Physician

The word physician always applies to a person who practices some type of human biological medicine. Physicians are traditionally considered to be members of a learned profession, because of the extensive training requirements and also because of the occupation's special ethical and legal duties.

Etymology of the word physician

The Classical Greek noun phusis and derived adjective phusikos meant "nature" and "natural". From this, amongst other derivatives came the Late Latin physicus, which meant a doctor of medicine. After the Norman Conquest, the word entered Middle English via Old French fisicien, as early as 1200. Originally, physician meant a practitoner of physic (pronounced with a hard C). This archaic noun had entered Middle English by 1300 (via Old French fisique). The noun physic meant the art or science of treatment with drugs or medications (as opposed to surgery), and was later used both as a verb and also to describe the medications themselves. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Different meanings of the word physician

Physician in the broad sense, usual in North America, now applies to any legally qualified practitioner of medicine. In the United States, the term physician is now commonly used to describe any medical doctor holding the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree. The American Medical Association, established 1847, uses physician in this broad sense to describe all its members. See the article on Medicine for more information on what physicians (in this broad sense) do in practice.

Physician is still widely used in the older, narrow sense, especially outside North America. In this usage, a physician is a specialist in internal medicine or one of its many sub-specialities (especially as opposed to a specialist in surgery). This traditional meaning of physician still conveys a sense of expertise in treatment by drugs or medications, rather than by the procedures of surgeons.^[4] This older usage is at least six hundred years old in English; physicians and surgeons were once members of separate professions, and traditionally were rivals. The Shorter OED, third edition, gives a Middle English quotation making this contrast, from as early as 1400: "O Lord, whi is it so greet difference betwixe a cirugian and a phisician." ^[5] Henry VIII granted a charter to the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 1518, and granted the Company of Barber/Surgeons (ancestor of the Royal College of Surgeons) its separate charter in 1540. In the same year, the same English monarch established the Regius Professorship of Physic at Cambridge University ^[6]. Hence, in the 16th century, physic meant roughly what internal medicine does now.

These days, a specialist physician in this older, narrow sense would probably be described in the United States as a internist (a specialist in internal medicine). This narrow usage of physician is common in Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Republic of China (Taiwan), Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong. In such places, the terms doctor or medical practitioner are prevalent, to decribe any practitioner of medicine (whom a North American would likely call a physician, in the broad sense). For information on the work of specialist physicians in the older, narrow sense, see internal medicine, or else visit the web page What are Physicians? at The Royal Australian College of Physicians — the description given here applies fairly well throughout the Commonwealth of Nations.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the combined term Physician and Surgeon is a venerable way to describe either a General Practitioner, or else any medical practitioner irrespective of speciality.^[1][4] This usage still shows the narrow meaning and the old difference between physician, as practitioner of physic, and surgeon. Some Americans may also consider those who hold the Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine (D.C.) or Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (N.D.) degrees to be physicians, but, unlike M.D.s or D.O.s, neither are license to practice the full scope of medicine and neither are given the title Physician and Surgeon by United States medical boards.

Education and training

Main article: Medical education

Medical and osteopathic training and career pathways vary considerably across the world.

In all developed countries, entry-level medical education programs are tertiary-level courses undertaken at a medical school pertaining to a university. Depending on jurisdiction and university, these may be either undergraduate-entry or graduate-entry programs.

Following completion of entry-level training, newly graduated medical doctors are often required to undertake a period of supervised practice before full registration is granted; this may be referred to as "internship" or "conditional registration".

Further training in a particular field of medicine may be undertaken. In some jurisdictions this is commenced immediately following completion of entry-level training, while still other jurisdictions require junior medical doctors to undertake generalist (unstreamed) training for a number of years before commencing specialization.

Various teaching methodologies have been utilized in medical education, which is an active area of educational research.

Medical doctors hold an M.D. or D.O. degree are considered licensed Physicians and Surgeons in all 50 states and can practice the full spectrum of medicine. Chiropractic physicians who hold a D.C. and naturopathic physicians hold an N.D. are more limited in their scope of practice and licensure. 15 U.S. jurisdictions.

Regulation

In most jurisdictions, physicians need government permission to practice. This is known as licensing in the United States, as colegiación in Spain, as ishi menkyo in Japan, as autorisasjon in Norway, as Approbation in Germany, as "άδεια εργασίας" in Greece and as registration in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In France and Portugal, civilian physicians must be a member of the Order of physicians to practice medicine. In some countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, the profession regulates itself, with the government affirming the regulating body's authority (in the UK the General Medical Council).

Regulating authorities will revoke permission to practice in cases of malpractice or serious misconduct.

After graduating from medical school, physicians who wish to practice in the U.S. usually take standardized exams, such as the USMLE or COMLEX, which enable them to obtain a certificate to practice from the appropriate state agency. All American states have an agency which is usually called the "Medical Board," although there are alternate names such as "Board of Medicine," "Board of Medical Examiners," "Board of Medical Licensure," "Board of Healing Arts," etc. Australian states usually have a "Medical Board," while Canadian provinces usually have a "College of Physicians and Surgeons."

See also

• Allopathic physician
• Dispensing Physician
• General practitioner
• Internal medicine
• List of physicians
• Medical specialist
• Naturopathic physician
• Osteopathic physician
• Foreign medical graduate

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on historical principles. Fifth edition, OUP, 2002
2. ^ Partidge E., Origins: a short etymological dictionary of modern English. Fourth edition, Book Club Associates, 1966
3. ^ Barnhart R.K. (ed.), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology. (previously published as Barnhart's Dictionary of Etymology), New York: Chambers, 1988
4. ^ ^{a b} Fowler H.W. A dictionary of modern English usage. 1926. Second edition (E. Gowers, ed.) OUP, 1965
5. ^ Onions C.T. (ed.) Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on historical principles. Third edition, OUP, 1944. reprinted with corrections 1967
6. ^ http://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/about/history.html

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