The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-04
HOSPITAL
Hard WORK to Get the Place and Harder work
TO DO when In n.

Every graduate of tho New York medical
schools would DO glad to hold for the first eigh-
teen months OF his professional life q post on the
staff of a metropolitan hospital. Perhaps ono
graduate In thirty obtains such an appointment.
SO valuable to n physician or surgeon is hospital
practice in Now York that graduates In mcdi-
cine from oil tho region round flock TO tho an
nual examinations OF tho hospitals. II the
staff vacancies aro TO be filled. twenty.
thirty, fifty young men present themselves
for examination. Graduates OF the Har-
ward Medical School como over to these
examinations, partly becauso there Is n wider
experience to be had here than in Boston, part
ly. perhaps, because a young man going upon
the staff Of u Boston hospital must come not as
n graduate in medicine with the diploma Of NJ.
D., but as a sort of house pupil or apprentice in
medicine.
All physicians and surgeons to tho New York
hospitals, save tho Psychologists. serve without
pay. Newly graduated doctors, men from % TO
near 80 years of eye, bavo appointments for
about eighteen months. Consulting surgeons,
always skilled and often highly distinguished,
are glad TO serve without pay for years together.
because 1t ia here that experience Is gained and
regulations are made. A visiting surgeon may
see 10000 or 1000 cases in u single year, such
u number as not the busiest surgeon could see in
pti'"NS u N 5thSOi.
Junior. senior, h~ouse-that IL the order Of pro-
motion in the hospital service for both physicians
and surgeons. The young graduate has. in tho
natural order of things. six months in each
place. Every hospital has from three to twenty
doctors on It., house staff. The house surgeon
proper has general charge OF all surgical cases
after they have been seen by the visiting sur
geon; The same is true Of the house physician.
The junior or senior. rs the case Ina% he, must
go out with the ambulance when a call comes
In. The police or. private persons now and
then or cS Sqip an that borb a in ma has Ian
ing an ambulance after the call has been sent
out. Most Of tho time the ambulance surgeon
has an entirely sound excuse for the delay.
Sometimes he Is of in another direction or am.
bulnncs duty. More often, perhaps. the call
finds him aiding at n surgical operation. and he
must reach a stopping place in that duty and
change his clothing before he can 90 out in re-
The hospital surgeon and his friends have a
multitude OF answers to the charge Of brutality
now and then brought against the former,
Should you see me at my hospital work" said
You'd think me rude and perhaps brutal. ]
p~atieats with all sorts of injuries from a crushed
finger to a broken thigh. must diagnose rap
thctics or heed the hundred and one other pleas
Of the patients ! should never finish my work
It Is SO With With the g. young ambulance ns .s surgeon giSs
walk. He must do what he has to do with al
speed without %stopping to heed the advice or
lDlt VI u og LHphtllcklC tIo"u.
Tender the hospital surgeon should be; hui
sympathetic no must not be. The sympathetic
sympathetic nurse is marked out for dismissal
A surgeon never performs an important opera
ton upon u member of his own family. He dis
trusts his own skill AS affected By sympathy.
Hospital surgeons are among the hardest
worked men Of their profession. They have nj
Service %asd sy at any hour OF :" tho a day % or night. Wv @her
a hospital has n large staff OF medical men it i,
possible for the members OF the staff to arrange
among themselves Tor GAYS ana nOurB OH, DOl
the doctors of a small hospital arc often on dut,
BUSY i and @is, " seven 81 ! hours rse q u niari @ne Sleep sI'
The house surgeon and, tho, senior OF u small
hospital must never be absent at the same tim H
many hours away without leaving word wher'
But II the service of the New York hospitals /
hard, it furnishes tho very best practical schoo
In medicine and especially in surgery to b
eighteen months service tho young hospita
surgeon has seen performed and perhaps ha
fh a,,s 20 10, 10 p SntT IN ant nearly nrdip avery s,, Upern.iiT n n y, ~ :
, time. and some of such operations he has seel
and taken part in many times over; The cosmo
floating population make 1t the temporary hom
of more strange diseases than any other city q
( the continent, so that the hospital physician ha
beneath his eyes the ailments of the world.
Considering the great opportunities open I
. the hospital surgeon: inymsn often ta w W9nd DC
pointlnents to hospital STATS; 1t has and
, has not. Examinations are rigid and fairly co,
Gu IN uitli iIh RfSNotS II oVoh WV
meal examination is not always the man thE
gets the appointment. Yet. on the other hanc
an incapable man is seldom or never NJ
pointed. Tho personal equation Away
, helps to determine an appointment. A ca,
: s ssneTsi rs eSnSdfre at sch naSPhS are 'tR sfsn' i M
consideration. The examiners are ofte
the same men who have instructed the cand
o dates in the medical schools, and IN examine
puts together his knowledge of u candidate {
= obtained In three or four years contact wit
4 him in the lecture room and at clinics, and IL
knowledge of him drawn from the examinatio,
o A student OF known bad habits, Of conspicuo,
:, defects. will not DO appointed 10 a hospital stat
no matter how good his examination.
O 1t is the most ambitious students that see
appointments to the hospital stats. and a mt
Ia seldom content to leave u New York hOsI
tai and settle down to practice in n COUNT
Q town. The Rblest hospital surgeons attract u
attention OF visiting missions and others di
Q tinguished in the profession and obtain partno
ships or promotion of some other kind. Son
settle in New York. and few are content wi
( anything less than a considerable city.