A resident has graduated from medical school and is completing a post-graduate training program.
An attending is a board-certified physician who has completed their residency training.Residents are supervised by attending physicians.
Attending physicians are also called staff physicians, supervising physicians, or simply attendings.
Illustration by Emily Roberts for Verywell Health
Not all doctors become attendings, as some take different career paths or do not complete their training.
Attending physicians have final responsibility for all patient careeven if a subordinate provides the care.
(They may or may not have legal liability, depending on the circumstances.)
Why Are Physicians Called Attendings?
First-year residents are referred to as interns.
After that, they are known as resident doctors, resident physicians, or simply residents.
These physicians provide direct care under the supervision of an attending physician or senior resident.
Can Residents Prescribe Medication?
Residents are generally restricted to writing prescriptions for only those under their care as part of their training.
Residency Specializations
Residents can choose different specialties to train in after graduation.
you might sometimes tell where a physician fits in the hierarchy based on the length of their lab coat.
In addition, many health professionals of all ranks now wear scrubs.
Summary
People training to become medical doctors are given different titles as they progress through training.
These titles denote their level of experience as well as their ability to provide care without supervision.
After medical students graduate, they become interns and then progress to residents and fellows.
Attending doctors are the highest in level of seniority.
They are fully licensed and can practice independently.
American Medical Association.What is residency?
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.How to become a physician or surgeon.
American University of Antigua College of Medicine.Resident vs Attending: Key Differences.
National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.Definition of attending physician.
2022;22(1):336. doi:10.1186/s12909-022-03400-z
American Medical Association.Medical specialty choice: should residency training length matter?
American Medical Association Journal of Ethics.When are residents treated as doctors under the law?
University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine.Resident prescription writing/medical treatment policy.
University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine.Administrative chief resident position.
Association of American Medical Colleges.The white coat: symbol of professionalism or hierarchical elitism?
