Attending physician

In the United States and Canada, an attending physician (also known as an attending, rendering doc, or staff physician) is a physician (M.D. D.O. or D.P.M.) who has completed residency and practices medicine in a clinic or hospital, in the specialty learned during residency. An attending physician typically supervises fellows, residents, medical students, and mid-level practitioners. Attending physicians may also maintain professorships at an affiliated medical school. 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 house officers (residents), medical students, or mid-level practitioners (i.e. physician assistants and nurse practitioners). Attending physicians are sometimes the 'rendering physician' listed on the patient's official medical record, but if they are overseeing a resident or another staff member, they are 'supervising.'