Wages for Internes

To get into any one of the 77 reputable medical schools of the U. S. a young man or young woman must have a college education. To get out of any one of those medical schools with the degree of M. D., the student must, in general, spend four years of study. To get a license to practice medicine on his own responsibility, most States require the medical graduate to spend at least one year as an interne in a hospital. If he hopes to become a specialist in surgery, pediatrics, diagnosis or any one of the 28 other categories of his profession, he usually spends up to six more years working on patients in hospitals.

In that hard climb the grubbiest period is the year or two after medical school when the graduate doctor is fulfilling his interneship requirements. In most of the 697 good U. S. hospitals, the interne gets an opportunity to ride the ambulance to emergency cases, to practice medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and x-ray technique on ward and clinic cases. Experienced practitioners hover over him all the time, show him how to do this & that. In time he may get opportunity to suture the peritoneum after the appendectomist or the laparotomist gets through his work. But real experience in surgery is usually reserved for the man who intends to spend another year or more as a "resident" in surgery. As for training in delivering babies, the paucity of opportunity in that important field of medicine is a great scandal among doctors interested in obstetrical education.

In return for this essential part of his medical training, the young interne may bully the free patients, student nurses and orderlies. He gets free board, lodging and laundry. For salary, he gets, in one-third of U. S. hospitals, not one cent. About the same number of hospitals pay him $5.77 a week. In the remaining third he may get as little as $1.15 a week, as much as $31.52.

Last week in New York City whence rises many a cry of discontent which subsequently roars over the nation, 1,000 discontented internes who constitute the Interne Council of Greater New York commenced to ululate. Cried President Leon Gray Berman:

"We want better educational programs in the hospitals. We want salaries. We want the security of insurance. In lieu of salaries, we're always told of the educational advantages in hospital interneship, but these aren't provided. Even the hospital libraries are often inadequate. As to insurance, if we lose an eye in the course of our duty, or our life, there's no compensation. There have been actual cases where an ambulance driver and an ambulance doctor were killed answering calls. The driver's family can collect compensation. The doctor is not covered. . . . We have no protection, alive or dead."

Cried another interne: "In many hospitals there are regulations forbidding us to marry, so we can't even marry a girl who has a job and who could help support us a few years until we could take over support of both!" Another: "We're totally dependent upon our parents, and in these times there are even parents of a few internes who are so down-&-out that they're on relief. Why, we had a meeting of the council lately at which a member told us he hadn't carfare to get to the session and had walked 100 blocks [5 mi.] to attend. . . ." Another: "I personally know about 50 internes who have given up smoking because they don't have the price of tobacco. I know one chap whose girl bought him a new suit--his first in five years--and maybe he didn't have to pocket his pride to allow her to do so."

Result: New York's Commissioner of Hospitals Sigismund Schulz Goldwater revealed another reason why internes should be paid some stipend. Said Dr. Goldwater: "Internes are exposed to continual temptation to accept gifts, and what not, from patients. It is this temptation to accept gifts from patients that we want to eliminate by paying them $15 a month." Therefore Dr. Goldwater recommended that next year New York City pay its hospital internes $3.46 a week.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.