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The House Officer
Michael Kaliner
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Abstract
The question of the need for a legal agreement or contract between hospitals and their house staff is the suggested focus for this discussion, but inherent in it are much deeper and more meaningful questions. These include: what are the basic rights of a house officer; how defined must his and the hospital's role be; and finally, who should determine the answer to these questions. For the time being I shall circuitously avoid the primary question and focus on the latter parts before suggesting an answer to the problem of contracts. Interns and residents provide the manpower for this nation's university and municipal hospitals, thereby delivering the primary medical services to our huge urban populations. To his patients, the house officer is their doctor with all the responsibilities inherent therein; to his medical students, he is a supervisor, instructor, and, because of the very intimacy of the relationship, the model