Internships

Advertising and appointments
Internships blocks are advertised twice a year in Läkartidningen (the journal of the Swedish Medical Association). Every year, 12 interns are appointed in consultation with the union organisation, Upplands Allmänna läkarförening. Four of these appointments are currently for research internships in a partnership between the hospital and the faculty of medicine at Uppsala University, where the latter is responsible for financing the 10 research months that are included in each of these block appointments. The appointment of a research block intern is preceded by a formal process in which representatives from the faculty of medicine assess the applicants’ research qualifications.

Interviewing instruments have been increasingly used in recent years when appointing all interns for block positions.

The main part of the intern’s training is conducted in the clinics during the period of service. General intern training is planned to fit in an 18-month appointment. Since time is scarce and there is a considerable amount of work to cover, service at the clinics takes place according to a rotating schedule. There is some scope for adapting the block plans to the individual.

The basic training plan consists of four blocks:

• Internal medical specialities (core area) 4-5 months
• Surgical specialities (core area) 4-5 months
• Psychiatry (core subject or Ulleråker area) 3 months
• General medicine (Norduppland) 6 months

Theoretical training is conducted partly at the local clinics, in the form of special intern training programmes or included in the clinics’ ordinary training, and partly via centrally organised teaching in the form of training days or courses.

The training days occur once a month; some have a set programme, while others are organised by the intern group, or used for individual improvement.