Hospitalist fellowships are available for family practitioners, researchers, internal medicine doctors, and pediatricians, among others. The typical hospitalist internship lasts 12 months, during which the fellow works one-on-one with a veteran hospitalist to serve inpatients; the veteran will evaluate the fellow on a monthly basis. Most hospitalist internships require applicants to be licensed to practice medicine in their discipline by the local government and to have completed a medical residency at a hospital.
During a hospitalist fellowship, the fellow serves as a doctor, consultant, and teacher, providing pre-operative and surgical guidance to peers as well as instruction to residency medical students. In addition, the fellow attends conferences and either conducts medical research or publishes an academic paper. Regular admission and discharge of patients, particularly those in the emergency room or intensive care units, are among the other responsibilities. A hospitalist fellow may be expected to make administrative decisions to improve the efficiency of hospital procedures and patient care, or to serve on a palliative care team, depending on the hospital.
Additional responsibilities will be assigned based on the fellowship’s specialty focus. Pediatricians who receive hospitalist fellowships, for example, will focus on hospitalized children and may be assigned solely to children’s hospitals. A pediatric hospitalist on fellowship may also work in nurseries, especially with unassigned newborns, and labor and delivery units, particularly when a high-risk delivery is involved.
Patients of all ages suffering from general ailments would be seen by family practitioners assigned to hospitalist fellowships. Doctors who specialize in internal medicine would provide critical care to those suffering from diseases of the internal organs. Patients would receive less care from research fellows, who would instead focus on experimentation, assays, trials, and treatment outcomes.
The main advantage of receiving a hospitalist fellowship is learning how to manage multiple acutely ill patients at the same time. Fellows also learn how to consult with peers in other specialties about integrated care for such patients and how to keep track of hospital records properly. Another advantage of hospitalist fellowships is that the fellow learns hospital-related procedures like mechanical ventilation, intubation, and the connection of nutrition and medication lines to main and peripheral arteries and veins.
Hospitalist fellowships typically come with a competitive salary as well as an academic stipend to help with medical books and professional memberships. Health insurance and relocation costs are usually included as well. Applicants typically submit a curriculum vitae, diplomas, and letters of recommendation in order to be considered for a fellowship. A personal essay or statement outlining the applicant’s career and research objectives is frequently requested.