The attending physician is a manager of sorts who has many years of training, has many doctors under them and often teaches. This article explains how the attending is one of the most-important people in the facility, and there is a look at why going to them for information is quite important. Anyone who is in a hospital must know what the attending does, feel comfortable asking for them and ensure they are aware of who is on-duty that day.
What Does The Attending Do?
The attending physician in any hospital wing is the person who oversees other doctors with less experience. Experience in the field of medicine determines quite a lot, and the people who have the most experience are risen to the level of attending to help the doctors below them. Those that must learn the craft properly will be under an attending until they promoted, and they will learn all they need to know from those who came before them.
Training To Be An Attending
Everyone who is learning after medical school is training to be an attending. They will often rise through the ranks when they stay at the same hospital, and they must ensure they are prepared to move around quite a lot of times as they ascend to the higher ranks in a hospital. Every doctor with a medical degree may become an attending, or they may choose to avoid it in favor of a specialty that will take them outside the hospital to a private office.
Remaining An Attending
There are quite a few doctors who will remain an attending for some time, and they will stay in the position because they enjoy teaching or the department they are in. They have every opportunity to work with other doctors because they will be teaching daily, and they may see their own patients in the interim. The attending has a full workload that includes reporting to their superiors about students, and they will find it quite simple to keep the job they feel in love with.
How Long Are The Hours?
An attending physician will keep long hours as they must see their patients, work with students and manage their evaluations. They will do quite a lot of work to ensure they are helping each doctor learn, and they will spend time on patient care that goes above and beyond what others are doing. The attending may work in a number of areas, and they will help in that specialty over others.
Which Department Has An Attending?
The attending may work in surgery, emergency, general care and any other department that is contained in the building. Someone who has become an attending will be an expert in the practice of that specialty, and they must spend extra time learning the specialty before they may be promoted.
The attending who works in a hospital or medical clinic has earned their title by working for years as a student under someone of the same title. They will have a great deal of experience, and they will use their experience to ensure they are training each student under them properly. They are the front line of teaching medicine, and they work in each department to train graduate medical students.
