Teaching hospital

"University Hospital" redirects here. For hospitals with this name, see List of university hospitals. For the TV series, see University Hospital (TV series).

A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical center that provides clinical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are often affiliated with medical schools and work closely with medical students throughout their period of matriculation, and especially during their clerkship (internship) years. In most cases, teaching hospitals also offer Graduate Medical Education (GME)/ physician residency programs, where medical school graduates train under a supervising (attending) physician to assist with the coordination of care.

In addition to offering medical education to medical students and physician residents, many teaching hospitals also serve as research institutes.

History

Although institutions for caring for the sick are known to have existed much earlier in history, the first teaching hospital, where students were authorized to methodically practice on patients under the supervision of physicians as part of their education, was reportedly the Academy of Gundishapur in the Persian Empire during the Sassanid era.

In culture

Many American television shows, usually medical dramas, take place in teaching hospitals. Some examples are:

• St. Elsewhere that takes place in the fictional St. Eligius Hospital (located in the South End neighborhood of Boston)
• Chicago Hope that takes place in the fictional Chicago Hope Hospital (located in Chicago)
• ER that takes place in the fictional County General Hospital (located in Chicago)
• Scrubs that takes place in the fictional Sacred Heart Hospital (located in the state of California)
• House that takes place in the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital (located in the state of New Jersey)
• Grey's Anatomy that takes place in the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital, renamed Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (located in Seattle)
• Emily Owens, M.D. that takes place in the fictional Denver Memorial Hospital (located in Denver)

Some Canadian shows take place in teaching hospitals as well. For example, Saving Hope takes place in the Hope Zion Hospital (located in Toronto).

In the United Kingdom, the 1980s television documentary series Jimmy's was set in St James's University Hospital, Leeds (nicknamed Jimmy's), which formerly claimed to be the largest teaching hospital in Europe.

Paris is famous for many renowned teaching hospitals: Pitié-Salpêtrière, Cochin, Necker or Hôtel-Dieu. They appear in many films and TV shows. An ER episode, for example, is set in Hôpital Saint-Antoine (AP-HP). Many patients are quite surprised to see medical students at their bedside: they know they are in top hospitals without knowing those hospitals are teaching hospitals.

See also

• List of university hospitals
• Medical education
• Morning report