Interns- Should You Beware on July 1st?

Every July new medical school graduates appear as interns on the floors of hospitals and clinics throughout the US. Interns are considered physicians in training and cannot practice medicine without supervision. Many have had undergraduate training out of the country. I wanted to share, at this time of year, a bit about changes at your local hospital that you must be aware of. No matter in July you are either already in hospital or about to be admitted into.

This sets up a challenging time for patients, as well as for the new interns. The senior residents are gone and maybe last year’s interns stayed on to become residents in the same program. Rotation also occurs with supervisors that are the ‘attending’. I mention this as they are responsible for your care. Their name is probably on your wristband.

The concern is how the hospital and medical training programs ensure continuity of care. This can be critical to your medical care if you happened to be in a hospital in early July.

The most competitive fields, including family medicine residency, psychiatry, internal medicine residency, anesthesiology, and pediatrics, see more than 70 applications from one candidate.  In 2020 the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) said the most people ever matched to family practice residency. They offered 4935 positions they matched  4470 with medical student graduates, of which 1555 are from US medical schools 1496 were from osteopathic medical schools. 779 matched were US citizens who graduated from international medical schools, and 458 places went to foreign-born international medical graduates. To put in perspective family medicine represents only 12.2% of all US medical graduates that matched in the 2022 programs.

Background:

IMGs -International medical graduates are either US IMGs or Non-US. IMGs can apply to US internships.  US IMGs are citizens of the United States who graduated from international medical schools, while Non-US IMGs are not US citizens who graduated from international med schools. if you are a US citizen educated in one of the Caribbean medical schools, for example, you are a US IMG. There is fierce competition. Recently US IMGs matched at an approximate 59.5% rate while non-US IMGs matched at a rate of 54.8%.   

FYI: recall interns are considered physicians in training and cannot practice medicine without supervision. The average medical intern salary is $65,000. – $30.74/hr. Extremes occur in Alabama pays $45,00 while Vermont ($86,435) and Washington state ($81,700) are highest

PLEASE It is your health so do not be afraid to ask questions, especially for clarification. You have a right to ask to speak to the attending physician.