Spending time with patients? MD vs DO

[1health]

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I know I want to go into medicine and I like a fair amount of autonomy. I went in to see a counselor to ask about being a physician (I'm a bio undergrad). I like to see people heal and progress, and I especially enjoy the preventative side of medicine (get 'em early). I know I want to spend time with patients, and my counselor said that being a D.O. would be more fit than an M.D. At a hospital I am volunteering at, I enjoy getting to know a small group of patients each time instead of going from room to room. I also enjoy understanding how the body works as a whole (like many bio students). Am I narrowing down my options too soon with this mentality? It seems like family practice would be most fitting for my likes, but am I missing something else? Is specializing not right for my interests? Any comments greatly appreciated!

 

[deleted307836]

I don't think you should be worrying about what you want to specialize in specifically before you start medical school.

On the MD vs DO issue -- it wouldn't make sense to choose to become a DO simply because you want to spend more time with your patients. If you want to go into family medicine a DO degree wouldn't be a hindrance, but I don't see how it would affect your patient interactions in any significant way. This is dependent on the individual -- you -- and how you want to tailor your own practice.

 

[Perrotfish]

If you're lucky, you'll be able to figure out what kinds of medicine you do and don't like based on your rotations in the third year of medical school. Before that I really don't think you're going to have the insight to figure out if you like clinical medicine vs. general wards medicine vs. subsepcializing vs. everything else (Rads, Gas, Surgery, EM). I was very interested in Family coming in to medical school. I was the President of my school's chapter of the AAFP, I read the journals, I went to both the local and the national conference, and I shadowed an FP. Now I'm finishing my core rotations and I've long since realize that, while I believe in the theory of Family medicine, I'm not interested in seeing clinic for the rest of my life. In small doses when I was new to medicine clinics seemed really exciting, but when I do clinics all day I don't really like them.

That being said, what you think you're interested in really has no bearing on whether you choose MD or DO. How much time you spend with patients, and how you spend it, is dictated by your residency selection and both degrees can apply to every residency under the sun. Your premed advisor should know that.

My advice is to apply broadly to both MD and DO schools and to go to the cheapest school that accepts you. The best way to keep your options open for Family Medicine is not to be drowning in debt. At the same time I would strongly advise against taking any kind of scholarship that commits you to family practice before you even start medical school. You don't have enough perspective to commit to that.

 

[wolverinepwns]

WHAT, what does you question have anything to do with whether you should be an MD or a DO, you obviously need to do some research on the whole medschool thing.

 

[venacontracta]

I went in to see a counselor to ask about being a physician

This is not always such a good plan, by the way. Do your own research. Shadow doctors and ask actual physicians about what being a doctor is like rather than counselors.

 

[the duck]

While there are differences in the theoretical guiding philosophies of MDs and DOs. For the most part they practice exactly the same. Its a minority of DOs who actually use osteopathic manipulation in there practice. In short, it doesn't really matter which degree you get.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

I don't understand your counsellor's reason for saying that DO is a much better fit. Both DO and MD doctors can be well rounded individuals who can appreciate the mind/body connection concept. Just because someone goes the MD route doesn't mean that they won't adopt that concept on their own. Just because someone goes the DO route doesn't mean that they will adopt that concept. They might not give a crap about that and might instead adopt a hardcore "treat the body and the mind will follow" mentality. I don't agree with people who say you shouldn't look into the specialities that might interest you. I think you should at least look into the specialities and have some interest in some of them. I don't see how someone can be interested in pursuing medicine if they don't have interest some of the specialities.

 

[Kaustikos]

I don't understand your counsellor's reason for saying that DO is a much better fit. Both DO and MD doctors can be well rounded individuals who can appreciate the mind/body connection concept. Just because someone goes the MD route doesn't mean that they won't adopt that concept on their own. Just because someone goes the DO route doesn't mean that they will adopt that concept. They might not give a crap about that and might instead adopt a hardcore "treat the body and the mind will follow" mentality. I don't agree with people who say you shouldn't look into the specialities that might interest you. I think you should at least look into the specialities and have some interest in some of them. I don't see how someone can be interested in pursuing medicine if they don't have interest some of the specialities.

****ing agreed. I'm not a med student/resident/whatever in DO or MD, but that counselor didn't know what they were talking about. Go shadow physicians and make your decision on whether or not medicine is right for you, not whether MD or DO is the right fit.

 

[munchymanRX]

I know I want to go into medicine and I like a fair amount of autonomy. I went in to see a counselor to ask about being a physician (I'm a bio undergrad). I like to see people heal and progress, and I especially enjoy the preventative side of medicine (get 'em early). I know I want to spend time with patients, and my counselor said that being a D.O. would be more fit than an M.D. At a hospital I am volunteering at, I enjoy getting to know a small group of patients each time instead of going from room to room. I also enjoy understanding how the body works as a whole (like many bio students). Am I narrowing down my options too soon with this mentality? It seems like family practice would be most fitting for my likes, but am I missing something else? Is specializing not right for my interests? Any comments greatly appreciated!

Something every undergrad needs to understand about pre-medical counselors before seeing one: They're not in medical school, and many of them have never applied or are close to the process at all. Most just know how to use google, and a select percentage won't even do that and insist they're right.

Let's assume you have a good one though. It doesn't really matter which degree you get. DOs are represented in nearly all specialties in the US, although a higher percentage do tend to go into primary care. There's no difference in patient outcome, pay, cost of malpractice insurance, or quality of life. People will ram "the osteopathic philsophy" down your throat as a distinguishing factor when you apply, but ANY decent physician, MD or DO is going to follow the same tenets when dealing with a patient.

Don't worry about that now though. Worry about getting in to medical school.

 

[littlealex]

How much time you spend /w patients depends on you. MDs and DOs do the same job, DOs just get less respect.

Do whatever you feel like doing.