The perceptions of the physicians that completed their residency in Obstetrics/Gynecology in 2004 at the Fernandes Figueira Institute, of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, about their residency process are investigated. The research comprised two steps, participant-observation and the use of oral sources. The methodological procedure includes a qualitative analytical coding of the interviews and a subsequent semiotic analysis. The study aims at understanding the cultural heritage of the residents' discourses regarding their relations with and within the health and illness environment. Some of the elements discussed in this paper were: medicine as a depreciated profession; regret for the loss of the power of medical knowledge; the perception that medicine is seen more as a business than as a profession; the uncertainties of being simultaneously a professional and a student; the difficulties of getting in touch with the suffering and death of another human being.
internship and residency; profesional practice; medical education