Internatura
인테르나투라
A mandatory one-year postgraduate clinical specialization for Soviet medical school graduates, introduced in 1968. After receiving their diploma, graduates trained at large hospitals under faculty supervision in a primary specialty (surgery, therapy, obstetrics, pediatrics, neurology, or infectious diseases) before earning certification as a specialist physician. It replaced the prior system in which most graduates were deployed directly into practice without formal postgraduate training. Formally consolidated in 1971 by Health Minister Boris Petrovsky alongside the Oath of the Soviet Physician and made compulsory for all medical graduates from 1973, the internatura survived the collapse of the USSR and remained a pillar of Russian medical education until it was replaced by the ordinatura (residency) system in 2016.
In depth
Establishment of the system
Internatura comes from the Latin internus ("internal") and denotes a first postgraduate specialization in which medical school graduates, after passing state examinations, train in a clinical specialty at a medical institution under the supervision of a university faculty. In the Soviet Union the system began experimentally: a Council of Ministers decision of 10 February 1967 introduced a one-year specialization on a trial basis for graduates of several medical institutes, and a joint party and government decree of 5 July 1968 confirmed it as a standing institution. Initially only four institutes took part, in the specialties of surgery, therapy, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, neurology, and infectious diseases.
Before the internatura was introduced, most graduates went directly to work as internists or pediatricians without preliminary specialization, and were assigned to surgery, ophthalmology, otolaryngology and other fields as the need arose. The internatura replaced this practice of immediate deployment. From 1973 graduates of all Soviet medical institutes had to complete it, and those who finished received specialist certification.
How training worked
The internatura was conducted over one year at large hospitals under the supervision of the relevant university faculty, and graduates received a specialist certificate and a diploma of completion. After the Oath of a Soviet Physician was adopted by a decree of the Soviet Parliament in 1971, that oath placed public interests above private ones, and graduates were often obliged to work for three years after the internatura in remote rural hospitals. Boris Petrovsky, the health minister, consolidated the internatura as a supplement to the subordinatura of the final year of medical school, and the system then remained in place almost unchanged.
End in Russia
Admission to internatura programs in Russia ceased on 1 September 2016, ending the system; the ordinatura (residency) and professional retraining took its place.
Related people
Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) Soviet internatura began in the 1968/69 academic year and ended in Russia on 1 September 2016; replaced by ordinatura and professional retraining
- pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov BMJ obituary of Boris Petrovsky: 'Petrovsky reformed Soviet medical education, supplementing primary specialisation called subordinatura...with internatura—an additional year, after the medical diploma, of postgraduate specialisation at one of the large hospitals. This system has remained in place almost unchanged'
- bulleten-nriph.ru Khil'monchik (2015): internatura approved by CPSU CC and USSR Council of Ministers decree No. 517 of 5 July 1968; initially experimental in 4 institutes, mandatory for all graduates from 1973; lists original specialties: surgery, therapy, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, neurology, infectious diseases
- Wikipedia (RU)
- bulleten-nriph.ru
- pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov