You drank allllll the Kool-Aid, didn't ya?
You're still early in. Give it some time. You'll get out on rotations, work with DOs and MDs, and not be able to tell them apart (aside from the random DO like you who drank all the red stuff and still has some lingering residual deficits).
There is no difference in philosophy. That's just something your school tells you. Great physicians treat patients exactly the same.
The sooner you extinguish that "separate but equal" attitude that your post is based upon the better. You can't have it both ways.
Why can't you have "different but equal". Sure "separate but equal" is probably a bit harder. But you can be different, looking at patients from a different angle, have a different "toolbox", yet retain all the same and equal rights, respect and privileges as MDs.
To say that this can't happen is like saying to an Irish born american citizen that he'd have to choose between his beliefs, traditions, ethic background vs. his rights, etc etc.
Or to say it can't happen is like saying the ring finger is not different from the pinky finger. Of course it's different, and arguably it's nearly just as equally valuable to us.
I highly doubt that the great physicians treat patients exactly the same. If you took two great physicians, I'm sure that they would interact, figure out what's going on, and deal with the patient in different ways. They might even do similar things. But I'm sure that their methods are those that fit them the best and fits the needs of the patients the best (thus being different to a degree).
And even if all great physicians operated the same exact way, then I'd have to say "pass". It'd be way too easy for physicians to fall in tunnel vision.
It's like my ring finger and pinky finger metaphor from above. Would you want 5 pinky fingers only on your hand? They are all equal...
Nah, you'd want 5 different fingers, like you probably have now, that are all equal. Each one has it's slightly unique twist that benefits the creature as a whole.
Do note that this doesn't mean that a DO must think a certain way and do OMM all the time (or at all). I'm not saying that there must be a difference in philosophy or that perhaps one is greater than the other.
So here's where I'm getting at: you (being anyone that's ever a patient) stands to benefit greatly from two different but equal "types" of physicians because of the different perspectives and abilities that they bring.
And while there are some people that seem to fear being labeled a "baby MD" or a MD wannabe if they embrace any deviation from the MD world (deviation being osteopathy), then that's fine. I can't stop them. If the goal is to just practice medicine, then great, DO or MD does the trick. But that doesn't mean to practice medicine that you must shed any identity you have to oneself. It almost seems as if some DOs want to be apart of the MD cool club so they change the way they talk, dress, and do their hair to mimic the MDs so they are accepted by them. Personally, if MDs don't want to accept DOs, that's fine. It's not about them. Or it's not even about the DOs. In the end it's about the patients anyways.
