TEACHING HOSPITAL

A 'teaching hospital' is a hospital which provides medical training to medical students and residents. Medical students typically spend two to three years in a teaching hospital doing clinical training, after completing their preclinical training in the medical school of a university. Residents (also called "registrars" in the United Kingdom, Australasia and South Africa) are physicians who have completed medical school and are enrolled in speciality training.
Teaching hospitals typically have strong links with a nearby medical school and its associated university (such as Addenbrooke's Hospital, attached to the medical school of Cambridge University and Groote Schuur Hospital, the main teaching hospital of the University of Cape Town.)

Contents

History

Admissions

Cultural references

See also

Sources

History

Although institutions for caring for the sick are known to have been around much earlier in history, the first teaching hospital, where students were authorized to methodically practice on patients under the supervision of physicians as part of their education, was reportedly the pre-Islamic Academy of Gundishapur in the Persian Empire. The Sassanid era word ''Bimaristan'' literally translates into "Hospital". (E. Browne, ''Islamic Medicine'', 2002, p.16, ISBN 81-87570-19-9.) Some experts further believe that "to a very large extent, the credit for the whole hospital system must be given to Persia". ''(A medical history of Persia, C. Elgood, Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 173.)''

Admissions

In the United States, the majority of students use the National Residency Matching Program as the method for selecting the teaching hospital they prefer among the hospitals that want that student.

Cultural references

The American television shows ''Chicago Hope'', ''ER'', ''Scrubs'', ''House'', and ''Grey's Anatomy'' all take place in teaching hospitals (Chicago Hope Hospital, County General Hospital, Sacred Heart, Princeton-Plainsboro, and Seattle Grace, respectively).

See also

★ University hospital

★ Morning report

Sources

★ National Resident Matching Plan (USA)