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.
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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