Today's tip answers the following three questions. (1) What is a resident? (2) What is a fellow? and (3) What is an attending physician?

(1) A resident is a doctor who's beginning their post graduate training after medical school. Depending upon the type of residency that they're in, that will determine the number of years that they must spend in post graduate training. For example, a medial resident spends three years of additional training after medical school. An obstetrician/gynecologist spends four years of additional training. There are some surgeons and sub-surgical specialties that spend anywhere from five to seven years in post graduate training.

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(2) Now, beyond that there is something also known as a fellow. A fellow is a doctor who goes beyond their typical expected residency training into a subspecialty that allows them to obtain a specialized certificate in the area that they're focusing on. Here's an example; a doctor finishes medical school after four years. They then go on to do residency training in obstetrics and gynecology. That's another four years. Then they do a fellowship in hi-risk obstetrics, also known as maternal-fetal medicine. That could be another one to two years. Finally, after all that training they will have moved up to an attending physician.

(3) Okay, now what does it mean when a doctor is an attending physician? It means that they have graduated medical school. They have graduated and completed their residency training and now have applied and obtained privileges to see and treat patients in the hospital. Sometimes they're employed by the hospital. Sometimes they are private doctors who have offices outside of the hospital, but because of their attending privileges are allowed to see, treat and operate on patients in the hospital.

So those are the definitions of what is a resident, what is a fellow and what is an attending physician.