How do you explain DO to other people?

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
ctran019

ctran019

forever med student
10+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
162
Reaction score
124
Members do not see this ad.
I'm having a difficult time explaining the DO degree to my parents and family members who don't know anything about the medical field. They don't believe it is a medical degree and think I'm referring to becoming a chiropractor when I mention OMM. Can anyone aptly summarize the degree in a few sentences for the laymen?
 
"I am a fully licensed doctor with all the bells and whistles. In addition, I also have training on how to "place the body in homeostasis" (if you can figure out a better term? dunno) For example, you have a headache, I can probably do something for you WITHOUT taking an aleve/tylenol. but if you want them I can give them anyways 😉."
 
Lol, man I have no sympathy for the kind of responses you are going to get for making this thread. Not only are there thousands of existing threads that have this same question being answered, but there is an ACTIVE thread on the first page of this sub forum! Just look before you start a whole new redundant post, lol.

P.S. A D.O. Is a fully licensed physicians in the U.S. And has equivalent practice rights as a M.D. The only difference is the OMM and the philosophy (somewhat).
 
OrdinaryDO said:
Lol, man I have no sympathy for the kind of responses you are going to get for making this thread. Not only are there thousands of existing threads that have this same question being answered, but there is an ACTIVE thread on the first page of this sub forum! Just look before you start a whole new redundant post, lol.

P.S. A D.O. Is a fully licensed physicians in the U.S. And has equivalent practice rights as a M.D. The only difference is the OMM and the philosophy (somewhat).
Click to expand...
Thank you and I apologize. I'll be using this explanation as it is the most concise.

Sent from my SM-G920T using SDN mobile
 
ctran019 said:
I'm having a difficult time explaining the DO degree to my parents and family members who don't know anything about the medical field. They don't believe it is a medical degree and think I'm referring to becoming a chiropractor when I mention OMM. Can anyone aptly summarize the degree in a few sentences for the laymen?
Click to expand...

"Relax mom and dad, DO's and MD's make the same amount of money. Look, first search in Google says so" (what I literally did and they laid off of me after lol).
 
Can you practice surgery as a DO? My third cousin on my uncle's side told me that they are like nurses...
 
MDs cure the ailment by looking at the symptoms.

DOs cure the ailment by determining the root cause (other body systems/organs/etc.)
 
ctran019 said:
I'm having a difficult time explaining the DO degree to my parents and family members who don't know anything about the medical field. They don't believe it is a medical degree and think I'm referring to becoming a chiropractor when I mention OMM. Can anyone aptly summarize the degree in a few sentences for the laymen?
Click to expand...

I'm a MD reject.
 
I am unfortunately responsible for resurrecting the post from 2006 that is now on the first page. I tried explaining DO to my stepsiblings and my sister boiled it down to being a chiropractor who can get her the hookup on Botox injections. I haven't bothered to argue past that. Most of the time I stop at "I'm going to medical school" and don't even bother differentiating between DO and MD.

For family, my parents all went to DOs for primary care for a long time, and my stepmother has some specialists that are also DOs, so they understand. My in-laws both distrust medical professionals of all kinds (even though my husband is a nurse) and believe that if a doctor never diagnoses you with something, you don't have it, so we don't even hash out the difference.
 
It's a different branch of Medicine that take a more patient-centric view of practicing medicine.


OR

It's amore hand-on, holistic branch of Medicine.

This is what I tell people when I tell them I'm on faculty at a DO school.

The very first time I told my father-in-law that I was going to get a faculty job at said DO school, he said "Oh, a bone doctor?"



ctran019 said:
I'm having a difficult time explaining the DO degree to my parents and family members who don't know anything about the medical field. They don't believe it is a medical degree and think I'm referring to becoming a chiropractor when I mention OMM. Can anyone aptly summarize the degree in a few sentences for the laymen?
Click to expand...
 
their face when I explain OMM

Are-you-a-wizard.jpg
 
Try explaining Osteopathic Medicine in another language. It was a chaos.
It is all like: 'dang, I know this info only in English.'
So, after explaining, I thought my family had some idea about what this 'Osteopathic' is.
Until recently, my aunt told me 'I heard you are trying to become a Orthopedic specialist!'

Guess I failed.
 
"Its a separate pathway from MD with a slightly different philosophy but we basically have the same residencies and end up with the same jobs in the end"

I try to stay away from mentioning the word 'holistic' because that makes people think pseudoscience.
 
It's a way for people who don't have/want to the the crazy grades needed for MD school to get into primary care. Not one of the DOs I know actually bought in the "holistic approach to medicine" bs
That being said DOs in general seem to be pretty chill dudes, much more so than MDs.
 
Last edited:
Saito said:
It's a way for people who don't have/want to the the crazy grades needed for MD school to get into primary care. Not one of the DOs I know actually bought in the "holistic approach to medicine" bs
That being said DOs in general seem to be pretty chill dudes, much more so than MDs.
Click to expand...

Huh?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
"I'm an MD who specialized in the musculoskeletal system during medical school"
 
AkhandBharat said:
"I'm an MD who specialized in the musculoskeletal system during medical school"
Click to expand...

That's actually dangerous, since many state laws prohibit using the title MD unless you've graduated from an allopathic school. You could get into trouble there if you get a disgruntled patient who feels you've misled them.
 
AkhandBharat said:
wouldn't document it or put it on a nametag
Click to expand...

Yeah. It might still fall under the state law though. Gotta check. I believe CA for example says any advertisement of being an MD, which includes word of mouth, is prohibited. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what it says.
 
ctran019 said:
I'm having a difficult time explaining the DO degree to my parents and family members who don't know anything about the medical field. They don't believe it is a medical degree and think I'm referring to becoming a chiropractor when I mention OMM. Can anyone aptly summarize the degree in a few sentences for the laymen?
Click to expand...

I'm a Canadian, so no one in my family even heard the word 'osteopathic' in their life before I mentioned it. However when I explained it, I simply said that different countries have different Medical Degrees to become a Physician. In Canada it is MD, in USA it is DO and MD, and in Australia/UK/Hong Kong it is the MBBS. All three of these Medical Degrees are earned through Medical School and allow you to practice the full scope of medicine.

I don't mention OMM/OMT to prevent further confusion. After saying that my family said congratulations!
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
That's actually dangerous, since many state laws prohibit using the title MD unless you've graduated from an allopathic school. You could get into trouble there if you get a disgruntled patient who feels you've misled them.
Click to expand...

Nah thats a myth. Pretending you are licensed to do a job like being a physician when you are not licensed is a good way to run afoul of the law but no court would ever take the "he is a fully licensed physician but he implied he went to a different school than he did" argument seriously. Still would lose a lot of respect in the community by doing that though
 
Nesrizona said:
I'm a Canadian, so no one in my family even heard the word 'osteopathic' in their life before I mentioned it. However when I explained it, I simply said that different countries have different Medical Degrees to become a Physician. In Canada it is MD, in USA it is DO and MD, and in Australia/UK/Hong Kong it is the MBBS. All three of these Medical Degrees are earned through Medical School and allow you to practice the full scope of medicine.

I don't mention OMM/OMT to prevent further confusion. After saying that my family said congratulations!
Click to expand...
Good explanation actually
 
It is kind of annoying honestly.. I tell people all excitedly "I got accepted to NYCOM and I'm going to be a doctor!" and they're like "what does NYCOM stand for?" and as soon as I say "new york college of osteopathic medicine" they get that "what is this quackery?" look because they've never heard of OM before.
 
acapnial said:
Nah thats a myth. Pretending you are licensed to do a job like being a physician when you are not licensed is a good way to run afoul of the law but no court would ever take the "he is a fully licensed physician but he implied he went to a different school than he did" argument seriously. Still would lose a lot of respect in the community by doing that though
Click to expand...

Yeah you're probably right. But as you said, you'd still look ****ty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
adcoms, how much do you value publications?
Replies
3
Views
1K
Goro
Goro
Mr.Smile12
[MSUCOM] So you want to be a DO/PhD? (from Research Scientists forum)
Replies
0
Views
263
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
M
Apply DO or wait a year to apply DO + MD
Replies
5
Views
2K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
B
Smart to apply to DO school?
Replies
11
Views
1K
bananabuttercup
B
Mr.Smile12
[NYT] What's a DO?
Replies
5
Views
960
Angus Avagadro
Angus Avagadro
Top