DO school curriculum

[rom3o]

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Are all DO school's curricula based around primary care? I obtained two brochures from VCOM and PCOM and both of them state that their curriculums are, and I believe VCOM says that that they focus heavily on rural medicine (does PCOM too?). Also says that 60% of DOs go into primary care which I found interesting.

 

[AMEHigh]

Does it give examples of how PCOM is based around primary care? The only thing I can think of is that in your 4th year, you have to do an urban and rural rotation. The rural rotation doesn't necessarily have to be in the middle of the boonies though, from what I understand. Other than that, after knowing a few people at other med schools, it doesn't seem like our curriculum is anymore primary care focused than others.

We do start working with our standardized patients and learn medical skills from the very beginning (I think we started the 1st month) so maybe that's considered having a curriculum based on primary care.

 

[ChiDO]

I would say all medical schools (MD and DO) are based towards "primary care" as when you learn things in your first 1-2 years, it's general broad topics and same goes for 3-4th year, you learn to manage your patients in given rotations. Years 1-2 prepare you for Step 1, so the curriculum is pretty much standard across all medical schools. Each school may have better or worse teachers in some subjects, but in the end, their goal is to prepare you for step 1, so it's pretty much the same everywhere.

On a surgery rotation they don't expect you to know how to take ou the gall bladder, but you have to understand pre/post-op as well as the anatomy, presentation, and clinical significance of the gall bladder.

When you interact with SP your first 2 years, all the cases are patients that would present in a clinic or doctors office.

 

[millepora]

Any school that requires rotations in fourth year, is a good indicator of a primary care pusher. There were a lot of schools out there that gave you the entire fourth year as elective time, and that was one of my big "pros" at schools I was looking at.

The primary care internship (first and sec year) doesn't waste to much of your time though, at most it takes up a week of your first and/or second year.