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Internship is 12 months of consecutive education and training in the first postgraduate year and is made up of 4 x 3-month rotations in a named hospital or GP practice. Internship is part of basic medical training (undergraduate training plus internship), and you are not issued with your Certificate of Experience (CoE) by the Medical Council until you have successfully completed your Intern year. The CoE allows you to progress to specialist or general training.
An overview of intern training in Ireland can be found at the link below:
Medical Internship HSE
There are 6 intern training networks in Ireland aligned to the 6 medical schools. Each network has intern posts in hospitals and GP practices within its region, in both public and private hospitals. Recent reforms to the intern year have led to the establishment of Intern Training Networks in Ireland. The six Intern Training Networks are:
West / Northwest (University of Galway)
Dublin / Northeast (RCSI)
Dublin / Mid-Leinster (UCD)
Dublin / Southeast (TCD)
South (UCC)
Mid-West (UL)
There are 727 intern posts in Ireland and, as well as posts in medical and surgical specialties, there are multiple posts in super specialties such as obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, anaesthetics, ophthalmology, etc. Intern posts are competitive and allocated centrally by HBS Recruit, which is part of the Health Service Executive.
The application process for intern training posts opens every year and is a 2-stage application process that opens on the Health Service Executive website each year in October: HSE Medical and Dental Jobs. The application process includes completion of online application forms, Garda vetting, BLS certification, references and the results of your final degree award (submitted by your Medical School).
For graduates of EEA medical schools outside of Ireland who are eligible for internship, there is a similar application process PLUS an Intern Eligibility Employment Test (IEET).
2017 saw the introduction of Academic Internship. Academic Interns undertake one full rotation (3 months) as a combined clinical and academic rotation, along with completing their other 3 clinical rotations as normal.
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