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This argument is decent only based on appeal to the lowest common denominator (which clearly works vis a vis politics). However, as an organization trying to produce physicians, and as someone who is considered part of this cohert, I would greatly prefer that they at least focus on the many other issues that are far more important to an average DO student (quality of rotation sites, research opportunities and the general perception that 'people only go DO when they can't MD). You are even perpetuating that last one yourself here.Total agreement. It's hokey pokey as hell. I'll be among the first to admit it. But god almighty when explaining DO to people, that's the line that hooks people in literally every time. When I say it, I'm like half hedging myself already too. I'm like, "yadda yadda fully licensed.., with some PT stuff, and there's a philosophical sort of thing I'm not super sure about where we try to see the person as a whole," and people just latch onto it like a bulldog. Because so many people have a, "my doctor was a dingus," story. And it's always followed up by, "i'm really glad to hear you're being trained like that."
That said, it's basically the same line that the nurses use. "heart of a nurse." It's silly, but I genuinely think it works. How high is public trust in nurse?
America's Most And Least Trusted Professions [Infographic]
Per their survey (gallup data), 82% say that nurses have very high honesty and ethical standards. By contrast, 65% of the public thinks the same of medical doctors. I think a part of this **is** the media campaign. Marketing heads make millions of dollars. They wouldn't make that if they couldn't produce results.
To circle back to the rhetoric about the osteopathic philosophy though. Zdogg had that sort of a dilemma with dr. mike. he wanted to hate the dude. But he ended up just being a solid practitioner. there's hokey pokey in the sale, but it's always a very bland sort that never crosses into dr oz level hokey pokey. It's more of like a reaffirmation saying, "hey we care about you as a person." which is stupid if you really think about it, because both MD and DOs care and it shouldn't require saying. But sometimes it does. I rationalize it to myself by comparing it to how you have to robotically say, "i'm sorry to hear that," when someone admits to some sort of hardship. Sometimes just saying it, even if it's fairly artificially programmed into you, means a lot to people.
That said, I was at the AOA HoD for SOMA. And one of the things they were trying to sell us on was basically having us use the rhetoric. There's going to be a lot of us, and if we don't start with, "student doctors who couldn't get into MD schools," we could do a lot for brand imaging. I think they're just looking for a consistent brand that we can all get behind. And is there anything more bland than, "we really do care for our patients."?
As someone who didn't give two hoots about being a DO vs an MD prior to getting into med school, I really didn't understand the difference like I do now. And I think I am amoung a large cohert of DO students who very much could have been MD (not talking Caribbean) had they not believed the equivalence farce. And the real differences in, at the very least, perceived quality (and if we are honest, actual quality as well) is somewhat amazing. Convincing the general public DO's are the 'friendly docs' is one thing, but convincing our actual peers our equivalence (MD's program directors in particular) is quite a bit more important to the profession as a whole for the long term view of the DO degree.
But even if I ignore all the big picture, in my local picture at my COM I get to see how AOA leadership acts first hand. And its bass ackwards. DO schools have policy after policy that actively hurt many of their students, and certainly don't care about me 'as a whole student' much less a person. Greed and arbitrary 'policies' designed for anything but student success run rampant. I see how the good ol' boys club works, and its not in the favor of us now, why in the world would I believe it is any different at the next level up, where all the leadership at schools generally came from?