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Junior doctors in the United Kingdom and Ireland are qualified medical practitioners who are working whilst engaged in postgraduate training to become a consultant or a GP. The period of being a junior doctor starts when they qualify as a medical practitioner following graduation with Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degrees, and culminates in a post as a Consultant, a General Practitioner (GP), or some other non-training post, such as a Staff grade or Associate Specialist post. The term ''junior doctor'' now incorporates the grades of Foundation doctor, Specialty registrar; and prior to 2007 included the grades of Pre-registration house officer, Senior house officer and Specialist registrar. During this time junior doctors will do postgraduate examinations to become members of a Medical royal college relevant to the specialty they are practicing, for example Membership of the Royal College of Physicians for doctors specialising in Internal medicine, Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons for doctors specialising in surgery or Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners for doctors specialising in family medicine. Doctors typically may be junior doctors for 5–15 years, and this may be extended by doing research towards a higher degree, for example towards a Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of Medicine degree. In England there are around 53,000 junior doctors. The term non-consultant hospital doctor or NCHD also has currency in the Republic of Ireland. ==Working hours== In Europe and the US there has been some reduction of the working hours of doctors who are in postgraduate training, in line with recommendations and legislation aimed at improving patient safety and doctors’ working conditions. In 1991 the government, the NHS and the British Medical Association agreed a package of measures on working hours, pay and conditions which was called the ''New Deal for Junior Doctors''. The Doctors' duty hours, which were felt to be excessive, were reduced to a maximum average of 56 hours actual work and 72 hours on call of duty per week, although the change was not enforced until 1 December 2000. The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) sets out minimum health and safety requirements for the organisation of working time. The EWTD required the average working week to fall to 48 hours or less by 2009. The shortening of junior doctors' working hours had implications for how training programmes are organised, especially for specialties such as surgery where there was a tradition of maximising the hours of experience.〔 Most studies that have looked at a reduction of junior doctors working hours have found either a beneficial or neutral impact in terms of measures of patient safety, clinical outcomes and postgraduate training.〔 The reduction in number of hours worked by junior doctors is one of the factors leading to blurring distinctions between them and other clinical professions such as nurse practitioners who also perform complex tasks. Shorter duty shifts involve close teamwork across professions and effective handovers. Medicine is becoming more specialised, cross-cover between specialties can occur at night and during the day and evening. Most patient care and learning under supervision takes place in the day. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Junior doctor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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