pjc199 said:
After finally receiving my first interview this week, I got the teary-eyed motherly phone call and congratulations. The next morning, I was shocked by the total turnaround. My mother is a PA who works with a top neurosurgeon (MD). The surgeon has always been very good to me and has always viewed me as a shiny penny...I was a person of great character, great intellect, and a passion for people. However, after hearing from my mother that I was attempting to gain addmission into an osteopathic institution, he told my mother that I was settling for much less and that osteopaths are wanna-be's and fakes and that I was wasting my time. It hurt since he really made my mother beleive that the ultimate goal of me obtaining my D.O. one day was useless. It's kinda sad to think that although I am going into my interview striving for acceptance, I have this gut feeling that I should run for the Caribbean MD degree. I feel like my family will always view me as having a scarlet letter on my back. I know that I have what it takes to be a successful surgeon one day and yet, I will probably never have my family's respect.
I saw this post, and I felt I needed to comment. I don't often come to this forum (if I ever have, actually, I can't remember right now) anyway...
I just wanted to comment, as a Caribbean student, that you should keep the faith. I want you to know that, if you get and accept an osteopathic spot, you should have absolutely
no concern for your future in the medical profession. Osteopaths have great opportunities, every bit as good as the vast majority of MD graduates in the U.S. (unless you are fortunate enough to get to go to Harvard or Wash U or Duke, etc., which as we know do not make up the majority of doctors practicing in the U.S.). Additionally, you will have access to certain osteopathic residencies with cool combinations like Family Practice/Emergency Medicine that currently don't have official board recognition in the allopathic world.
I think this neurosurgeon that your mom works with might be (1) a bit misinformed, and (2) not in completely in touch with reality. I'm sure he went to a top allopathic school and got into a great Neurosurgery residency somewhere, which is also a top-choice field. He's practicing in a field that is predominated by MD's, and likely always will be. Likewise, I'd bet that he went to medical school years ago and is unaware at just how far the field of osteopathy has come in the past twenty years. In other words, his perspective is probably a bit tainted. Unless you want to be a neurosurgeon, you should take his comments with a seriously large grain of salt.
You ultimately need to do what you want to do. And, going to an osteopathic school will, in the end, get you where you want to go. In fact, I just finished a clerkship (i.e., 4th year rotation) at a U.S. allopathic medical school as a visiting student. The chief resident of the anesthesiology program I did the rotation at, that had 44 other residents mostly MDs mainly from U.S. schools, was an
osteopath! So, not only do they get great residency opportunities alongside of MDs, they can also rise to the highest possible level in the program. It is very prestigious to be named "Chief Resident", and this is a highly respected program.
Instead of worrying about what this doctor thinks, try instead to educate him. He may just simply not have the most current information on osteopathic education in the U.S. You can tell him that you'd be eligible to sit for all the same exams as allopathic students, and you could also apply to the same residency programs. Also, you can tell him that you'd have board eligibility the same as an MD in your given field, which could be surgery, anesthesiology, orthopedics... This may serve multiple benefits, and provide you an opportunity to teach HIM something. It might also help allay your mom's fears, as this doctor is someone you both clearly respect quite a bit.
I'm not dismissing the Caribbean route, provided you'd choose to go to one of the established reputable schools, but don't think that this is automatically a better option simply because you don't want to have "D.O." behind your name. Trust me, this route is equally fraught with its challenges. And, you'd have to face many different but equally frustrating obstacles, misunderstandings, bias, and prejudice if you went made that choice just so you can get an MD. So, it's not like Caribbean is a better option than D.O. by any means. You should be very aware of that.
I advise you to not worry so much about what this one person says. Think about it. Consider it. But, try to maintain some perspective. He certainly is not speaking as the "voice of the majority" on this subject. Take it as if he's provided you with a great opportunity to teach about something he doesn't know very much about. And, if he's not willing to listen, then perhaps you've placed too much stock in his opinion in the first place.
🙂
Good luck to you.
-Skip
MS4 Ross University
