The 3rd and 4th year of Osteopathic Medical Education is an interesting beast with both pros and cons. I'm a third-year LECOM-Erie and I have spent the last 6 months traveling between Philadelphia-Scranton-New York and I am now currently in Pittsburgh. Obviously the downside to this situation is that I have not had a residence to call my own for the past six months and probably won't until residency. However I feel that these experiences will help me in the long run because I have been able to meet an enumerable amount of residents and attendings.
I think the most interesting thing about the last 6 months is that I have essentially received a "backdoor" allopathic medical education. My first two months were spent with general surgery residents from Jefferson, my third month was an elective at Mt. Sinai in NYC, fourth was a vacation month, fifth was through the Scranton-Temple (Temple University) Residency Program and my current rotation is at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh which is a major clinical campus for Temple University.
My question is: Where is the consistency?
Bouncing around from hospital to hospital you have a difficult time figuring out how to use computer systems or building significant relationships with attendings. The "education" varies from hospital to hospital and is clearly dependent on the amount of teaching the residents feel like doing. After doing a month at a major academic medical center, I can clearly see our education as osteopathic medical students is not as consistent as it should be. Our counterparts receive lectures, have mentors and have well-developed relationships with clinical faculty.
Sadly when osteopathic medical schools send their students to institutions that are primary affiliates of allopathic medical students, we, the osteopathic medical students, are given the scraps. I have seen several students show up for their first day of their medicine clerkship only to be thrown in with a cardiologist. At the time this may seem like an amazing opportunity, but the fact is you are not learning general medicine on a cardiology service. It is clear that such situations ultimately hurt our education.
In the short term I feel the structure of the current 3rd/4th year curriculum will help me find the residency I want. This feeling is substantiated by the fact that over the past several years we have matched students at prestigious and competitive programs in both the osteopathic and allopathic matches.
In the long term I feel this structure will hurt osteopathic medicine. Our counterparts in the allopathic medical schools frequently give off the vibe that we are invading their institutions and "stealing" their education - and rightly so. There are too few osteopathic hospitals left to support a purely osteopathic medical education and unless schools begin to notice this, our education will continue to become more and more allopathic.
Fortunately I have a good grasp and gestalt take on what is occurring and find myself taking full advantage of the opportunities I'm given. Conversely I know there are many in my class that will not be able to see these opportunities when they are presented to them and will suffer because they are not in a structured, consistent education setting which they would have received had they gone to an allopathic medical school.
Well I suppose that is enough for now. Please PM me if you have any questions about my experience so far.
