Her thoughts were that the biggest problems with all this is that as of right now, they cannot recruit interns for next year, as it could take up to 6 months to get the residency programs approved at St. Francis. So that really stinks for the 4th year med students. But, I trust that it will be resolved and I'm still going for OSU as my top pick.
Right now no current resident has a spot for next year since nothing is approved and this was the first meeting AOA actually had since the school didn't discuss with the AOA previously. If you think this is only going to affect 4th year med students you are sorely mistaken. This has been an issue since TRMC became OSUMC and that was 2005/6. I feel bad for those of you that aren't weighing this heavily. As someone who was solely considering OSU-COM where my husband graduated a few years ago but we had to move for his residency, I am sighing with relief that I did NOT go to OSU. This is going to be an issue over the next few YEARS not months. Do you realize that OSUMC will collapse since they will lose most of their staff/residents? There will be NO block core rotations in Tulsa. You will be shipped out and displaced at 'non'-academic medical centers which
will hurt your education. Do you know how long Joplin has had residencies? 1 year. You can't all go to St. Anthony's especially if the class is growing. If you want to do all your rotations down in Durant, and good gracious I hope you would know better from some of the review down there
😉 , or somewhere else 3 hrs outside of Tulsa that's fine. But MANY local students liked the fact that Tulsa was local and you could stay in the area and not be shipped out all over the place like KCUMB, DMU-COM, etc. If you notice the trend it to try to have your medical education in one place like MOST ALL MD schools. Ask the people at VCOM how expensive it is (and TIRING) to move around every month in your 4th year and live out of your car.
Heed the advice on here and taking a hard second thought. Going to a school that currently has rotations up in the air is like going to one of the new schools. Its a gamble on your education. If you're paying $80K for an education, it better be a damn good one in my opinion. OSU-COM has ok basic sciences compared to other schools (which they were working on but its a slow process) but their rotations were the strong point IMO. They gave you flexibility, location, and great exposure to primary care and rural/underserved medicine. Part of the reason that Ardent pushed back on OSU so much was due to the fact that OSUMC couldn't turn a profit because of the charity care (always last place hospital in financial standing). It was a great location attached to a great school with dated facilities. The fact that OSU-COM just lost its main affliate hospital is a HUGE blow in the reflection of the current administration and state legislative officials. I hope you see that if OSU can't support its graduates and protect its residencies, how is it going to secure the future of prospective students? They (the administration) will downplay this of course. But if you talk to the residents (and ask them about the turnover of the staff the past 3 years and the HUGE issues over the past year) and the 3rd/4th yr students, you will find that OSUMC was a train wreck waiting to happen long before this last huge and final blow. Feel free to search on this forum or the osteopathic forum how this has been discussed for the past few years. They had issues the last few years and some applicants were turned off and chose other locations
Take the time to try to see the issues about this. Especially since some of the key supporters of this school on SDN are warning you. At least you can be aware and know what to ask when you go to interviews. You can ask the students what they've heard and how it plans on being resolved. Although they won't know much more than is "published" on the school website because they are tight-lipped about this issue. There are only a handful of hospital systems in Tulsa and you are competing with OU on many levels. This isn't a "long term" solution as if you had your own hospital which OSU has been with TRMC for quite a bit of time. This is an issue now and will be an issue in the future. OU has residents at St. Francis too (OSU-COM's current option for hospital) and the only other hospital system is solely OU students.
There are many people that have families and children in school in Tulsa. They own houses and have mortgages. They are settled and were hoping to stay in the area for school and residency, maybe even continue the osteopathic tradition to teach others from their alma mater as many current grads have done. My heart goes out to all the residents in this difficult time and I hope that OSU-COM wakes up and decides to pull through for current and future residents/students.
, but after going through my medical education, I'd strongly suggest you think long and hard about going to a school which is allowing it's residencies to become unhinged and in a state who's state legislature seems to care more about the competing medical school's funding than your education as a lowly D.O.
