D.O. General/Ortho Surgeons

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RN-2-Medicine

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I’m very interested in the D.O surgeon route. I’m interested in hearing about some of the D.O. Surgeon hardships/success stories that you guys have. Is it true that you have more to prove than your MD peers being a D.O in surgery? Thanks!

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I’m very interested in the D.O surgeon route. I’m interested in hearing about some of the D.O. Surgeon hardships/success stories that you guys have. Is it true that you have more to prove than your MD peers being a D.O in surgery? Thanks!
Yes, you will have to work harder to prove yourself than your MD peers.

But it's not impossible.

Ortho will be a lot harder than Gen Surg.
 
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Yes you do have to prove more.

I have a detailed AMA on General surgery.

 
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You will have to work harder if you want an MD Ortho or mid or upper mid/top tier Gen surgery program. Don't forget that there are former DO /AOA programs in surgery and ortho as well, for these programs you won't have to necessarily work "harder" you will have to be a good applicant and rotate at those programs most likely to get a spot. Some of the former aoa in surgery function like community MD programs now but I don't think you will have to work "harder" to match those per say. It all comes down to what your goals are. If you want a top tier ortho or surgery residency at big name institution yes you will have to work "harder" if you just want to be a ortho or surgeon somewhere then the "working harder" is debatable imo.. you won't be matching either of those specialties even as a USMD unless you do well in school, on step 2, pass step 1 and some extracurriculars, if your the bottom of your USMD class, fail classes or boards it won't be happening either.
 
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Once in residency, most DO residents operate early and often. I was way more comfortable doing cases then the same year from MD programs when we did out rotations. It was clearly obvious.

In fellowship, it was the same. Most of the DOs had more surgical experience and were better in OR than the MDs. They got to do more cases sooner typically.
 
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Once in residency, most DO residents operate early and often. I was way more comfortable doing cases then the same year from MD programs when we did out rotations. It was clearly obvious.

In fellowship, it was the same. Most of the DOs had more surgical experience and were better in OR than the MDs. They got to do more cases sooner typically.
Parallel universe and entropy to the Nth order. LOL
 
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