D.O. Residencies

[Skialta]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I am in an allopathic program, but I gave some serious thought to D.O.. I read the AMSA New Physician article "Growing Pains", and then read a letter published by Dr. Brent Nelson in this months issue. I am wondering how you feel about the increase in the number of DO schools and how the limited number of DO residencies and the hoops you have to jump through to get an allo residency have affected your view of the path you have chosen. This is in NO WAY some troll message. When applying to med school, I really didn't know the hoops DOs have to go through.

I really thought the article was interesting in the fact that it seems the AOA has really not supported the students. I thought this would be a good topic for a thread. Thank you in advance for your views.

 

[VentdependenT]

My hoop was taking the USMLE and taking the time to land some good letters. It wasn't that big of a deal. What would have helped was some career guidance from the school...which was absolutely nonexistant. Some of my classmates suffered because of this. However I must admit that those who missed out are at least partially responsible for not having explored all open avenues.

AOA is a tired organization. It may change once us grads get a hold of it. Thats still 15-20 years out. For now I'll sit back, get trained well, and possibly slip into the organization down the road.

For now I'll try and help as many as possible on these boards.

 

[Robz]

AOA is a tired organization. It may change once us grads get a hold of it. Thats still 15-20 years out. For now I'll sit back, get trained well, and possibly slip into the organization down the road.

I can only hope and pray more senisible people get involved.....

For now I'll try and help as many as possible on these boards.

And we thank you for your sarsactic wisdom..... 😀

 

[Boomer]

possibly slip into the organization down the road.

God help us all.

Ditto the point re: academic/career counseling at the school. That should be a basic part of any administration.....

 

[stoic]

Yea, pretty stupid of the DO community if you ask me. Already don't have enough DO residency spots... to say nothing of QUALITY spots... so lets pump out some more DO's we don't have place for!!!!!


Oh well. When Vent's running the AOA, he's gonna fix that **** up for us. 👍

 

[cooldreams]

guys a question for all of you much more experienced than i. are there currently enough res spots for md students?? from what i understand, there are many more spots than there are graduationg students. that is why there is able to be such an influx of img's to the country, and why do's are able to get allopathic res spots. and still so many spots that even then not all of them go filled.

basically what i am getting at is there seems to a given number of res spots sponsored by the government. some are do spots but most are md spots. this seems to reflect the disproportionate number of md and do grads right?? maybe increasing the number of do grads will encourage the gov to sponsor more do res spots than they currently do, or at the very least get more res spots to be dually accredited??

just my naiive 2 cents...

 

[babyruth]

At the AACOM conference this month, they discussed possible routes for dual accreditation. The problem again lies with the AOA. An example coming out of a Pennsylvania IM program is that the ACME, the allopathic accrediting body, charges a flat fee per program of around $2500 while the AOA charges a variable fee depending upon number of trainees, fees for the program, etc.etc. The DO director of prgoram at that location has to pay twice as much (~$5300) for the same IM program to be AOA accredited. The problem lies in that many programs prefer DO students over IMGs but don't have the incentive to be dual accredited because DOs will go the allopathic route anyway and it saves them money. Another disturbing fact is the number of new schools with brnch campuses popping up. It seems to me that this is for monetary gain. I wish the AOA would moniter or censure this practice, if that isn't already happening already.