It feels like winter here already. To top that, we've had overcast and rain for the past week, making this place kinda gloomy. Perhaps I have seasonal depression. Is everyone happy with their school? I go to LECOM and so far, so good. I have some complaints though. Here they are: 1) I thought being in a new facility would be nice. And it would be if not for the stringent policy on NO food/drinks anywhere in the building. My brother's school allows snacks in the library. That would be nice. 2) The school looks professional no doubt, like an office building in fact. The interior needs more color and not just shades of black and white. Way too many shades of gray. No pictures, nothing. Whatever happen to osteopathic principles like body and mind, etc. I think that it would be "nice" to make the place more inviting and lively...not dreary. It would improve the spirit of the students when they're in the building. I've seen on recent news that hospitals now are incorporating vivid colors and even music to improve their patients mental health. I think LECOM needs to do the same. 3) Too many rules. I don't mind the dress policy, but the mandatory attendance policy is starting to suck.
there's definitely alot to say about my school, but i think i'll hold myself back. about the whole mind, body, spirit osteo-philosophy...i noticed some osteo schools don't practice what they attempt to teach. it all has to come from in you, and sometimes it's hard to do. if you keep a positive attitude things will be better than having a negative attitude (btw i'm not saying that you have one) i don't agree with the whole mandatory attendance policy...it's like they're treating med students like high school kids. i like how we get lectured on how we're responsible med students, but then they turn around and treat us like little kids (what a paradox).
I couldn't be happier with OSU. If I had to come up with a single complaint its that I wish the library was open 24 hours. I honestly can't think of a single complaint I can voice about the school. We have a "mandatory" attendance policy here too, but it's not at all enforced. There have been times I've skipped class with other students, sitting in the lounge, and one of the faculty (who happened to the person who announced the mandatory attendance policy during orientation) would walk by and say hello. First time it happened I thought she was going to get that same look that Faye Dunaway had during the "no wire hangers" scene in Mommie Dearest and beat me with my Netters. I imagine the same kind of non-enforcement goes for most schools. Truth is, we are adults, and I'd hope that they would trust us to know when we have to show up and when we don't.
Integra, I know where you're coming from. Things have been rough here at LECOM for us since the beginning. However (!), I think we're in for a huge improvement once we get past anatomy. Sure, the rules and regulations are a pain and are often taken too far, but I try to look at the education I'm getting and the opportunities available. LECOM honestly does a great job of getting us prepared for clinical medicine (with lots of rotations and early clinical experience). They changed anatomy this year to make it better and it didn't quite work--try to leave anatomy behind and look at what we have ahead of us. I think there will be a huge difference once we get into core-so the MS II's say. Hang in there...one more week of anatomy! NJDO
PCOM is great. No complaints from me...and that's good because I like to complain. ( They DO let in people like Wish...THAT could be a problem in future years. )
Despite my previous obnoxious post, I do have to agree with Fenrezz. I truly have no real complaints about OSU. I highly recommend the school.
Any further insights into LECOM??? I've very interested in the school....I'm interviewing there on Halloween.
Aside from my minor complaints in my previous posts, I like LECOM. I certainly can't compare my education with other DO schools (since I'm only attending one school), but I believe I'm getting a good education here. Especially this year, they separated the anatomy classes from the other classes like physio, biochem, etc, which makes it easier to juggle with. From what I hear from my other classmates, our anatomy tests have been quite tough when compared to some DO or allopathic schools. While I can't validate this, I can say that we have an entire course dedicated to embryology here at LECOM whereas UAB - Top 30 allotpathic (my girlfriend's school) only has an open book test as their embryology grade. With that said, I'm guessing I know more about embryology than my gf. Good or bad? I don't know. It would be an even better school if they did away with the mandatory attendance policy (and they do enforce it). You have assigned seating so they know if you're not in lecture. Of course, this only applies if you choose "lecture-based pathway". The other 2 pathways do not have this policy. Oh yeah, Erie is a small town and a little boring, but once you start to make friends with other classmates, it gets better. The lake is also nice, but only in the summer.
While there is a member of my school who frequents this list and is the masked defender of KCOM, I will dare to put down a comment. While I am generally happy with things at KCOM, I get tired with the comments of how we treat people, not just symptoms with indirect(and sometimes direct) suggestion that MDs don't. I get tired of the negative comments about MDs in general. I don't think the degree makes the doctor, the person makes the doctor. Other than that, the only thing I can complain about is the workload, oh wait, its medical school. This is generally my view of the AOA as well. Do many of you experience these "we are better than MDs" comments?
I'm not too familar with the AOA issues, but I'm guessing it's their effort in trying to maintain or even appeal to the premeds who are deciding between MD or DO. It's fair to say that DOs are still looked down upon by MDs and by saying what DOs can do and what MDs cannot do is merely an attempt to show the unique quality of being a DO. Well, the truth is OMM can only be done by DOs. So I can't refute that. Does it foster the thinking that DOs are better than MDs? perhaps. I certainly disagree with it though and like you, I don't bash MDs, but instead see both of us as physicians, nothing more and nothing less. Who is better than the other must be examined based on the individual's quality and not by their initials. Some DOs are better than MDs and some MDs are better than DOs, but this is all based on experience, knowledge, and the utilization of their skills towards their patient. The same can be said about saying black doctors (MD or DO) are not as good as white doctors because in general, it is easier to get into medschool if you're under represented in med school. I'm not black, but Asian, but I think it would be funny if someone thought I was a good doctor because I'm Asian (after all, we have a reverse discrimination in medschool and plus, we are all good in math.
UHS has been great so far. We did have a mandatory attendance policy at the beginning of the year but it was revoked three weeks into school. Someone from Admin would come over every lecture and check for empty seats, so we also had assigned seating! Also we had the dress code put into effect this year. We can either wear scrubs or dress up with your white coat. To me, if I can wear pajamas to school and still look professional, RIGHT ON! I also agree with Ferenz about the library being open 24/7. I have been kicked out of the building for the past week at midnight. I would much rather study here than go home and study! Hope everyone is doing well. We only have two more weeks of musculoskeletal and then on to skin, blood, and lymph. I have really enjoyed M/S. Later Chris
dwkyler94, The "we treat patients not just symptoms" is a quote endemic to the entirety of the osteopathic medical educational system and the AOA. I agree with you that it implies that MD's and MD students don't care about their patients, a fact I find patently riduculous. I don't know how to make it change except by organizing the students at the various schools to email or make a petition to send to the AOA so they know where some students, the future of the profession, stand in regard to this issue. In fact it was mentioned in a forum at the AOA convention by a student that it was the belief that the AOA and the profession become confident in themselves and the profession. Stop the "we're as good as...or...we're better b/c we can manipulate too" arguments and just practice medicine. In my humble opinion we are as good as, so I want everyone to stop saying it and move on. The powers that be no longer have to sell it the students. We all chose to go to an osteopathic school and with hard work become D.O.'s so lets get to work to help our patients, do research, engage in tort-reform, whatever, but let it go. O.k. I'm done. I would however be interested in taking an informal poll on how many like or dislike the slogan: "Osteopathic Physicians treating people not just symptoms." Sweaty Paul MS-III KCOM
Our school is a little mixed. There were some OMM lectures that flat out said it is ridiculous to say that osteopathic doctors are more holistic than allopathic ones. At PCOM, so far they are stressing that the main differences are in our ability to palpate and manipulate. I am down with this idea. However, I do hear the old, "D.O.'s are as good as M.D.'s" slogan from time to time. It's old news. When people ask me about D.O.'s I say, "A D.O. is the same as an M.D. It's just different letters in the degree because we learn a type of manipulation akin to physical therapy and we spend alot of time developing palpatory skills."
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I went to LECOM for the first week. I hated it and now I am at PCOM and I love it. The town itself sucks. There is nothing to do there and the threat of feet of snow is unbelievable. PCOM was my first choice and things didn't work out until right before classes began here. But, putting the area aside, I know I am at the school that is best for me. That's all that really matters....what fits you. PCOM is great!!!! The faculty, the students, administration, the facilities, and the curriculum. Only negative - spending three hours of my day with The Hammer and Dr. Sawzall
For the most part, I feel that my school (COMP) has been pretty good. One thing that disappoints me at times is the quality of our clinical lectures. Some of the guest lectures are outstanding, most are decent, but a few are just plain impossible to understand. I feel like they're teaching us at the resident level. With regards to the "treating patients not symptoms" slogan, I actually like the slogan for DO's. Remember that allopathic medicine doesn't really have an implied philosophy in the same way that osteopathic medicine does. In other words, implicit in the concept of "DO" is that we treat the whole person, and although MD's are now a days also being taught to treat the whole person, this idea is not implicit in the title "MD". In this way, MD's don't have as much of an obligation to practice whole-person care, whereas for a DO it can be quite embarrasing to have a title which says he or she practices whole-person care but in reality he or she focuses on the disease only. In any case, in this day of managed-care medicine and "evidence based medicine", pharmaco- and surgico-therapy continue to be the dominant treatments of choice with psycho-socio-spirital factors often minimized.
Gawd, us M1's at Western and NSUCOM should be jumping on that one... I'm down here in Sunny Florida with temps=80-85. I take my de-stressing getaways to Isalamorada and Key West and frequent beaches (and beach bars) quite a bit. Terrible place for a medical school South Florida is... To keep the congruency of the post though, my biatch on school is the auxillary (read BS) classes. 6 hours of medical informatics? 10 hours of ethnocultural med? Not that they're "bad" classes - yet let's be honest - I'd rather be doin' biochem and gross ya know, those things that I need for the boards... Good part is that you can 'study' for these in the walk to class... -A le Pr?sident, Class of 2006, NSUCOM
Dkwyler, Hey! I agree with you about the atmosphere (at times) at KCOM. Before I left my home-town, a couple of D.O.'s warned me about some osteopaths who feel as though MD's owe them something. I was told to try to avoid them as much as possible and just realize that any good D.O. is going to have to learn how to work with any kind of physician. Period. Perhaps some of the D.O.'s in Kirksville feel as though they don't have to drop their superiority complexes because they don't have to. i.e. - there are no M.D.'s in Kirksville! By the way...I love it here at KCOM.
There is a lot of issues that are undergoing at Nova Southeastern. I don't see much of an improvement. This year, as an M-2, we were supposed to have our lecture hours reduced by a certain amount of hours. Last year's M-2 class had 50+ more lecture hours whan us, but it was because there was a lot of redundant overlap between the guest clinical lecturers. So, what was supposed to happen this year is the redundant information was supposed to be cut out to match the reduced lecture hours. Instead, the lectureres just say, "This is normally a 2 hour lecture, they now cut my lecture down to 1 hour, so I'll try to get everything in real quickly." I do not see how this is conducive to learning. It's no wonder last year's class lost 15 people becuase they failed the COMLEX. Our past cardiology midterm failed 40 students!!! Now, administration is in a frenzy and they are more concrened about looking good on paper, than actually showing some concern for their students. There are endless amounts of other issues I can get into, Standardized Patients, Clinical Medicine small groups, Computer patient cases, lecturers not showing up, Dean's hour. There are lots of great faculty members here. Certain classes are VERY well done. But, the connection between administration and the 'rest of us' is far from good. CAREFULLY research this school before you decide to go here.
