How would adcoms look at an applicant who shadowed a chiropractor for a decent amount of time?

[LSD-25]

A while ago I talked to someone who compared OMT and chiropractic treatments, and I was pretty curious about it, so I shadowed and volunteered with a chiropractor. I know OMT and chiropractic treatments have significant differences, but it was a pretty informative and interesting experience. Would it be okay to include something like this? It definitely allowed me to gain a broader experience of possible treatments. Even though chiropractic medicine may not be given the most positive view, I think I thought it was a cool experience.

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[AlteredScale]

A while ago I talked to someone who compared OMT and chiropractic treatments, and I was pretty curious about it, so I shadowed and volunteered with a chiropractor. I know OMT and chiropractic treatments have significant differences, but it was a pretty informative and interesting experience. Would it be okay to include something like this? It definitely allowed me to gain a broader experience of possible treatments. Even though chiropractic medicine may not be given the most positive view, I think I thought it was a cool experience.

I wouldn't include it. You could get a mixed bag of reactions by having that on your app (see red above) and you do not want to risk that being the thing that gets your app tossed to the waitlist/hold for later pile.

Stick with listing physician shadowing (MD/DO) on your applications.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

It's like saying you shadowed a nurse. It makes no sense. You put things relevant to the position you're after.

 

[yanks26dmb]

Definitely do not include....imo.

 

[Goro]

It would say to me that you have no concept of what Osteopathy is, and/or that you really want to be a chiropractor.

I'll disagree with my young colleague Albino and say it's more like following a Naturopath around.

 

[LChristmas]

I'll go against the grain a little bit here and say that it depends what made it, "a pretty informative and interesting experience." I started off my pre-health journey wanting to be a chiro (like a decade ago), so it was a part of my path that lead me into wanting to go DO. To date, my only exposure to manipulative medicine is through chiropractic treatment because I live in an area with very few DOs. This part of my story fit in with the overall narrative of my entire application. It was brought up during my interview and I must have done a good job of explaining myself.

An easy way to discuss your situation would be to say that you wanted to expose yourself to different fields within health care to solidify your decision to become a physician.

 

[umfc7181]

I'll go against the grain a little bit here and say that it depends what made it, "a pretty informative and interesting experience." I started off my pre-health journey wanting to be a chiro (like a decade ago), so it was a part of my path that lead me into wanting to go DO. To date, my only exposure to manipulative medicine is through chiropractic treatment because I live in an area with very few DOs. This part of my story fit in with the overall narrative of my entire application. It was brought up during my interview and I must have done a good job of explaining myself.

An easy way to discuss your situation would be to say that you wanted to expose yourself to different fields within health care to solidify your decision to become a physician.

This. While I agree with Goro and did not put it on my primary application, many talks that I had with adcoms about why I wanted to pursue DO school was my prior exposure of manual medicine in different settings (close family friend chiro, anatomy professor very good pt...ext plus they personally pushed me towards DO which gave them a lot of credit for me) THEN being exposed to OMM and appreciating how a DO can treat with many unique modalities on top of having Unlimited ability to pursue essentially any other speciality / area of medicine.

I personally know a chiropractor and a prior pt in my class. I think discussing your experiences might be best in a interview setting maybe not so much on a primary app. As long as you prove you really understand the profession and come off as geuinine you should be fine.

( apologies for spelling)