Hey everybody,
I'm a MS1 at an osteopathic school with some thoughts on OMM that I wanted to share and get feedback on.
I don't believe in it. I know that's not a super original opinion to have, but I'm wondering why nothing (at least nothing that I'm aware of) is ever really done to get rid of it. It seems like most of my classmates and seniors either buy into it or approach it with a "get through it and forget about it" sort of attitude.
Really my biggest issue with it in the here and now is that it's an opportunity cost: because I have to take OMM courses, I lose 4-6 hours a week that I could be studying something else. It's frustrating to think that my allopathic counterparts have that privilege.
Again, I'm in my first year, so I understand that I have limited experience with OMM, but a review of the literature is enough for me to have questions about how an education and a field that is supposed to be based on scientific evidence can make OMM a mandatory part of the curriculum.
So here's my first question for more advanced osteopathic students and graduates. If you don't buy into the OMM stuff, why not try to change it? Or have there been attempts made that I'm just ignorant to?
The other reason for posting this is that I'd like to try and push for OMM becoming less of an integral part of osteopathic education. I understand that it won't happen at my school anytime soon because even if the board were to agree that it's not sound scientific medicine, it's still on COMLEX and passing COMLEX is a requirement for graduation, so every student needs to learn it (I'm assuming this is the same at other osteopathic schools, but I don't really know). I'm looking at the ACGME merger happening in the next few years and wondering if it would be possible to either get OMM stuff off of COMLEX or change the graduation requirements so that USMLE could serve as a substitute. Then a reasonable argument could be made for OMM being an elective course and eventually (hopefully at least) it could just fall off completely.
Does anybody think this is at all realistic or am I way off base here?
I'm sorry if I anything I've said bothers anybody. I just wanted to get an idea of where everyone else is on this. Thanks for your time.
I'm a MS1 at an osteopathic school with some thoughts on OMM that I wanted to share and get feedback on.
I don't believe in it. I know that's not a super original opinion to have, but I'm wondering why nothing (at least nothing that I'm aware of) is ever really done to get rid of it. It seems like most of my classmates and seniors either buy into it or approach it with a "get through it and forget about it" sort of attitude.
Really my biggest issue with it in the here and now is that it's an opportunity cost: because I have to take OMM courses, I lose 4-6 hours a week that I could be studying something else. It's frustrating to think that my allopathic counterparts have that privilege.
Again, I'm in my first year, so I understand that I have limited experience with OMM, but a review of the literature is enough for me to have questions about how an education and a field that is supposed to be based on scientific evidence can make OMM a mandatory part of the curriculum.
So here's my first question for more advanced osteopathic students and graduates. If you don't buy into the OMM stuff, why not try to change it? Or have there been attempts made that I'm just ignorant to?
The other reason for posting this is that I'd like to try and push for OMM becoming less of an integral part of osteopathic education. I understand that it won't happen at my school anytime soon because even if the board were to agree that it's not sound scientific medicine, it's still on COMLEX and passing COMLEX is a requirement for graduation, so every student needs to learn it (I'm assuming this is the same at other osteopathic schools, but I don't really know). I'm looking at the ACGME merger happening in the next few years and wondering if it would be possible to either get OMM stuff off of COMLEX or change the graduation requirements so that USMLE could serve as a substitute. Then a reasonable argument could be made for OMM being an elective course and eventually (hopefully at least) it could just fall off completely.
Does anybody think this is at all realistic or am I way off base here?
I'm sorry if I anything I've said bothers anybody. I just wanted to get an idea of where everyone else is on this. Thanks for your time.