Interns : From Students to Physicians

The internship year is crucial in the formation of a physician’s approach to medicine and the medical profession. Whether he will be patient or peer oriented, an active or aloof member of his local community, a research or practice physician are all decisions in part determined by the hospital chosen for internship. Emily Mumford has studied the internship programs at two voluntary hospitals—one a large, metropolitan hospital closely affiliated with a major medical school and the other a hospital located in a suburban town and without university affiliation. Examining hospital routine, social networks, patient-physician relationships, and conflicting norms, the author concentrates on the ways in which these two institutions—one oriented toward teaching and research and the other toward private medicine—socialize their house staff. Observations in sixteen other hospitals in the United States are incorporated into these findings.