry, couldn't help it. The etymology is obvious and simply designates the relationship of the physician to the hospital. A "resident physician" was originally one who was "resident at the hospital" for all of his working time, as opposed to those who mainly practiced elsewhere and occasionally "attended" the patients of the hospital's wards or clinics. Get it, "attending physician"? It didn't matter where a resident physician slept, his duties were at the hospital. An "interne", on the other hand, actually lived on the hospital grounds or nearby. alteripse 02:29, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Haha, I know, that's what I get for using all caps. Thanks for the explanation. The reason for the word-choice isn't "obvious" to someone (like me) who doesn't know how doctors work. For all I knew, doctors punched a time clock and stayed there like everyone else. (I actually considered using the word etymolgy too, but that refers to the historical sources and reasons for a given word's construction, rather than for its use.)

the origin of the title "residents" is due to the fact that several decades ago, medical doctors in training lived and work in the hospital, thus became "residents"

[edit] Terminology

There is a difference between MEDICINE Residency and MEDICAL residency.

Medical Residency would be generalized terminology for the training a doctor goes through in a specific field once completing their medical school training.

Medicine Residency is more specifically indicating a residency in Internal Medicine.

With regard to the suggestion to merge with medical residency, do so only if you recognize that to most doctors in north america, these are not interchangeable terms. To most of us a "medical residency" is an internal medicine residency as distinct from a surgical residency, pediatric residency etc, so make the distinction clear. alteripse 21:40, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] internship is gone

However, residents in many speciality programs are required to complete a separate internship, often in medicine or surgery, before beginning their residency.

I removed the above sentence from the historical changes section because it is simply not applicable in the US. While it is not uncommon for 2 or 3 years of internal medicine or general surgery residency to be required for many specialty programs, this is not the same as "requiring an internship" (which you may be old enough to even remember). There are few freestanding general medical or surgical internships left in the US. (Osteopaths as already noted are the dwindling exception). I have been involved with housestaff education at 3 institutions for many years. If you think the one year rotating internship is making a comeback, please show us some websites or listing of programs that state an internship requirement --or make geographical applicability clear if this is common elsewhere. Thanks. alteripse 11:49, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, you're right...a prelim year is not the same thing as a traditional internship. Good edit. Donaldal 16:58, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

It might be useful to note that (iirc) all states require one year of residency (ie. internship) before being eligible for a medical license. P L Logan 15:22, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merged title

A distinction in terminology was mentioned by a few editors months ago when the merge was discussed. The merge that has recently taken place, long after a brief debate, would make more sense if the terms in fact were interchangeable. If the distinction is that important, perhaps reconsideration of the merge is in order. Ombudsman 19:05, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

There is a subtle distinction, but a medical residency and (for that matter a surgical residency) could be viewed as subsets of residency (medicine). Andrew73 19:16, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

I know it simply as "residency," and any doctor-in-training (either in surgery, etc.) is a "resident - ". It mentions in the introduction that a residency leads to primary care or a specialty. I did announce my intent to merge the pages in the work hours talk page, and speaking of which, any more thought on merging medical resident work hours with this article? --CDN99 22:10, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't think that the average user is going to understand that we call internal medicine "medicine." To a physician a "residency in medicine" means specifically a residency in internal medicine. To the average Wikipedia user it means "becoming a doctor." We could note that in the article. Donaldal 17:00, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Resident" disambiguation page?

I originally tried to find information from the term "resident" which led me to a page about state/country residency. There should be a disambiguation page for this term. P L Logan 15:20, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Resident directs to a disambiguation page which contains a link to this page. I'm not sure what it was that you looked up, but it must not have been resident! Residency also has a disambiguation link at the top. InvictaHOG 15:30, 30 September 2006 (UTC)