The following definitions are commonly used in connection with teaching hospitals: •
Medical student — A person enrolled in a medical degree program at a
medical school. In the graduate medical education model used in the United States, medical students must first complete an undergraduate degree from a university or college before being accepted to a medical school. In the undergraduate model traditionally used in countries such as the United Kingdom or Australia, medicine is an undergraduate university degree which students directly enter from high school. In more recent years, the graduate model has increasingly been adopted in the UK and Australia as well, without entirely displacing the traditional undergraduate model – both graduate entry and undergraduate entry programs coexist. (Historically, the undergraduate model used to exist in the US as well, but had been abandoned by the mid-19th century.) •
Physician assistant — Medical professionals who have completed training at the master's level. They are trained to practice medicine alongside physicians on a population level allowing them to work in a wide range of specialties. This profession is not traditionally found in most countries outside North America, but in recent years there have been attempts to establish it in some of them, with mixed success. •
Intern — A person that has a doctorate of medicine from a graduate medical school, or a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (in the British undergraduate model), that only practices with guidance and supervision of a physician/consultant. •
Residency or post-graduate program — In the US and Canada, individuals that have completed their first year of a medical internship. Residencies may last anywhere from two to seven years, depending on the specialty. In most Commonwealth countries, the role of specialist registrar is roughly equivalent. •
Specialist registrar — In the British system, a doctor who is receiving advanced training in a medical specialty in a hospital setting; after four to six years as a specialist registrar, the doctor may then undertake a post-training fellowship, before becoming a consultant. •
Attending physician — In the US and Canada, an attending physician (also known as an attending, rendering doc, or staff physician) is a
physician (
M.D. or
D.O.) who has completed
residency and practices
medicine in a
clinic or
hospital, in the specialty learned during residency. An attending physician typically supervises
fellows,
residents,
medical students, and other practitioners. Attending physicians may also maintain professorships at an affiliated medical school. •
Consultant — The equivalent concept to "attending physician" in most Commonwealth countries (except for Canada). •
Fellowship (medicine) — A period of
medical training in the United States and Canada, that a
physician,
dentist, or
veterinarian may undertake after completing a
specialty training program (residency). During this time (usually over a year), the physician is known as a
fellow. Fellows are capable of acting as an
attending physician or a
consultant physician in the specialist field in which they were trained. •
Grand rounds — A methodology of
medical education and inpatient care, consisting of presenting the medical problems and treatment of a particular patient to an audience consisting of doctors, pharmacists,
residents, and medical students. It was first conceived by clinicians as a way for junior colleagues to round on patients. •
Teaching clinic — A teaching clinic is an
outpatient clinic that provides health care for ambulatory patients, as opposed to
inpatients, treated in a hospital. Teaching clinics traditionally are operated by educational facilities and provide free or low-cost services to patients. •
Nurse education — Some teaching hospitals partner with nursing education institutions to provide in-hospital, practical education for nurses, both graduate and undergraduate. ==Research==