Medical education is education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, including the initial training to become a physician (i.e., medical school and internship) and additional training thereafter (e.g., residency, fellowship, and continuing medical education).
Medical education and training varies considerably across the world. Various teaching methodologies have been used in medical education, which is an active area of educational research.
A medical doctor, also known as a physician (American and Canadian English) or medical practitioner (British English), is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments. Doctors may focus their practice on certain disease categories, types of patients, and methods of treatment—known as specialities—or they may assume responsibility for the provision of continuing and comprehensive medical care to individuals, families, and communities—known as general practice. Medical practice properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines, such as anatomy and physiology, underlying diseases, and their treatment, which is the science of medicine, and a decent competence in its applied practice, which is the art or craft of the profession.
Both the role of doctors and the meaning of the word itself vary around the world. Degrees and other qualifications vary widely, but there are some common elements, such as medical ethics requiring that doctors show consideration, compassion, and benevolence for their patients.
A medical specialty is a branch of medical practice that is focused on a defined group of patients, diseases, skills, or philosophy. Examples include those branches of medicine that deal exclusively with children (pediatrics), cancer (oncology), laboratory medicine (pathology), or primary care (family medicine). After completing medical school or other basic training, physicians or surgeons and other clinicians usually further their medical education in a specific specialty of medicine by completing a multiple-year residency to become a specialist.
A teaching hospital or university hospital is a hospital or medical center that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located with medical schools.
Teaching hospitals use a residency program to educate qualified physicians, podiatrists, dentists, and pharmacists who are receiving training after attaining the degree of MD, DO, DPM, DDS, DMD, PharmD, BDS, BDent, MBBS, MBChB, or BMed. Those that attend a teaching hospital or clinic practice medicine under the direct or indirect supervision of a senior medical clinician registered in that specialty, such as an attending physician or consultant. The purpose of these residency programs is to create an environment where new doctors can learn to practice medicine in a safe setting which is supervised by physicians that provide both oversight and education.
Residency or postgraduate training is a stage of graduate medical education. It refers to a qualified physician (one who holds the degree of MD, DO, MBBS/MBChB), veterinarian (DVM/VMD, BVSc/BVMS), dentist (DDS or DMD), podiatrist (DPM), optometrist (OD),pharmacist (PharmD), or Medical Laboratory Scientist (Doctor of Medical Laboratory Science) who practices medicine or surgery, veterinary medicine, dentistry, optometry, podiatry, clinical pharmacy, or Clinical Laboratory Science, respectively, usually in a hospital or clinic, under the direct or indirect supervision of a senior medical clinician registered in that specialty such as an attending physician or consultant.
The term residency is named as such due to resident physicians (resident doctors) of the 19th century residing at the dormitories of the hospital in which they received training.
A medical (or surgical) intern is a physician in training who has completed medical school and has a medical degree, but does not yet have a license to practice medicine unsupervised. Under the guidance of senior doctors, interns will learn how to diagnose and treat patients, handle medical records and deal with different clinical situations. Medical education generally ends with a period of practical training similar to internship, but the way the overall program of academic and practical medical training is structured differs depending upon the country, as does the terminology used (see medical education and medical school for further details).