DO residencies??

[jabroni108]

Hello all:
What is with all the topics on DO residencies?? Are they that hard to obtain? I chose to go DO because I was told that there are NO limits on what type of doctor you want to be even though half of the DO's choose primary care. All this talk about the pain-in-the-ass experience of getting quality residencies is making me question the validity (and acceptance) of the DO degree. Plus, how can the AOA consider you a traitor if you chose an allopathic residency when (from what I understand) they cannot provide enough residency spots for the DO graduating classes? Since I am starting med school this year I hope that they fix this problem by the time I graduate med school.

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[JS-UNMC]

Welcome to the Osteopathic machine!

 

[boston DO]

don't worry jabroni. the people who are bashing osteopathic med. are just bitter because they couldn't get into an md school in the first place and they are taking their anger out on everyone else in the profession. the DO profession is a great one and as you stated there are no limitations as to what you can do. you may have to work harder to get the specialty you want but as you will soon realize, nothing comes easy in medicine. keep your head up and welcome to the osteopathic family!

 

[njdocDO]

You may have to work harder for a derm, surg, or radio residency, but, you'd have to work harder for those in any MD school as well. Remember, there are residencies out there that are only for DO's, MDs need not apply, thus for a DO orthopedics residency, for example, you're only competing with DOs. Hence, you can do anything and go anywhere. I go to NYCOM and I know 4th years interviewing at Hopkins, Cornell, Brigham and Womens, etc etc. If you're good, somebody will want you, DO or MD.

I sat through a talk from the Dean of NYCOM last week and he said over the past few years, a great majority of reliable surveys of physicians salaries (ie...not some random website) have shown than DO's make 5-10% more for each particular specialty than MDs. Patients are truly starting to seek DOs out and many DOs have very, very lucrative OMM practices on the side. The DO vs MD debate evaporates once inside a hospital. Believe me. It only really survives on message boards like these and ill-informed undergraduates.

 

[bobo]

Yes, much as some of us malign the AOA and DO residencies in general, there are some bright spots. I know of a DO graduate who is doing a DO ortho surg residency. He is as well-prepared as the allopaths he has worked with. Plus he is interviewing for sports fellowships at what i assume to be competitive places -

 

[migraineboy]

Jabroni-
To the contrary, the AOA-approved residency spots are often less difficult to obtain than ACGME residency spots because 1) you only have fellow DO students to compete with 2) you will not run into bias from MD program directors and 3) you will not have to worry about whether or not to take the USMLE for residency consideration. Unfortunately, there are not enough AOA-approved spots for every DO graduating each year and I highly doubt that this will change before you graduate. To make matters worse, while some "DO" residencies are fantastic, many are considered to be sub-par. As far as residency opportunities in specialty areas, there are far too few osteopathic spots out there and many will say that they do not match up to ACGME spots as far as quality. For these reasons, many graduating osteopathic students (like myself) seek ACGME spots. And if the AOA doesn't like it, tough. We owe it to ourselves to obtain the best post grad training that we can in order to become the best osteopathic physicians that we can. If that means completing an ACGME residency, fine. Others out there will call this DO "bashing", as they will anytime somebody raises accurate criticisms against osteopathic training. Those of us who get accused of "bashing" are at least attempting to provide honest, accurate information to individuals instead of throwing on blinders and stating that everything in the osteopathic world is just peachy. You will have every opportunity to become a fantastic physican, Jabroni. Whether or not you practice medicine well has nothing to do with the letters behind your name. Just keep in mind that sometimes the doors of opportunity may not open as widely as they will for those who went the allopatic route. You will just have to be a little more dedicated.