- Joined
- May 20, 2019
- Messages
- 186
- Reaction score
- 283
Students at Cleveland rank their preferences out of 5. Cleveland Clinic (the entire range, so this includes Akron and CCF Wooster), University Hospitals, MetroHealth, Lake Health, and (I think) Akron.
Don't quote me on that, because I'm only confident on those first 4 options.
Yes they will try to take into account your rotation rankings. No, nothing is guaranteed. Most people get what they want, generally.
Yes, they tend to be strong rotations. But as with all medical rotations at all other schools, individual experiences will vary based on location, luck, local culture within a particular hospital/department service, and who your preceptors are.
Essentially, not wrong, but on paper we ARE a DO school. You will get a DO education, which is to say, a "holistic" osteopathic education. Which is to say, an MD education plus the osteopathic stuff (that less than 5% of DOs use in their daily practice). If you go to HCOM, please take the OMM/OMT seriously. Because it's free points on your school exams and we need to know it cold for our boards. If you want to use OMM after graduation...great. If not...also great.
I put holistic in quotes because allopaths have long since caught up in providing what we consider holistic care. I've never had an MD who didn't take the same wide approach (mind body spirit etc etc) that we learn as DOs. My doctors, PCP and specialists, span both MDs and DOs. Both treat me as a whole patient rather than just a disease.
Also, preceptors and clinicians have mentioned to me (before I attended HCOM and also since matriculating) that they often prefer the HCOM students compared to the other local allopathic students. Others note there is a slight advantage we have. In part because we are more team-oriented, have had life experiences (mature/older), and we're not shy about touching patients when it comes time to evaluate, palpate, or help physically transfer patients from bed to table. Generally speaking, since we practice OMM skills each week, we tend to be ahead of our allopathic peers when it comes to hands-on physical examinations. So yeah, we're very hands-on. These skills translate well, even in situations where we won't actually employ the osteopathic stuff. We've learned to practice these skills and develop a comfort level with patients much earlier in our training compared to our allopathic colleagues.
This is not to say one is better than the other. I merely point out earlier differences in our medical training. In practice, MD and DO are two sides of the same coin.
