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[license43]

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[deleted407021]

Bottom line, expect the grade to stay the same. And it’s still a possibility that you didn’t do the technique properly.

Most people do fine in OMM. This was one of your first practicals since you’re an M1, so don’t sweat it too much and do better next time. If some of your classmates consistently do well, go see what they do.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Yeah...that's been a point of contention since I was in school back in the mid 2000's and I've got colleagues who graduated in the late 90s that had similar experiences. In our school at the time, the OMM department had a chip on their shoulder and portrayed themselves as anatomy studs. Heck, just go check out the Kuchera and Kuchera white book and look up the section on abduction of the arm and which muscles begin and end that movement --- and then reference a no joke anatomy/physiology textbook -- and you'll find Kuchera and Kuchera (unless they changed it) have it exactly backwards. The OMM department refused to change it even when the anatomy department tried to gently correct them. It was a real mess, so we learned OMM anatomy and then real anatomy. Most of us (unless we were true believers and went into an pre-doctoral fellowship or NMM residency) dropped it after taking COMLEX 3.

Now, I once had an issue with a dual boarded (FM/OMM) OMM professor. IIRC, in open lab, he pointed to the inferior angle of the scapula and called it the spine of the scapula. After the lecture portion of the lab was over, I made it a point to ask him directly, while pointing to the spine of the scapula, "You meant the spine of the scapula, correct sir?" and he again pointed to the inferior angle of the scapula and said, "Yes, the spine of the scapula". I verified my anatomy with the anatomy department later one who just sat there shaking their heads. Could it have been a memory fart? Yeah....but after some of the stunts these clowns pulled, I'm a little suspect.

Not much you can do, just "cooperate and graduate" -- -get a tutor if you have to, play the game.

 

[TheaterOfTheme]

Is this your last practical? Same thing happened to me in my first practical this semester. I got 0 points for a technique I did in part. Our rubrics have partial credit but some TAs grade however they want. I found tutors and studied like mad to be kill the final.

 

[Goro]

Yeah...that's been a point of contention since I was in school back in the mid 2000's and I've got colleagues who graduated in the late 90s that had similar experiences. In our school at the time, the OMM department had a chip on their shoulder and portrayed themselves as anatomy studs. Heck, just go check out the Kuchera and Kuchera white book and look up the section on abduction of the arm and which muscles begin and end that movement --- and then reference a no joke anatomy/physiology textbook -- and you'll find Kuchera and Kuchera (unless they changed it) have it exactly backwards. The OMM department refused to change it even when the anatomy department tried to gently correct them. It was a real mess, so we learned OMM anatomy and then real anatomy. Most of us (unless we were true believers and went into an pre-doctoral fellowship or NMM residency) dropped it after taking COMLEX 3.

Now, I once had an issue with a dual boarded (FM/OMM) OMM professor. IIRC, in open lab, he pointed to the inferior angle of the scapula and called it the spine of the scapula. After the lecture portion of the lab was over, I made it a point to ask him directly, while pointing to the spine of the scapula, "You meant the spine of the scapula, correct sir?" and he again pointed to the inferior angle of the scapula and said, "Yes, the spine of the scapula". I verified my anatomy with the anatomy department later one who just sat there shaking their heads. Could it have been a memory fart? Yeah....but after some of the stunts these clowns pulled, I'm a little suspect.

Not much you can do, just "cooperate and graduate" -- -get a tutor if you have to, play the game.

I don't think that our OMT/OPP Faculty are as bad as what Bill had to deal with, but they do inflict damage like what the OP has to deal with. Just complain loudly to the Dean, but only if other classmates have been so victimized.

 

[sab3156]

I have the same complaint - some guy deducted points, claiming that I didn't "recheck TART findings", even though I did. Pretty annoying. But guess what? No one in the real world of medicine cares about OMM, because it's the definition of cult witch doctor medicine. So just ignore it and move on. Your Step 1 score will be way more important than your OMM grade.

 

[Neopolymath]

Nothing you do is going to change your instructor/department/school regarding OMM. Time to suck it up, accept your grade (right or wrong), and MOVE ON! The best way to say "F U!!!" to OMM is to do well and never give it the time of day again. That's exactly what your staff doesn't want and will hurt them the most. They love the animosity and adversity. Don't give them that.

 

[CoomassieBlue57]

I have the same complaint - some guy deducted points, claiming that I didn't "recheck TART findings", even though I did. Pretty annoying. But guess what? No one in the real world of medicine cares about OMM, because it's the definition of cult witch doctor medicine. So just ignore it and move on. Your Step 1 score will be way more important than your OMM grade.

This is why you verbally dictate every step you perform. There's a better chance of earning points if they see AND hear it.

 

[Neopolymath]

This is why you verbally dictate every step you perform. There's a better chance of earning points if they see AND hear it.

This is highly school dependent. If you say anything extra at my school they will absolutely skewer you on the practical exam if you say something not perfectly correct. They go as far as to tell you not to say anything extra before the first practicals.

 

[sab3156]

This is why you verbally dictate every step you perform. There's a better chance of earning points if they see AND hear it.

I did. The OMM fellow grading me was checking some girl out, I think...

 

[CoomassieBlue57]

This is highly school dependent. If you say anything extra at my school they will absolutely skewer you on the practical exam if you say something not perfectly correct. They go as far as to tell you not to say anything extra before the first practicals.

Wow, I had no idea it was that bad elsewhere. I've had practicals where I just said what I was going to do, and the professor grading me told me that was good enough and I didn't need to physically perform the technique.

 

[jw3600]

Most of OMM is subjective made up pseudoscience. Just make nice with the faculty and you will get good grades. That or have tits.

 

[JamesPotterMS-3]

OP: If I was you, I would drop this as soon as possible. Just do the re-do exam and move on. The higher up you go, the worse it will get. You will be known as "that student" who climbed all the way to the tippy-top of the administration totum poll for "just" failing a practical. It happens. I've failed an OMM practical before too. I just studied harder, met with OMM-fellows/faculty, and later passed. If you're passing the written exams, you are doing fine. Going to higher ups to argue about a practical could hurt you in the long run. Just my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.

 

[68PGunner]

OP: If I was you, I would drop this as soon as possible. Just do the re-do exam and move on. The higher up you go, the worse it will get. You will be known as "that student" who climbed all the way to the tippy-top of the administration totum poll for "just" failing a practical. It happens. I've failed an OMM practical before too. I just studied harder, met with OMM-fellows/faculty, and later passed. If you're passing the written exams, you are doing fine. Going to higher ups to argue about a practical could hurt you in the long run. Just my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.

This... I have known of classmates who went to the Curriculum Director for failing classes before. Let me just say that it never goes well.

The rule of thumb for your first two years is to be inconspicuous as possible. That means just do your thing, stay silent on facebook, and keep broadcasting stuff to a minimal and only possibly to your inner circle.

 

[JamesPotterMS-3]

This... I have known of classmates who went to the Curriculum Director for failing classes before. Let me just say that it never goes well.

The rule of thumb for your first two years is to be inconspicuous as possible. That means just do your thing, stay silent on facebook, and keep broadcasting stuff to a minimal and only possibly to your inner circle.

100% agree. Honestly, going up to the pre-clinical dean is already too much. No one in my class would dare knock on the door of a dean for a failed practical. If I was the OP, I'd cancel that meeting with the Dean ASAP with an apology email. Most of the emails sent to the Dean at my school get screened out by his secretary. Can't imagine how one could get an appointment for a meeting for something as trivial as failing a practical.

 

[JamesPotterMS-3]

Also, to the OP, this is an excellent opportunity to learn how to "suck it up and move on." You will have countless times where things don't go your way and you just have to move on. Last week my attending yelled at me and made me look like a fool in pubic because the EMR didn't save my treatment plan write-up and it was somehow my fault. I didn't talk back, just apologized and said I'll make sure it is up in the next 5 minutes. That's how it's done in the real world. You just suck it up and move on.

 

[Neopolymath]

Does everyone have those stupid redo/mastery exams? Surely, that's not just us.

 

[Giovanotto]

Wow, I had no idea it was that bad elsewhere. I've had practicals where I just said what I was going to do, and the professor grading me told me that was good enough and I didn't need to physically perform the technique.

Whaaaaaaaaat? Blessed be thy school.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Wow, I had no idea it was that bad elsewhere. I've had practicals where I just said what I was going to do, and the professor grading me told me that was good enough and I didn't need to physically perform the technique.

During my first year we were graded on diagnosis AND treatment. And we didn't choose the technique they chose it for us. And you could make the same diagnosis mistake with two different proctors and have a 10% difference in your practical grade. Which is why I didn't believe that "fake it till you make it" nonsense that SDN spews.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

It's always best to drop it once the course director says no. At my school they let you retake it if you dispute the grade but the course director then grades you personally

 

[deleted480308]

You screwed up by going to the dean. The staff can always hurt you more and now you ruffled the feathers

Fair is irrelevant, you just need to get tk graduation day. Don’t let anything distract you from that

 

[Noisewater-TDX]

Fair and OPP really shouldn't be used together. It just depends on what side of the bed your grader got up on that morning.

Most of OMM is subjective made up pseudoscience. Just make nice with the faculty and you will get good grades. That or have tits.

I laughed so hard at this... truth.

 

[JustPlainBill]

I don't think that our OMT/OPP Faculty are as bad as what Bill had to deal with, but they do inflict damage like what the OP has to deal with. Just complain loudly to the Dean, but only if other classmates have been so victimized.

We had one guy who was a wanna be AT Still -- complete with the dark 3 piece suit, goatee and really rough technique -- emphasized power over skill -- I never, ever let him work on me, ever. Nice guy, smoked like a chimney....one time in class, I guess he was trying to impress us when he stated that he had taken care of AT Still's granddaughter -- most of the class was like, "So what? Can we just get on with this..."....

OP, just wait until you get into MS2 OPP and get to manipulate viscera --- the one that always required a suspension of disbelief for me (other than Cranial which is entirely another level of stepping into the Twilight Zone) was the one where you put your fingers in a line from xiphoid process to navel supposedly to perform myofascial (or some sort ) of release on the ganglion sitting on the anterior aspect of the sacrum/spine -- yeah, through about 12 inches of muscle, fat, organs and tissue --- uh, huh, sureeeeee...and I saw Elvis at Bill Miller's BBQ in San Antonio last week.....right.....

 

[Noisewater-TDX]

We had one guy who was a wanna be AT Still -- complete with the dark 3 piece suit, goatee and really rough technique -- emphasized power over skill -- I never, ever let him work on me, ever. Nice guy, smoked like a chimney....one time in class, I guess he was trying to impress us when he stated that he had taken care of AT Still's granddaughter -- most of the class was like, "So what? Can we just get on with this..."....

OP, just wait until you get into MS2 OPP and get to manipulate viscera --- the one that always required a suspension of disbelief for me (other than Cranial which is entirely another level of stepping into the Twilight Zone) was the one where you put your fingers in a line from xiphoid process to navel supposedly to perform myofascial (or some sort ) of release on the ganglion sitting on the anterior aspect of the sacrum/spine -- yeah, through about 12 inches of muscle, fat, organs and tissue --- uh, huh, sureeeeee...and I saw Elvis at Bill Miller's BBQ in San Antonio last week.....right.....

Maybe the merger will eventually creep down to med school curriculum and they'll make OMM an elective, create an optional USMLE OMM test. Do away with COMLEX.

Ah.. dreams.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Maybe the merger will eventually creep down to med school curriculum and they'll make OMM an elective, create an optional USMLE OMM test. Do away with COMLEX.

Ah.. dreams.

Organize subtly, infiltrate, overthrow -- go read Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and apply to your situation -- or pick up a copy of "The CIA's Nicaragua Manual" or "Inside Soviet Military Intelligence" by Victor Suvorov -- all good books on how to help an administration "out" --- get out from under the oppressive thumb of the AOA, down with the establishment, up with the Worker's Party!!! ..oh, wait, wrong year, wrong generation, wrong war......hold it, hold it....go back to your regularly scheduled classes.....

 

[Goro]

Organize subtly, infiltrate, overthrow -- go read Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and apply to your situation -- or pick up a copy of "The CIA's Nicaragua Manual" or "Inside Soviet Military Intelligence" by Victor Suvorov -- all good books on how to help an administration "out" --- get out from under the oppressive thumb of the AOA, down with the establishment, up with the Worker's Party!!! ..oh, wait, wrong year, wrong generation, wrong war......hold it, hold it....go back to your regularly scheduled classes.....

You guys may think that bill is joking, but in reality this is how you change the AOA. Dead serious here.

 

[JustPlainBill]

You guys may think that bill is joking, but in reality this is how you change the AOA. Dead serious here.

Rabble rouser -- I can't leave you alone for a minute without you stirring something up....sheesh...;-o

Seriously, if the students want a change, they'll have to get into positions of power within the state organizations which then moves to the national organizations and get this changed...it won't happen overnight and some of these old line DO's are clinging for dear life to the "osteopathic distinctiveness" which most of them can't define succinctly...hint -- it's isn't OPP that makes us different.....you'll have to be the majority vote and then expect some squealing -- also make doggone sure you have any legislative backing that you'll need to get the laws changed --- President Ransom and UNTHSC learned that lesson the hard way --- there's a law in place that UNTHSC can only put out DO degrees which stopped the new MD school from going in on the TCOM campus -- sooooo, they went with TCU and now, bingo, there's an MD school in Ft W that's using/going to use TCOM facilities and, mark my words, TCOM will gradually be pushed out of clinical rotations and relegated to Plaza/Methodist Dallas/Conroe.....

 

[BorntobeDO?]

OP: If I was you, I would drop this as soon as possible. Just do the re-do exam and move on. The higher up you go, the worse it will get. You will be known as "that student" who climbed all the way to the tippy-top of the administration totum poll for "just" failing a practical. It happens. I've failed an OMM practical before too. I just studied harder, met with OMM-fellows/faculty, and later passed. If you're passing the written exams, you are doing fine. Going to higher ups to argue about a practical could hurt you in the long run. Just my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.

Agree, its idiocy to argue over an OPP practical. OP should make nice with the professor, ask for a tutoring session and learn what they want him to. Remediate and be done. Don't get the problem student' label over something as dumb as a OMM practical.