Post Graduate/Residency Training in the Philippines

Residency is a stage of postgraduate medical training and/or certification in a primary care or referral specialty. It is filled by a resident physician who has received a medical degree or diploma (MD, MBBS, MBChB, or DO) and in the philippines is composed almost entirely of the care of hospitalized or clinic patients, mostly with direct supervision by more senior physicians. A residency should follow the internship year.The residency can also be followed by a fellowship, during which the physician is trained in a sub-specialty.

Terminology

A resident physician is more commonly referred to as a resident. Residents have graduated from an accredited medical school and hold a medical degree (MD or MBBS). The residents collectively are the house staff of a hospital. This term comes from the fact that resident physicians traditionally lived the majority of their lives "in house," i.e. the hospital. Duration of most residencies can range from two years [mostly for primary care residencies] to more than six years for a specialized field such as neurosurgery. A year in residency begins between late august to early September in government hospital and early late June to early July and late august to early September in private hospital depending on the individual program, and ends one calendar year later. Before first-year resident doctors can go through 2 months pre residency Training which depends upon the hospitals. Depending on the number of years a specialty requires, the term junior resident refers to residents that have not completed half their residency. Senior residents are residents in their final year of residency. Some residency programs refer to residents in their final year as chief residents or "Senior Registrar" (often in surgical fields). Alternatively, a chief resident may describe a resident who has been selected by the department of each field in the final year of residency. Post-residency physicians are referred to as attending physicians or attending or "consultants".

History

Residencies as an opportunity for advanced training in a medical or surgical specialty evolved in the late 19th century from brief and less formal programs for extra training in a special area of interest. They became formalized and institutionalized for the principal specialties in the early 20th century, but even in mid-century, residency was not seen as necessary for general practice and only a minority of primary care physicians participated. By the end of the 20th century in North America, very few new doctors go directly from medical school into independent, unsupervised medical practice, and more state and provincial governments are requiring one or more years of postgraduate training for medical licensure. Residencies are traditionally hospital-based and in the middle of the twentieth century, residents would often live in hospital-supplied housing. "Call" (night duty in the hospital) was sometimes as frequent as every second or third night for up to three years. Pay was minimal beyond room, board, and laundry services. It was assumed that most young men and women training as physicians had few obligations outside of medical training at that stage of their careers.

The first year of practical patient-care-oriented training after medical school has long been termed internship. Even as late as the middle of the twentieth century, most physicians went into primary care practice after a year of internship. Residencies were separate from internship, often served at different hospitals, and only a minority of physicians served them.

In the Philippines , doctors may obtain a general medical license to practice medicine without supervision after completing one year of internship only after passing the Philippines medical board exam. Many residents have medical licenses and do legally practice medicine without supervision ("moonlight") in settings such as urgent care centers and rural hospitals. However, in most residency-related medical settings, residents are supervised by attending physicians who must approve their decision-making.