Osteopathic Medicine PS? Help!

[PA_dud3]

Hi All,

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these difficult times. With a lot of time at home and being circa 1 year out from my app season, I have decided to devote some time to my PS. I would love some help in this regard (brainstorming) if you guys wouldn't mind. I posted a thread a while back with some similar ideas but I have expanded on them, I believe, so I felt a new post was warranted. Keep in mind this is not an actual draft, just spitballing more or less. Thank you in advance!

So, obviously I plan on applying to (mostly) DO schools. I don't have a dead-set reason on doing this, I just admire how a lot of DO schools seem to really push primary care and the OMM stuff actually interests me. I have really no desire for being an uber competitive specialist or surgeon. After a lot of work and shadowing of a Nephrologist and a decent amount in Family Practice I am fairly confident I would be comfortable practicing as a Nephrologist for the rest of my life, but I would be willing to keep an open mind throughout medical school and residency.

Additionally, I feel that because of my experiences in Nephrology so far and my general knowledge of OMM, that I would like to eventually integrate OMM into at least a small part of my future career as a Nephrologist, as a lot of renal patients I have seen suffer from things like chronic pain, arthritis, circulation issues, etc. I feel like OMM could at the very least provide some relief in these areas, as renal patients are often unable to take medications that are typically recommended for things such as joint pain, back pain, and diabetic neuropathy (which are all very common in renal patients from what I have seen). I feel like this may be an interesting area where OMM could give patients relief. Would it be a bad idea mentioning this in a PS?

Because of the DO mindset towards primary care, I would like to work this in to my career goals in some form, but obviously Nephrology isn't technically primary care. Is there some way of connecting the two? I though since renal patients often rely on their nephrologist as a sort of primary care physician I could mention that, but I am unsure. (With this I mean I often see nephrologists managing things which are not necessarily kidney related such as mental health issues, diet, exercise, lifestyle, medication management and adherence, and pain management).

Lastly, I would like to mention my draw to nephrology in general, as I feel that the renal patient population is more or less forgotten about today, and ESRD and Dialysis is treated along the same lines as something like terminal cancer where there is very little hope for a continued, quality life. I feel like I would like to contribute to this (neglected?) patient population and help people to live their fullest possible lives despite their illnesses. And I think the DO model of treating the patient as a whole aligns well with this and the above. I could be wrong, however.

Would I come off as naive or uninformed writing any of this in a PS meant primarily for DO schools? I know everyone is not supposed to have a specialty in mind off the bat but I really am passionate about what I do from my work experience (3+ years by the time I apply) and extensive shadowing to say these things. I also feel like once I formulate them into a coherent PS they would do a decent job of saying "why medicine?". What would your input be regarding all of this? Is there anything you would leave out or would you scrap the whole thing? Does it sound corny? Sorry for the long write up but I would greatly value your input in this regard.

Thanks so much,

Dd3.

@Goro @Angus Avagadro @AnatomyGrey12 @sb247 @PapaGuava
(sorry for the tags or if I'm bothering you in advance)

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[DrPatrickStar]

A personal statement is what its name is, something personal you want to share to schools and let them know more about yourself. While its obvious nephrology is important to you, to write your whole personal statement about this to me would be a bad way to represent yourself. Is it wrong to have a PS geared towards DO? Not at all. My MD and DO ones were almost identical with a paragraph or two sharing my experiences of osteopathic medicine. I can tell you're passionate about one speciality but you're not applying to nephrology school. I talked about my experience in the ER in my PS but never once did I make it obvious that I want to be an ER doc. A PS to me should be an overview of yourself in the form of a narrative and how whatever you write about made you want to pursue medicine and be the best doc you could be.

 

[choks]

I didn't write a PS specifically for osteopathic medicine. That's why you have the secondary character count to fill.

My PS mainly answered the "why medicine" and "how you know what you're in for" questions. Best of luck!

 

[deleted480308]

Hi All,

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these difficult times. With a lot of time at home and being circa 1 year out from my app season, I have decided to devote some time to my PS. I would love some help in this regard (brainstorming) if you guys wouldn't mind. I posted a thread a while back with some similar ideas but I have expanded on them, I believe, so I felt a new post was warranted. Keep in mind this is not an actual draft, just spitballing more or less. Thank you in advance!

So, obviously I plan on applying to (mostly) DO schools. I don't have a dead-set reason on doing this, I just admire how a lot of DO schools seem to really push primary care and the OMM stuff actually interests me. I have really no desire for being an uber competitive specialist or surgeon. After a lot of work and shadowing of a Nephrologist and a decent amount in Family Practice I am fairly confident I would be comfortable practicing as a Nephrologist for the rest of my life, but I would be willing to keep an open mind throughout medical school and residency.

Additionally, I feel that because of my experiences in Nephrology so far and my general knowledge of OMM, that I would like to eventually integrate OMM into at least a small part of my future career as a Nephrologist, as a lot of renal patients I have seen suffer from things like chronic pain, arthritis, circulation issues, etc. I feel like OMM could at the very least provide some relief in these areas, as renal patients are often unable to take medications that are typically recommended for things such as joint pain, back pain, and diabetic neuropathy (which are all very common in renal patients from what I have seen). I feel like this may be an interesting area where OMM could give patients relief. Would it be a bad idea mentioning this in a PS?

Because of the DO mindset towards primary care, I would like to work this in to my career goals in some form, but obviously Nephrology isn't technically primary care. Is there some way of connecting the two? I though since renal patients often rely on their nephrologist as a sort of primary care physician I could mention that, but I am unsure. (With this I mean I often see nephrologists managing things which are not necessarily kidney related such as mental health issues, diet, exercise, lifestyle, medication management and adherence, and pain management).

Lastly, I would like to mention my draw to nephrology in general, as I feel that the renal patient population is more or less forgotten about today, and ESRD and Dialysis is treated along the same lines as something like terminal cancer where there is very little hope for a continued, quality life. I feel like I would like to contribute to this (neglected?) patient population and help people to live their fullest possible lives despite their illnesses. And I think the DO model of treating the patient as a whole aligns well with this and the above. I could be wrong, however.

Would I come off as naive or uninformed writing any of this in a PS meant primarily for DO schools? I know everyone is not supposed to have a specialty in mind off the bat but I really am passionate about what I do from my work experience (3+ years by the time I apply) and extensive shadowing to say these things. I also feel like once I formulate them into a coherent PS they would do a decent job of saying "why medicine?". What would your input be regarding all of this? Is there anything you would leave out or would you scrap the whole thing? Does it sound corny? Sorry for the long write up but I would greatly value your input in this regard.

Thanks so much,

Dd3.

@Goro @Angus Avagadro @AnatomyGrey12 @sb247 @PapaGuava
(sorry for the tags or if I'm bothering you in advance)

Nephrology almost is primary care in terms of how much a part of their life that you become.

Omm is the price you must pay sometimes to get through med school, it is not a reason to choose a school. If you get in an MD school you should go there

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Nephrology almost is primary care in terms of how much a part of their life that you become.

Omm is the price you must pay sometimes to get through med school, it is not a reason to choose a school. If you get in an MD school you should go there

Any MD schools minus CNU. I would go to any good DO school over CNU.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Some decent advice in the above. A personal statement is about YOU. What appeals to you about medicine? Why MD or DO would be a good fit for you and the particular school where applicable. I would not emphasize the nephrology aspect too much as I would focus more on primary care. I would check Charting Outcomes and look at the DO match rate for nephrology.
Remember, there is a good chance in all likelihood, you will end up in another specialty other than nephrology. People find other specialties they like more than what they thought they would like as an undergrad .
Despite the self loathing DO remarks on SDN, DOs matched pretty well this year. If you go DO, keep in mind you will need to work harder to get training outside of general primary care specialties. Good luck and best wishes!