AT THE outset I should like to express my apA preciation to the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association, to the Advisory Board of Medical Specialties, to the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, and to their particular representatives, for this opportunity to comment very briefly on certain aspects of house staff officer training programs.
Any assessment of a training program requires an initial recognition of the purposes for which that program is designed. While the purposes of internship training have long been and even now remain a focus of controversy, it seems totally reasonable to state that internship training should basically constitute a learning experience above all else. It should provide an opportunity for the developing physician to learn effective integration of general, theoretical, and multidisciplinary concepts into a workable, albeit imperfect, understanding of the disease process of the particular patient.