What is a traditional rotating internship?

• Internal medicine

• Surgery

• Gynecology

• Obstetrics

The main objective of a traditional rotating internship is to give medical students a well-rounded experience in a specific medical specialty or subspecialty. In essence, they represent a broad-based preparation program that is meant to prepare medical interns for the intensity of their future residency programs.

Interns in a traditional rotating internship normally spend two to three months in each clinical rotation before they rotate to the next. They often work alongside attending physicians and senior residents.

As the program progresses the medical interns are expected to take on more and more responsibilities to deepen their clinical knowledge and skills in several different medical specialties. Traditional rotating internships do not only focus on clinical rotations, most programs also contain:

• Didactic training

• Medical lectures

• Medical conferences

• Case discussions

Medical interns in these programs are also expected to collaborate on research projects and to successfully complete quality improvement plans.

Traditional rotating internships are less common in the present day than they were in the past, however, they are still offered by some medical institutions as a way to give medical interns broad and well-rounded experience in several areas of medicine. Most medical students must pass some form of medical internship to be admitted into a residency program.