Shadowed a DO (surgeon), but he does not practice osteopathic med. How to explain this in secondary?

[Soleus92]

I have been shadowing a DO physician (mainly to get the experience and a letter of rec from a DO), but he is a surgeon and does everything a regular MD surgeon would do. That means, consult patients before surgery, perform surgeries, then post-op care. I know the whole point of explaining my experience with a DO si to actually see osteopathy in action, but I did not in this case. What should I do? What can I write when my DO secondaries ask about my DO shadowing experience or why I would like to go the DO route?
side note: I also have many years of working/shadowing MDs (primary care), I want to pursue family medicine

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[DNC127]

Try and BS something about how he went the "extra mile" for his patients or something... but I would not draw attention to the fact that you dont actually have experience with osteopathic medicine.. I shadowed a DO Dermatologist for my letter and basically just talked about how he was extra holistic in his care for patients lol

 

[Soleus92]

Try and BS something about how he went the "extra mile" for his patients or something... but I would not draw attention to the fact that you dont actually have experience with osteopathic medicine.. I shadowed a DO Dermatologist for my letter and basically just talked about how he was extra holistic in his care for patients lol

LOL to the "extra holistic" care idea...I guess I wanted to see if there are actually DOs in specialties (non-primary care) that actually practice manipulative techniques and such

 

[DNC127]

LOL to the "extra holistic" care idea...I guess I wanted to see if there are actually DOs in specialties (non-primary care) that actually practice manipulative techniques and such

Not very many DO's in general actually practice OMM on anybody except their SO's... I would wager (promise) the number of DOs in non-primary care specialties that incorporate OMM into their practice is very very very low.

 

[Soccer171983]

Many specialities do not directly practice OMM. You could mention something about holistic approach. You could mention about "hands on patient" with more diligent examination etc etc.You will have to figure out a way to make it fit.

 

[DO2015CA]

Do not use buzz words such as holistic. Anything you see being spouted off from this Doctors that DO campaign. The adcoms will see through it. There are plenty of ways to go about writing about osteopathic medicine. In my class, many students were successful applying with saying “I just wanted to be a doctor doesn’t matter the degree”. There are still some cult of still DOs and sadly they are the ones to go into OMM academia but for the most part your professors will be level headed. I had 1 non-OMM faculty that was a DO. The rest of the clinical faculty were MDs, so of course they don’t want to hear an applicant say “DOs are more holistic” or anything to the point.

OMM is the only facet that separates you and your MD colleagues. If you address OMM only you’ll be less likely to step on anyone’s toes. Also, OMM is used to DIAGNOSE and treat. You may have seen them ‘use’ OMM without knowing. OMM is really a tool to diagnose with their hands and then treat. Depending on the type of surgeon they could do that. Ask the DO if they use any facet of OMM for diagnosis purposes.

If they say yes then you have something to write about (not many applicants will talk about using OMM as a diagnostic too only I venture to say). If they say no then I’d still default to talking about how they were a pationate physician that was a mentor who inspired you to apply to DO.

 

[Jdp00921]

Not sure if this will be the case for you, but throughout my DO interviews, it was only asked why I am interested in osteopathic medicine. I was never asked about my shadowing experience with a DO (which for me, is similar to you, they were both surgeons) or to explain how those experiences increased my interest in osteopathic medicine. Overall, if you know what osteopathic medicine is about, you can certainly state why you are interested in doing osteopathy without specifically bringing up your shadowing the DO surgeon. Lastly - and this is strictly an opinion of mine - but I believe most DO schools understand most applicants just want to practice medicine and don't expect that you have this explicit reason for wanting to do osteopathic medicine; they just want to see that you understand it's purpose and some of it's benefits.

Good Luck!

 

[EmilKraepelin55]

I had a DO pathologist write my LOR for this application cycle, and I was accepted to both KCU and ARCOM. The only other DO I shadowed was a neurologist, and so ultimately I have never actually seen OMM in action. I was even interviewed by the OMM professor at KCU, and I only ever talked about agreeing with the philosophy behind the DO degree as a driving point for applying (especially since I only applied DO). I would say to provide the respect that the DO degree commands based upon philosophy when writing your secondaries and interviewing. How does your personal story run parallel with osteopathic ideals (Still's triune of man, social and psychological determinants of health etc.)? For me, my experience as a musician and as a volunteer in a geropsychiatric ward showed me that healing can come in multiple forms beyond what we traditionally expect of medical practice (i.e. physiological or anatomical treatments). So, definitely research the degree in those terms and come up with a story that jives with them.

 

[stickgirl390]

In both my DO interviews, I was never asked anything specific to osteopathic medicine. I also didn’t talk about it in my personal statement. As stated before, you can simply focus on your passion for medicine and how your experiences shadowing reaffirmed that. You don’t have to force the DO/MD dialogue until they specifically ask you about it.

 

[Instatewaiter]

"Even though he was an ear, nose, and throat surgeon and the patient came in for a tonsil surgery, he did surgery on the whole patient"

 

[popopopop]

In both my DO interviews, I was never asked anything specific to osteopathic medicine. I also didn’t talk about it in my personal statement. As stated before, you can simply focus on your passion for medicine and how your experiences shadowing reaffirmed that. You don’t have to force the DO/MD dialogue until they specifically ask you about it.

Good answer. Don't use buzzwords. By not distinguishing between a DO surgeon and an MD surgeon, you already speak volumes about the "differences" between them, that is, very little as you stated!

 

[Goro]

I have been shadowing a DO physician (mainly to get the experience and a letter of rec from a DO), but he is a surgeon and does everything a regular MD surgeon would do. That means, consult patients before surgery, perform surgeries, then post-op care. I know the whole point of explaining my experience with a DO si to actually see osteopathy in action, but I did not in this case. What should I do? What can I write when my DO secondaries ask about my DO shadowing experience or why I would like to go the DO route?
side note: I also have many years of working/shadowing MDs (primary care), I want to pursue family medicine

90-95% of DOs are like this.
Try and find an OMM practitioner. Better yet, if there is a DO school in driving distance, go visit them and chat up the DO faculty.

 

[UTsksk]

When I applied a few years ago, the only DO that took students was an ENT who did not do any OMM, but we definitely discussed the philosophy and OMT. So when I had to write about it in secondaries and asked during interviews, I would talk about the discussions we had about being DO

 

[rg2o3]

You have to be careful with this topic. For example, during my interview, they asked "why DO?". However, one of the interviewers was an MD and the other a PhD. Many people interviewing with me (group interview) must have been unaware that the physician was an MD and were basically bashing MD's to over exaggerate their desire to attend a DO school. I doubt that it sat well with him. So remember to pay attention to who your audience is as well.