Lao Tzu, in "The Art of War" tells us to: know your enemy more than you know yourself.
Honestly, the only way to know the enemy is to engage the enemy in his/her duties, study his/her ways, actions and belief/thought systems, even to go as far as knowing their physical-chemical makeup.
You're asking: "Uhh.. Drfting, you got a point here?"
Yes, I have many points. Some of these, people aren't going to like.
1) If we future osteopaths *truly* want something done, we have 2 options, and both will get us there:
a) organize in a collected, focused, structured, determined, group-wise kind of mission
OR
b) we all come up with vague "standards" we want to reach, and we brainstorm as many actions we can take. we list those so people can, at least, find one thing that inspires them, and a few people begin pioneering, making paths for others to follow.
The concepts conveyed above can be intertwined in a nice mesh that would make us a pretty wacked-out "enemy" to behold.
2) I'm a firm believer that a few people agreeing something needs to be done is *NOT* enough. The few agreeing need to *DO* something.
You probably ask: "What the heck are you talking about? *ME*? What can *I* do? How can little 'ol *me* make a difference?"
The age-old situation: Someone not yet sucked into the system looks at it and says, "I need to fix something here. But what first?" only to get lost in the bowels of inaction so long as to become as potent as a frozen rose.
Going forward, I think we need to brainstorm about how to TAKE ACTION and WHERE WE WANT TO GO.
---TAKING ACTION:
1) Write letters to the AOA.
*We need stats not only on PLANNED residencies, but on FUNDED and ACCREDITED residencies. If they will not give us these stats, then at least one of us at each COM will need to do the research. I know my school, NYCOM, has the NYCOMEC book, listing all PLANNED, FUNDED and AOA-ACCREDITED residency spots at each of the networked hospitals.
Why are these stats important? To factually decide whether, truly, the AOA has/hasn't begun growing, expanding, and funding residency spots in proportion to the number of D.O.s graduating each year. We probably need historical data, if the AOA will give it to us. How far back? Maybe someone can help with this?
*Based on the stats, we need to ask questions...thought-provoking, guided, to-the-point questions in a setting that can be "refereed" so that no one can hide behind stoic or vague answers. Who'd be our "referee"? We need to brainstorm.
- Do we want closed-doored discussion? open to the public? open only to DOs and student DOs and the AOA?
- IF this is some "objective" of ours, we need to ask: What is being done/can be done by the AOA to insure that *all who want to* will be able to get AOA-accredited and FUNDED residency spots out of their COM?
- I think we definitely need to ask, "Does the AOA ideologically preceive itself superior, inferior or equal to the AMA?" Given the concept of "psychological complexes," if the leadership is going one way, and the students another, then something urgently needs to be done.
- Another nexus of questions to ask are: What does it mean for a residency to be FUNDED? Where do the FUNDS come from? How long before a PLANNED residency becomes FUNDED? How can we get more FUNDS to PLANNED residencies? What is the extent the AOA is involved in the FUNDING of a residency?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, How important is it to the AOA that future DOs have:
1) research experience? What is being done to increase the opportunities?
2) a desire to go to an AOA residency over an AMA residency? What is being done to further scrutinize and qualify a hospital as "worthy" of having an AOA-accredited residency?
3) a desire to go through the traditional 1-year rotating internship?
2) Talk with your classmates. Get them fired up. Get them to this page. Get them to talk with others. Get them to brainstorm with you. Get a general assessment of the overall class attitude, and report back with your school as the heading, and some categories you make up on your own. We know high-ranking people of COM's lurk here and read more than we know.
3) Run for SGA offices...high-ranking positions. Become a member of SOMA and/or other Osteopathic-related associations to begin understanding what their aims, goals and motives are. Report back here and let us all know what your assessment is. Eventually, enough people will bring a good "synthesis" of what these organizations are all about.
4) Each person should at least go to AOA's website and look up the position papers and see whether you agree. Do you want to be part of a group that feels X, Y, Z, A, D, and G, but you simply don't "jive" with their positions? It'd be sort of like joining the NRA when you support Kerry and his wishing to enact laws enforcing liability onto gun manufacturers, meaning: the gun company could be held liable for killing, injuring, maiming, hurting, grazing, dismembering, etc someone. Ask yourself, would gun companies want policemen packing their brand of weapons to shoot criminals, whose surviving family members could sue and win because of the liability laws?
Yes, this is extreme. No, the position papers from the AOA are, truly, not insane, too liberal, freakish, or haughty..in my honest opinion. To be fair, I suggest everyone go to this link and download the .pdf:
AOA Position Papers
reasons for doing this: a) you're gonna be a DO, b) it's good to know the belief systems present in the system that will garner, groom, mold and shape you, c) if you happen to NOT be a pre-DO, student DO, or even a DO who hasn't read this, the educational value is outstanding, rewarding, and beneficial.
5) Make signs, placards, printouts, etc and post them in public places around school, saying things like, "What has your AOA done for you lately?" or "Truly, how many AOA residencies are there?" or " What's the AOA's stand on sodas in schools?" or "How often do you dream about your 1-year, rotating AOA internship?" Don't give people answers on the media. Let these questions fester in their minds. Report back with some assessment of the effects of this type of signage.
---WHERE WE WANT TO GO (with this)
1) What do we want to see happen? What demands are we gonna throw on the table? What requests do we want to make? Name a position... where do we all stand/ what's the general consensus?
2) As a group, who are WE? Are we limiting ourselves to people in DO school? residents also? board-certified DOs also? even AOA members? faculty at our schools?
3) We need to answer one question, and then, depending on the answer, we can either move forward or cause a ruckus discussing things: Do we feel we are inferior to, equal to, or superior to the AMA and MDs? [do realize here that I am asking for ideology, and the intent is to stir, churn and watch what settles. I'm not asking for chaos or bashing or condemning, etc. I am intending straightforward discussion.] With a final resolution / consensus from this "input session" we will find the clear-cut direction of our next steps. Think of this as a guage of how far the students/grads, etc feel Osteopaths have come since the older generations were given equal practice rights.
Once we decide what we're trying to accomplish, and where we feel we stand in relation to our counterparts / co-workers in the allopathic field, then we know where we're coming from and where we're trying to go...we get past those hurdles and the rest is just tweaking and number influence (see TAKING ACTION, above).
Thanks, ahead of time, for the input, if any. Let's use this as a "starting point" and let our input drive the directions from here.