Rehearsal for Life or Death Medical Issues
Medical "intern" boot camp tests communication skills
New medical interns are nervous when they start at hospitals in July. Patients may be a bit skittish, too, about being treated by a newly-minted doctor.
To ensure interns are ready to treat patients, Diane Wayne, vice chair of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, oversees a three-day “boot camp” for the new interns at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The New York Times wrote about the boot camp July 14. The story was one of the most e-mailed on the paper’s website.
Wayne says the boot camp is the most rigorous in the country. The program requires interns pass tests in procedures and communication skills before they are allowed to treat patients.
