Keeping up with OMT during rotations?

[Terpskins99]

Hi gang. The hospital I'm rotating at has pretty much zero OMT incorporated in their instruction. Nearly all of the residents are MD's, and the handful of DO attendings that are there exercise no OMT whatsoever.

There is a DO school relatively close to my location. Do you think they'd mind if I stopped by for UAAO meetings and whatnot? Has anybody else tried this? Mostly I just want to be around other people that are practicing/learning OMT to brush up on my own skills.

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[DOSouthpaw]

I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you stopped by and hung out at the UAAO. Why aren't you doing OMT on your patients during your rotations? Who cares if all of your preceptors are MDs, just DO it. That's what I did. Except for a couple of rotations all of my preceptors were MDs. I still treated over 60% of the patients I saw and I did an Osteopathic screen on just about everyone. Remember, you've had a minimum of 120 hours of Osteopathic training during your first 2 years, that's more training than you will have in any other procedure that you will ever do, so put it to use.

 

[Northerner]

I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you stopped by and hung out at the UAAO. Why aren't you doing OMT on your patients during your rotations? Who cares if all of your preceptors are MDs, just DO it. That's what I did. Except for a couple of rotations all of my preceptors were MDs. I still treated over 60% of the patients I saw and I did an Osteopathic screen on just about everyone. Remember, you've had a minimum of 120 hours of Osteopathic training during your first 2 years, that's more training than you will have in any other procedure that you will ever do, so put it to use.

Whoa, I don't know about that....

 

[DOSouthpaw]

Whoa, I don't know about that....

In medical school, this is definitely the most time you'll spend learning a procedure. Let me go over my medical school procedural training after which I was expected to do it and was successful


-Lumbar Puncture- I saw one, have done many.
-CVC- about a 10 min lecture while I watched one, have done many.
-Chest Tube- Same as CVC except I got to watch two, have done many.
-Radial Line- Watched one, done many
-Thoracentesis- just told how to do it without watching one and have done many
-Shoulder/Knee/SI/Spinal Facet Injections- Saw One of each, done hundreds
-BLS/ACLS Protocols- 8 hours of lecture/practice, I did not run a code as a student but many as an intern
-RSI Intubation-Watched 2, done many
-Shave Biopsy- saw one, done many
-Excisional Biopsy-Saw One, done many
-Lac Repair- Saw One- showed the ER doc I could do one on a practice board, have done many
-Removal of Avulsed Toenail with Matrix destruction-Saw one, have done many
OMT-120 hours of supervised training by a board certified OMM specialist...I'm too scared to do this life threatening proceedure on a patient...nope! done thousands

As an intern/resident:
-Botox injections- Took a 2 hour AMA accredited course, now doing it
-Chemical Peels- Took a 2 hour AMA Accredited course, now doing it
-Exercise Stress Testing- took an 8 hour AMA Accedited course, now doing it
-Vasectomy- Saw two, now doing them

As you can see OMT is the most benign procedure that you will learn in medical school, the most helpful in the outpatient setting, and the most hours spent learning it. No excuses.

 

[Northerner]

In medical school, this is definitely the most time you'll spend learning a procedure. Let me go over my medical school procedural training after which I was expected to do it and was successful


-Lumbar Puncture- I saw one, have done many.
-CVC- about a 10 min lecture while I watched one, have done many.
-Chest Tube- Same as CVC except I got to watch two, have done many.
-Radial Line- Watched one, done many
-Thoracentesis- just told how to do it without watching one and have done many
-Shoulder/Knee/SI/Spinal Facet Injections- Saw One of each, done hundreds
-BLS/ACLS Protocols- 8 hours of lecture/practice, I did not run a code as a student but many as an intern
-RSI Intubation-Watched 2, done many
-Shave Biopsy- saw one, done many
-Excisional Biopsy-Saw One, done many
-Lac Repair- Saw One- showed the ER doc I could do one on a practice board, have done many
-Removal of Avulsed Toenail with Matrix destruction-Saw one, have done many
OMT-120 hours of supervised training by a board certified OMM specialist...I'm too scared to do this life threatening proceedure on a patient...nope! done thousands

As an intern/resident:
-Botox injections- Took a 2 hour AMA accredited course, now doing it
-Chemical Peels- Took a 2 hour AMA Accredited course, now doing it
-Exercise Stress Testing- took an 8 hour AMA Accedited course, now doing it
-Vasectomy- Saw two, now doing them

As you can see OMT is the most benign procedure that you will learn in medical school, the most helpful in the outpatient setting, and the most hours spent learning it. No excuses.

Oh. You didn't say "in medical school", you said "...in any other procedure that you will ever do."

 

[Old_Mil]

Hi gang. The hospital I'm rotating at has pretty much zero OMT incorporated in their instruction. Nearly all of the residents are MD's, and the handful of DO attendings that are there exercise no OMT whatsoever.

Welcome to the real world of medicine.

 

[S_Talos]

Welcome to the real world of medicine.

So OMT isn't practiced in the "real world" of medicine? That's too bad.
At least we know it is in the "real world" of osteopathic medicine.

I'm going with DOSouthpaw on this one.

 

[star23]

Old Mil is right on this one.
C'mon seriously, people: OMT is maintained by a FRACTION of the medical profession--a minority of DOs, specifically.

The pathetic thing--Talos--is that you perceive osteopathic medicine to be some distinct entity.

And southpaw--the only thing you're proving is that we spend too much time on OMT when things like BLS/ACLS require much less time.

If you can study for 8 hours and save someone's life with your BLS skills, you sure as hell don't need 120 hrs of OMT to pop a rib!

 

[schrute]

Old Mil is right on this one.
C'mon seriously, people: OMT is maintained by a FRACTION of the medical profession--a minority of DOs, specifically.

The pathetic thing--Talos--is that you perceive osteopathic medicine to be some distinct entity.

And southpaw--the only thing you're proving is that we spend too much time on OMT when things like BLS/ACLS require much less time.

If you can study for 8 hours and save someone's life with your BLS skills, you sure as hell don't need 120 hrs of OMT to pop a rib!

my bad--that was my post. forgot to sign off my friend's username.

 

[S_Talos]

Old Mil is right on this one.
C'mon seriously, people: OMT is maintained by a FRACTION of the medical profession--a minority of DOs, specifically.

The pathetic thing--Talos--is that you perceive osteopathic medicine to be some distinct entity.

And southpaw--the only thing you're proving is that we spend too much time on OMT when things like BLS/ACLS require much less time.

If you can study for 8 hours and save someone's life with your BLS skills, you sure as hell don't need 120 hrs of OMT to pop a rib!

Osteopathic medicine, by definition, is distinct from allopathic medicine, otherwise why would you be here arguing? You are absolutely right that many DO's practice allopathic medicine only, and that may diminish the profession's distinctiveness, but it still exists and is practiced by many DO's, whether you like it or not.

I also disagree that time spent on OMT is time wasted, you are grossly oversimplifying its uses. As for comparing BLS skills to OMT, obviously saving lives is a good thing, but I think that physicians should set the bar higher than that and do much more for their patients; am I wrong?

 

[schrute]

Osteopathic medicine, by definition, is distinct from allopathic medicine, otherwise why would you be here arguing? You are absolutely right that many DO's practice allopathic medicine only, and that may diminish the profession's distinctiveness, but it still exists and is practiced by many DO's, whether you like it or not.

I also disagree that time spent on OMT is time wasted, you are grossly oversimplifying its uses. As for comparing BLS skills to OMT, obviously saving lives is a good thing, but I think that physicians should set the bar higher than that and do much more for their patients; am I wrong?

maybe by definition but not in actuality.

and my only point was that claiming--as southpaw did--that "I only did 8 hrs of BLS training and am saving lives" is a completely stupid thing to say and does nothing to further any argument about how much time comparatively you spend learning OMT.

it's a stupid comparison.

 

[homeboy]

The number of hours you spend learning a procedure has nothing to do with mastering a procedure.

You may perform a FNA after seeing one, or perform an appy after watching the chief do one, but that sure as hell doesn't mean you've mastered the procedure and will be doing them unsupervised.

Conversely, spending "x" number of hours in MEDICAL SCHOOL "qualifies" one to perform OMT.

You guys are comparing apples to oranges.

The osteopathic profession distinct? Only in terms of the letters on your white coat.

 

[DOSouthpaw]

maybe by definition but not in actuality.

and my only point was that claiming--as southpaw did--that "I only did 8 hrs of BLS training and am saving lives" is a completely stupid thing to say and does nothing to further any argument about how much time comparatively you spend learning OMT.

it's a stupid comparison.

Acutally, that is NOT what I said and you put the "I only did 8 hrs of BLS training and am saving lives" words into my mouth because that is not the comparison I was making at all. I was talking about comfort. I am saying that as Osteopathic students/interns, we are given 8 hours of BLS training and expected to do it and we do it without batting an eye, yet we receive 120+ hours of OMT training and "don't feel comfortable" doing it because we "don't know how." It's a bunch of laziness and bull. All Osteopathic students know how to do it, they just need to do so.

Here's another one. I remember when I started my 3rd year rotations and had never done an H&P on anyone other than a classmate in my clinical skills class...sort of like not using OMT on anyone other than in my OMT class. Now what if I decided that....hmmm...I haven't had enough training in doing H&P's and "I don't feel comfortable" doing them...and didn't do them. How do you think that would fly with my preceptor? I think OMT is the same way. When I have a student in my clinic now, I expect every patient to receive an Osteopathic evaluation and then OMT if necessary, or they go back in and do it over.