This article examined a new plan in medical school training that would get medical school graduates working as physician sooner. Grads would skip residency and go straight to treating patients. This new model would help the physician shortage and get physicians into areas with not enough physicians. Residency programs have limited space so many med school graduates are left with the qualifications, but without residency experience, creating a bottleneck effect. However, people argue that medical school is not intended to prepare you to go into practice, that is what residency is for. Some states are trying to implement a position called a “physician in training” or an “assistant physician” (different from a physician’s assistant) who are people who have graduated from med school, but not completed residency. The job allows them to provide primary care services as long as they are supervised by a physician. These new rules and positions are not planned to take effect until fall 2016.
I think this new plan has great potential, but probably will take a while to perfect. Residency programs are competitive, intense, and often can burn physicians out (they have to work crazy hours), but I also think they are important to providing physician with clinical practice under an experienced physician before putting them completely in-charge. It seems like a combination of a residency and the assistant physician would be a successful plan. Have teams of experienced and “in-training” physicians working together. The experienced physicians would not necessarily need to be in-charge and monitor the new physicians, but they could be there to provide advice when needed.
Sociology of Healthcare 