A residency program is equivalent to an internship for a doctor, and they take three to seven years to complete.

• Avoid these missteps in medical school admissions.
• Choosing a college major that doesn’t suit you.
• Getting insufficient clinical experience.
• Pushing off research opportunities.
• Neglecting volunteer opportunities.
• Slacking on MCAT preparation.
• Discounting postbaccalaureate programs.
• Writing a lackluster personal statement.

Interns (sometimes referred to as first-year residents) are doctors, but they may only practice medicine with guidance and supervision. They traditionally wear short white coats to signify their status as interns. At completion of the internship year, interns enter residency.

Internship is a phase of training wherein a graduate is expected to conduct actual practice of medical and health care and acquire skills under supervision so that he/she may become capable of functioning independently.

Medical interns are also known as Post Graduate Year 1 or PGY-1 interns. Interns perform many of the same duties as doctors, including taking patient histories, examining patients, meeting with family members, and conducting medical procedures such as biopsies, catheterizations and intubations.

Residents practice medicine under the supervision of fully credentialed Attending physicians. They can practice both in a hospital or in a clinic. An “intern” is a physician in their first-year of residency after graduating from Medical School.

An attending is considered an expert in their field of medicine or surgery. For example, a surgical attending performs surgery as part of their job. As an attending, they may have interns, residents, or fellows in the operating room with them, educating them on how to perform surgery.