No experience with OMM

[Phosphorus Ylide]

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Well at least not in a clinical setting. I work with 3 DO's on a regular basis and have over 1000 hours of built-in shadowing experience as part of my job, but it's emergency medicine and I have not once seen OMM done on someone.

I have visited an osteopathic medical school and seen students practicing OMM on each other and thought it was pretty neat.

Will osteopathic schools look unfavorably upon this?

 

[275079]

You don't need to see someone do OMM. I have no experience with OMM, never mentioned it in essays or interviews, and was never asked about it either. I got in.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

Never seen it.

 

[Tuckermans]

Had not seen it before applying (saw it for the first time at an accepted students lunch). I wouldn't worry about it

 

[droogdoc]

Had not seen it before applying (saw it for the first time at an accepted students lunch). I wouldn't worry about it

Me neither, worked with a DO EVERYDAY,12 hours a day (yep..) for 6 months and NEVER saw it until I asked him about it.

 

[p30doc]

Don't worry about it, I never shadowed a DO(I shadowed a MD) let alone saw OMM in action, you will be fine.

 

[Bacchus]

If you can find someone to do it on you, it makes a great talking point though. Not necessary, but relieving to your body and helpful at interviews.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I also worked in an ER with DO's who never use OMM. This probably isn't a big deal.

I think more important than knowing what a DO is is knowing what a DO isn't.

 

[rocketbooster]

so in interviews, they never ask "have you ever seen OMM?"

I feel that you'd look real stupid if you said no....how would you explain why you are interested in osteopathic medicine when you have never seen OMM?

I know most DOs don't practice OMM, but DO schools want them to. Just like many schools want their students to do primary care and most don't. In the interview you don't say "I want to specialize." Know what I'm saying?

 

[275079]

so in interviews, they never ask "have you ever seen OMM?"

I feel that you'd look real stupid if you said no....how would you explain why you are interested in osteopathic medicine when you have never seen OMM?

I know most DOs don't practice OMM, but DO schools want them to. Just like many schools want their students to do primary care and most don't. In the interview you don't say "I want to specialize." Know what I'm saying?

You tell them you want to be a doctor.

 

[rocketbooster]

You tell them you want to be a doctor.

yeah but then they say "why don't you go to an MD school then?" what are you going to say back..."because I couldn't get into a MD school?" the reason you're supposed to be applying DO is because you want to be a DO, but if you don't care about OMM there is no reason to go DO whatsoever. know what I mean? how would you explain that?

I would think the interviewer would be very critical of this issue in the interview. But maybe not? I have never interviewed at a DO school so IDK yet.

You could try to say "because I want to do primary care and DO schools produce excellent primary care docs." the problem with that is you can also do that by going MD...so....

 

[275079]

yeah but then they say "why don't you go to an MD school then?" what are you going to say back..."because I couldn't get into a MD school?" the reason you're supposed to be applying DO is because you want to be a DO, but if you don't care about OMM there is no reason to go DO whatsoever. know what I mean? how would you explain that?

I would think the interviewer would be very critical of this issue in the interview. But maybe not? I have never interviewed at a DO school so IDK yet.

You could try to say "because I want to do primary care and DO schools produce excellent primary care docs." the problem with that is you can also do that by going MD...so....

I told them I was interested in specializing, not interested in primary care. I had a mentor who was a DO specialist, and he brought the field to my attention. I admired him as a physician, that's why I began investigating DO schools. As far as MD vs DO, I told them should I be fortunate enough to get accepted to more than one medical school, I would evaluate each on its merits, not whether it was MD or DO. Believe it or not, there are some very good DO schools out there that have better reputations than many MD schools (PCOM and CCOM come to mind, but there are others).

You think DO schools want an automaton idiot who regurgitates the old hackneyed OMM PCP nonsense? No, they want the best and brightest.

 

[Phosphorus Ylide]

I told them I was interested in specializing, not interested in primary care. I had a mentor who was a DO specialist, and he brought the field to my attention. I admired him as a physician, that's why I began investigating DO schools. As far as MD vs DO, I told them should I be fortunate enough to get accepted to more than one medical school, I would evaluate each on its merits, not whether it was MD or DO. Believe it or not, there are some very good DO schools out there that have better reputations than many MD schools (PCOM and CCOM come to mind, but there are others).

You think DO schools want an automaton idiot who regurgitates the old hackneyed OMM PCP nonsense? No, they want the best and brightest.

I like this.

I had never given osteopathy a serious thought before working at my current job. After spending my entire 8 hour shifts working alongside a physician for a year, I have seen that some of our best and brightest docs are DOs. If I could be nearly as talented a physician as the two that come to mind, I wouldn't care if there was DO or MD after my title.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

The fact of the matter is, while you think you may want to specialize in whatever, rather than go into primary care, you may change your mind. I worked in the ER for a long time back home before school, I'm president of the EM interest group, and I'm doing emergency medicine research this summer at one of the nation's busiest level 1 trauma centers. So you could say that I'm interested in EM. But I'm not going to pretend that I know enough about medicine in other areas to say that I know for sure that i'll end up in EM.

Just like you with OMM. You don't have to know a lot about it to say that it interests you. Even if you've seen it done, or had it done to you, you won't understand any of the physiology behind it unless you've studied kinesiology or athletic training or something similar. But if you say you're interested in cardiac physiology, does that mean you have to know how to do an echo?

You're pre-meds. You're not expected to know ****. And if you sit down at your interview with some OMM guru who has been doing it for 30 years, and you start talking out your ass about OMM (or any other aspect of medicine), you're going to look like a ******. But that doesn't mean you can't be interested. Just get a basic knowledge of what it is and why its done. Come to your interview with questions about it. This is not a big deal.

"I work with DO's in the ED, but have never seen it done. However, I've read a little and talked about it to them a little, and it seems like it has a legitimate place in certain aspects of medicine, and it interests me" is a viable thing to say, in my opinion.

 

[slick27]

remember that osteopathy was developed with the thought that structure and function are interralated. that will impress you're interviewer.