Are there jobs for Osteopathic physicians?

[walrus]

All I hear about is how difficult it is to land a job in a good practice as a physician. It seems like every field is oversupplied in the desireable locations.

My question for you all is this: do D.O.'s have even greater difficulty of finding jobs after residency? Do they mostly join group practices with other D.O.'s? How difficult is it to start up your own practice? Do group practices shut you out and not recruit you because you are a D.O. rather than an M.D.??

these are all things that are on my mind. I know D.O.'s and M.D.'s are equally qualified, but I'm wondering if D.O.'s have an even harder time landing a job?

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[DOnut]

I will go out on a limb and say...ummm......no! From what I have seen, every physician on Long Island, and in the NYC area is quite able to pay back their student loans. Be it MD, or DO. There are between 8 and 15 private practice DO officies within a 5 minute drive from my house. Specialties ranging from Surgery, to OB/GYN, radiology (obviously not a private practice), internal med, a bunch of family physicians....... and the list goes on. About a half hour from here in Brooklyn, there are three DO ophthalmologists. Two of the three are in the Best of the Best Guide to NYC physicians.

As a DO you may have to work harder to obtain the more competitive residencies, but once you have made it, I don't foresee many problems.

Also, there are also several DO's in group practices with MD's. That's actually pretty common.

I also think about it this way. If one has to work harder to obtain a competitive residency such as Ophthalmo, ie USMLE >250, you can bet that this person is pretty damn good. Or at least pretty damn smart.

 

[bigtony]

If their wasn't a shortage of physicians than why is their a tremendous demand for midlevel practicioners ( NP and PA ).
D.O. or M.D. doesn't matter now days. Their are laws in place in all 50 states that guarantee your unrestricted practice as an osteopathic physician.

 

[droliver]

I think in general there are a lot of positions available both DO & MD in most specialties. There are quite often NOT very many attractractive jobs in many of these fields in the most geographically desirable locations or most sought after positions

 

[DOnut]

What would be considered a geographically desirable location?? NYC seems pretty damn desirable to me......on the other hand, Fayetteville, WV (population of about 1500) may be desirable to someone else. You can find a DO in both areas.

If you are looking to head the Ophthalmology residency program at Harvard, then you'll probably have a difficult time. However, if you are just trying to practice medicine in either a group setting, private practice or everyday hospital, you will have no problem.

Unless maybe if Dr. Oli's around

 

[droliver]

Donut,

what I mean is if, for instance, you're a general surgeon & your expectation is to work in say....Charleston, S.C. & take 1:7 call, with no indigent patients, do outpatient or elective surgery, & make $600K, well then that gig is already taken. There are lots of positions around with desperate headhunters out & about, but many of them come with strings attached- lots of call, unattractive practices, extended associate periods before partnership, expensive buy-ins for partnership

 

[Diane L. Evans]

If you are already in a DO school it is a silly question! If you are thinking of applying please see the AOA webpage/ application http://www.aoa-net.org/
http://www.aacom.org/
Being a DO does not limit you, especially in the primary care fields. I know DO's in Cardiology, Plastics, Opthamology and hundreds in all FP,OB/Gyn, PEds, IM, Surgery. Some emphasis is job recruitment is the place of residency.