Attending physician 2195326 215488441 2008-05-28T12:39:04Z 122.2.84.136 /* See also */ {{Nofootnotes|date=December 2007}} An '''attending physician''' (also known as an '''attending''', consultant, or staff physician) is a [[physician]] who has completed [[Residency (medicine)|residency]] and practices [[medicine]] in a [[clinic]] or [[hospital]], in the speciality learned during residency. An attending physician can supervise [[fellows]], [[residents]]/[[registrars]] and [[medical students]]. Attending physicians may also have an academic title at an affiliated university such as "professor". This is common if the supervision of trainees is a significant part of the physician's work. Attending physicians have final responsibility, legally and otherwise, for patient care, even when many of the minute-to-minute decisions are being made by subordinates ([[physician assistant]]s, [[resident physician]]s, and [[medical student]]s). Attending doctors may also still be in training, such as a fellow in a subspecialty. For example, a cardiology fellow may function as an internal medicine attending, as he has already finished residency in internal medicine. The term is used more commonly in teaching hospitals. In non-teaching hospitals, essentially all doctors function as attendings in some respects. The term "attending physician" or "attending" also refers to the formal relationship of a hospitalized patient and their primary doctor during the hospitalization, as opposed to ancillary physicians assisting the [[primary doctor]], referred to as '''[[Consultant (medicine)|consultants]]'''. However, even on a consultation service, at an academic center, the medical doctor who has finished his training is called the attending or consultant, as opposed to a resident physician. ==See also== *[[Consultant (medicine)|Consultant]] (The equivalent position in the [[United Kingdom]]) {{med-bio-stub}} [[Category:Physicians|*]] [[de:Oberarzt]] [[no:Overlege]]