Thoughts on securing a residency outside of primary care

[BillsMafia28]

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Hello, I am wondering if anybody has any thoughts to share about securing a residency outside of primary care. Specifically, what factors should I look for in a school? What type of DO school would be best for this? If I was trying to decide between two schools, say ACOM and LECOM, what would tell me that one of these schools has a better chance of helping me land a residency outside of primary care? Thanks in advance!


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[acapnial]

Hello, I am wondering if anybody has any thoughts to share about securing a residency outside of primary care. Specifically, what factors should I look for in a school? What type of DO school would be best for this? If I was trying to decide between two schools, say ACOM and LECOM, what would tell me that one of these schools has a better chance of helping me land a residency outside of primary care? Thanks in advance!


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It's all on you. Don't fail anything, get good board scores, and eventually good letters and plenty of non primary care doors will be open if that's what you desire.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Hello, I am wondering if anybody has any thoughts to share about securing a residency outside of primary care. Specifically, what factors should I look for in a school? What type of DO school would be best for this? If I was trying to decide between two schools, say ACOM and LECOM, what would tell me that one of these schools has a better chance of helping me land a residency outside of primary care? Thanks in advance!


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The general advice is to make sure you don't fail classes, do good and boards, and get great letter of rec. This should land you a residency in several fields outside of primary care.

Now I will give you the advice that is not said enough but is very helpful

1) Pick a school that has a high amount of elective rotations. --> Don't fall for the misconception of "all 4th year is electives" this is not true what so ever! All school give different amounts of elective times. I think ACOM had 4 months (= 4 rotations) of elective time during 4th year, which is about average for most medical school. However, schools like KCU have around 6 months ( = 6 rotations) I believe. If going for the hypercompetitive fields, they value auditions greatly on the AOA side. So the more elective rotations you have, the more auditions rotations you can set up.

2) For research, pick a school in big a place as possible --> You don't necessarily need research for a lot of fields outside of primary care, but it can help if you decide on a rather competitive field. In the summer, you maybe able to go back home to do research if you come from a decently size city. However, if you are doing research during the year or deciding to stay at the city of your medical school in summer, then living in a decently size city (or close to one) will help with research opportunities. DO schools are behind the ball in terms of research. However, you can try near by MD schools or hospitals and try to see if there is any research going on. I live rather close to a large size city and was able to find research with a professor at an MD school. I attribute this luck to living near a larger city.

I also think networking will also help a great amount in matching into a competitive field. However, I'm not at that point to give advice about this. So keep those two points in mind when picking a school. It is NOT extremely important to have research or high amount of elective rotations for most specialities, but it is helpful to have both.

 

[hallowmann]

I'd pick LECOM because it's more established, and although Erie or Greensburg isn't that much different than Dothan, I'm pretty sure LECOM's OPTI contains more specialties than the OPTI ACOM participates with with other schools (I'm actually not sure which OPTI ACOM is affiliated with, one of the other schools, so that's something you should look into). OPTIs are also good because they coincide with where students rotate, so residencies at those places are more likely to take students they're familiar with. LECOM is also cheaper.

Now that all said, I'm biased on the subject, and honestly the reality is that attaining a specialty from a DO school is based more on your performance listed above than anything else (i.e. anything specific to the school).

You can look at match results over the past few years and see what percentage go into primary care/TRIs vs. specialties and that may give you an idea about which schools are more PC focused, but I caution you not to read too much into match lists as there are many variables involved in what makes up a match list.

 

[grapefruit17]

The one perk to my school is they had 3 moths of required rotations 4th year and the rest you could do whatever you wanted.

But primarily the only thing that matters when choosing the school is cost and mandatory attendance and maybe personal ties. Everything else is secondary and you can probably have the same result at multiple do schools.

 

[grapefruit17]

The one perk to my school is they had 3 moths of required rotations 4th year and the rest you could do whatever you wanted.

But primarily the only thing that matters when choosing the school is cost and mandatory attendance and maybe personal ties. Everything else is secondary and you can probably have the same result at multiple do schools.

Also i would pick lecom to avoid mandatory attendance.

 

[BillsMafia28]

I'd pick LECOM because it's more established, and although Erie or Greensburg isn't that much different than Dothan, I'm pretty sure LECOM's OPTI contains more specialties than the OPTI ACOM participates with with other schools (I'm actually not sure which OPTI ACOM is affiliated with, one of the other schools, so that's something you should look into). OPTIs are also good because they coincide with where students rotate, so residencies at those places are more likely to take students they're familiar with. LECOM is also cheaper.

Now that all said, I'm biased on the subject, and honestly the reality is that attaining a specialty from a DO school is based more on your performance listed above than anything else (i.e. anything specific to the school).

You can look at match results over the past few years and see what percentage go into primary care/TRIs vs. specialties and that may give you an idea about which schools are more PC focused, but I caution you not to read too much into match lists as there are many variables involved in what makes up a match list.

Thanks everybody for responses. What is/are OPTI?


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[AnatomyGrey12]

Also i would pick lecom to avoid mandatory attendance.

Depends on the pathway. If OP is in the LBP then insay ACOM because then there is some leniency at least with regard to attendance (LBP is 100% mandatory while ACOM is 80% I believe). If OP is in PBL then LECOM for sure

 

[EmergDoc2B]

Neither school will help you land a residency outside primary care. Your board scores, clinical years grades, didactic years grades, and your letters are what determine this. The schools simply provide a standardized curriculum that's damn near uniform nowadays. I know LECOM Bradenton and the PBL schools have great track records on crushing boards so that may be the route you want.

 

[grapefruit17]

Interestingly enough Lecom b has one of the lowest comlex pe pass rates lol. I don't think too much into this, as I passed and my school provided hardly any clinical skills training.

80 percent and 100 percent required lecture sounds awful. Honestly if I had to go to 100 percent my grades would have been terrible.

 

[hallowmann]

Thanks everybody for responses. What is/are OPTI?


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Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Insitution. Each is a consortium of osteopathic residency programs that are affiliated with a medical school and in turn where the students can rotate with residents. They were created in the late 90s and later adopted by COCA as a requirement for all schools. Some of the older or better established schools have their own OPTIs whereas some of the newer schools essentially pay to affiliate with an already established one. Here's more info: OPTI INFO (but this looks outdated a bit), alternatively you could search the residency programs (Opportunities - AOA-Approved Internships and Residencies) and they are labeled with their affiliated OPTI.

Alternatively you can actually look at the rotation sites and see what residency programs those sites have.

Also, if we're talking about LECOM-B and you're planning to stay in FL for 3rd and 4th year, I've heard the rotation sites have a lot of issues. I know very little about them, but based on what I've heard, I can't recommend them. Some LECOM-B students come up north though, and as long as they aren't at Millcreek, they seem to get solid rotations.

As far as PBL goes, I think its great if you are an independently motivated student and you like reading. If not, you should really evaluate which teaching method works best for you and do that. Remember, your performance on boards is a greater predictor of where you'll end up as opposed to the actual DO school you attend.

As far as the PE pass rate at LECOM-B, I've addressed it before, but basically it was attributed to having professors that knew nothing about the PE process and requirements and literally told students to do things that would hurt them on the exam. From what I've heard the current instructors are better, but I have no idea and only time will tell.