Resident vs Attending vs Hospitalist, etc.

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Specializes in Urgent Care, Research, Care Coordination.

i was hoping someone could help me understand the difference between the types of doctors. i have had people explain it to me in the past but they weren't very clear- kinda like they knew, but couldn't explain it well. so can someone explain (like i am clueless- which i pretty much the case:uhoh3:) the difference between attending, resident, sod, hopitalist, private doctor...what are their duties, limitations, etc. thanks so much!

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Specializes in cardiac rehab, medical/tele, psychiatric.

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I know a hospitalist is a MD who only works at the hospital (they don't have a private practice).

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It'd be kinda nice to teach that in nursing school, huh? Ya know, who are we gonna be working with? Hmm... too practical, huh?

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Specializes in cardiac rehab, medical/tele, psychiatric.

Too funny:chuckle I'm realizing that there is alot of "on the job" training in this field...

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wow. you are so right that this is something that should probably be covered in nursing school! (It's not.)

A Resident is a doctor that is still training. They are an MD, but they are still learning, and are generally working under the auspices of an "Attending."

The "Attending" is the doc that is the "big man on campus..." lol. They have graduated, they have generally been working for awhile, and at least in a teaching hospital, are the ones you call if the resident doesn't have a clue ore isn't answering pages.

At a hospital that isn't strictly a teaching hospital, a lot of times you will have "hospitalists". Those are doctors that deal strictly with the admission. They don't have outpatient practices.

You may or may not be lucky enough to be dealing with your patient's primary care doc. . . .

It gets a wee bit complicated. . .

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

The attending could also be whoever the doctor is that is responsible for your patient during the hospital stay. Often it will be the patient's primary care provider.

Residents are basically MDs that are somewhat fresh out of medical school. They often rotate through 36 hour shifts, so if they seem a little grumpy they probably haven't gotten much sleep lately. There are varying levels of residents within the resident program itself. They are overseen by an educator/mentor MD who is also known as an "attending." You will rarely see this type of attending MD as they will often step back and let the residents handle everything.

A hospitalist is an "in house" doc. If a patient's primary care provider/family doc does not have hospital privileges, or if a patient doesn't have a regular doctor, oftentimes they will be assigned to a hospitalist during their stay. Usually hospitalists will all cover for each other, but they're not exactly interchangeable.

I don't really think any of the above have limitations or specific duties. They all kind of do the same stuff.

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