Oooopsie, I just prescribed a toxic combination of medications, misdiagnosed a condition leading to death or disability etc. - but I was compassionate and diligent!
I have medics who are compassionate and diligent - important but not enough. The point isn't that DO's are stupid etc. The point is the more you lower standards - undeniably that is what is happening in the DO world with the addition of new and poorly regulated DO schools - you will without a doubt have weaker applicants and graduates, a fact. These weaker students now are at a significant disadvantage if they don't have the aptitude. My concern has been, and everyone I work with concurs, that the quality of new physicians coming into the military is very poor. Poor to the level that even the most idealistic among us can't figure out how they are going to be safe and fear leaving the hospital at night. This does not bode well for the system.
We have E-5's recruiting doctors who have no goal other than to put a warm body into the military. I've met several who told me they don't even call on MD schools because it is easier to recruit from the DO's schools.
Why would any business, hospital system want to recruit from an unproven, school especially given the very poor track record of the new DO programs? All DO schools are not created equal, some are much better than others, and I should point out some US MD schools also produce fairly poor quality grads. Even DO's concede that graduates from the top tier DO schools ala PCOM (not the metastatic one in Ga) are stronger on average than from the start ups. Again, enough with the PC baloney - recruit from a weak school and you increase your risk of getting substandard doctors. This shouldn't be that hard to figure out.
The real disgrace is that fact that we are ignoring that which is blatantly obvious. The quality of our HPSP grads is not what it was and we are turning a blind eye to it. Some of this (not all) is a DO phenomenon.
DO student here, happen to agree with him outside of his rather harsh first post in which he made a gross generalization regarding our inability to be trained and that all DO's were a 'plague on military medicine'...but forgive and forget. there's a big problem right now, with DO schools popping up left and right, schools of...dubious quality that are starting to resemble a lot of the schools in the caribbean where it seems like it's just an extended board prep course. they'd be a lot better served to focus on developing whatever facilities/rotation sites/institutions they have currently than popping off another two or so satellite campuses. I also have come across a few classmates that have shocked me. "Wow they're going to be a doctor someday" and that's scary. However, on the brighter side, I have classmates that continually impress and I have no doubt that they will be fine doctors one day. I'm sure MDs can connect with this as well.
either way, a little off topic, but the "short bus analogy" isn't really necessary/accurate here. No one is questioning that it's easier to get into DO schools, but are you so far removed from the days of applying to forget how much of a crap shoot it was?
My stats weren't perfect, but they weren't below average by any standards, I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do with my life at 20, let alone know really why I wanted to go into medicine as a young, immature kid, which led to wasted opportunities and not taking the application process seriously. Sometimes it doesn't happen the way you want it to, but I wasn't about to keep my pride at the expense of my dream. In the end, I'm thankful for DO schools because if they didn't exist, I wouldn't be where I am today.
Making another generalization by de-valuing a DO student for being the top of his class (and destroying the boards) by attributing it to being at a DO school is unnecessary. Using similar logic, a MD student at a top institution with low passes all throughout, barely passing board scores should still be proud because he was lucky enough to get into a place like that in the first place? Pshhh, give me a break. I earned my 240 on the USMLE, and because of talks like this, I will continue to encourage fellow DOs to take it or else risk the occasional scrutiny that comes along. In qwerty's defense, he later said pretty much the same thing in that he has recognized the exceptional DO's that he has come across, but still.
Anyways, despite his harsh/blunt/brash message, his concerns are valid.
