What's the Ventura/JPS of AOA (DO) residencies (unopposed)

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medhead1990

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I have been looking very seriously at family medicine and love the idea of doing a unopposed, rigorous, procedure heavy program such as Ventura (CA) or JPS (TX). However, I am going to an osteopathic school and don't want to sacrifice my osteopathic education by going to a MD residency. I would like to be able to continue my OMT education and leave the door open for a NMM plus one residency if I choose to do so after my family med residency (I recognize this can be done after a non-DO residency but would prefer a DO one if possible). Is anyone aware of programs in the osteopathic world similar to this?

One of the biggest things that draws me to family med is the MASSIVE scope available to those who are willing to learn it. I really like the idea (at least i think I do), of being well educated in multiple procedures in both an inpatient and outpatient setting.

I have done a reasonable bit of searching and none of the AOA residencies seem to really try to brag about being procedure heavy, and from what I could tell there were only a handful that talked about being unopposed.

Thanks in advance!

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I doubt there are any. Full disclosure, though, I barely considered any AOA programs. Maybe somewhere in Michigan or the midwest?

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I doubt there are any. Full disclosure, though, I barely considered any AOA programs. Maybe somewhere in Michigan or the midwest?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

Texas A&M is procedure heavy, maybe even more so than Ventura or JPS. But they dropped their dual accreditation last year because it was costing too much and they weren't getting a lot of AOA applicants. The PD is a DO and does/teaches a lot of Manipulation still however.
 
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Thanks for the replies! I'll look into midwest residencies and then Texas a&m for sure.

If i were to broaden the parameters a little and just say, what are the unopposed DO residencies would that help get some more options? In re-reading my first post I think I may have focused more on the procedures and less on the overall well rounded education. In my perfect world I would love to graduate comfortable with most inpatient/emergency/ (and of course all) outpatient medicine, and subsequently the procedures involved in most "bread and butter" situations in each of those settings. Recognizing of course that I will probably not be as comfortable at inpatient and emergency medicine as my IM or EM counterparts respectively.

From what I have seen as well even if the program does not officially claim to be unopposed it may be that what I am looking for would simply be found in a "rural" DO residency or one at a smaller community hospital?

Again thanks for the responses keep them coming.
 
Thanks for the replies! I'll look into midwest residencies and then Texas a&m for sure.

If i were to broaden the parameters a little and just say, what are the unopposed DO residencies would that help get some more options? In re-reading my first post I think I may have focused more on the procedures and less on the overall well rounded education. In my perfect world I would love to graduate comfortable with most inpatient/emergency/ (and of course all) outpatient medicine, and subsequently the procedures involved in most "bread and butter" situations in each of those settings. Recognizing of course that I will probably not be as comfortable at inpatient and emergency medicine as my IM or EM counterparts respectively.

From what I have seen as well even if the program does not officially claim to be unopposed it may be that what I am looking for would simply be found in a "rural" DO residency or one at a smaller community hospital?

Again thanks for the responses keep them coming.

As someone that did Aoa and now acgme, go ACGME. You'll learn tons more. You can practice your opp skills to keep them sharp but you only get one shot(usually) at forming a solid medical foundation.
 
As someone that did Aoa and now acgme, go ACGME. You'll learn tons more. You can practice your opp skills to keep them sharp but you only get one shot(usually) at forming a solid medical foundation.

Did you switch residencies or do a second one? In the same specialty?
 
I've heard good things about Ft. Wayne in Indiana. I believe they are dual accredited.

I interviewed at Ft. Wayne. I thought it was the most sketchy on my list, and ranked it 2nd to last.

They pay a little too well, (which sounds nice but I'm my opinion probably represents compensating) and they advertise too much. I didn't get the impression that they did anywhere near the level of procedures they claim they do. And they were the most pushy out of all the programs I interviewed with.

If I hadn't interviewed at UofA south campus, they would have been dead last in my list.
 
As someone that did Aoa and now acgme, go ACGME. You'll learn tons more. You can practice your opp skills to keep them sharp but you only get one shot(usually) at forming a solid medical foundation.

What is it about the ACGME residencies is so much better? Are they held to a higher standard in general? Does AOA get away with more slack? If whats your saying is true and I will get a OMT education at the expense subpar overall medical education via AOA residency then I probably will just look into doing CME's after the fact to keep the skills up.

That being said if you could give me a little more insight as to why ACGME is that much more superior to AOA i'm all ears. Im a little hesitant however, as I heard over and over that a DO med school as inferior to a MD, and as of yet I don't feel like i have been cheated at all.

Do you think your experience was possibly program specific or something thats pretty standard across the board?
 
I interviewed at Ft. Wayne. I thought it was the most sketchy on my list, and ranked it 2nd to last.

They pay a little too well, (which sounds nice but I'm my opinion probably represents compensating) and they advertise too much. I didn't get the impression that they did anywhere near the level of procedures they claim they do. And they were the most pushy out of all the programs I interviewed with.

If I hadn't interviewed at UofA south campus, they would have been dead last in my list.

Where did you end up going? What was your top 3 (if you dont mind my asking)? Are you happy with your choice?
 
Google the ACGME standards for the residency you are interested in (whether it's FM, IM, peds, EM, etc) then do the same for AOA residencies and compare.

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I interviewed at Ft. Wayne. I thought it was the most sketchy on my list, and ranked it 2nd to last.

They pay a little too well, (which sounds nice but I'm my opinion probably represents compensating) and they advertise too much. I didn't get the impression that they did anywhere near the level of procedures they claim they do. And they were the most pushy out of all the programs I interviewed with.

If I hadn't interviewed at UofA south campus, they would have been dead last in my list.

Whoa. Thanks for the heads up. And UofA South Campus was even worse?
 
Whoa. Thanks for the heads up. And UofA South Campus was even worse?

UofA was mainly a bad fit for me personally. The pay wasn't great, you have to do rotations in N. AZ and I think it was like 2+ months at a time.

I really really loved the East Valley (Mesa Gilbert, chandler) area. But Tucson is no east valley. I didn't like the town much either.

Look at Ft Wayne's roster of interns this year. DO's (who probably applied through the AOA) and then almost 100% Caribbean grads. The fact that USMD's steer clear should be a sign that this place is sketchy.
 
What is it about the ACGME residencies is so much better? Are they held to a higher standard in general? Does AOA get away with more slack? If whats your saying is true and I will get a OMT education at the expense subpar overall medical education via AOA residency then I probably will just look into doing CME's after the fact to keep the skills up.

That being said if you could give me a little more insight as to why ACGME is that much more superior to AOA i'm all ears.

In general, there is a lot more training through the AOA that is piecemeal and not well established. There are definitely some older programs that offer great training but many more young programs that haven't fully figured out how to offer a great experience in the majority of their clinical rotations. Unless you plan on doing NMM or really want to practice OMT every day, I would recommend not considering OMT education a necessity in programs you are considering. It will greatly limit your pool of programs and I agree with others that suggested you can always get this with CME later if needed. The reality is that most DOs in non-academic practice are not doing that much manipulation. You may be different but there is a reason that I'm sure this is not the first time you are hearing such.
 
UofA was mainly a bad fit for me personally. The pay wasn't great, you have to do rotations in N. AZ and I think it was like 2+ months at a time.

I really really loved the East Valley (Mesa Gilbert, chandler) area. But Tucson is no east valley. I didn't like the town much either.

Look at Ft Wayne's roster of interns this year. DO's (who probably applied through the AOA) and then almost 100% Caribbean grads. The fact that USMD's steer clear should be a sign that this place is sketchy.

I would say be careful with your assumptions(that a program is full of DOs and some FMGs it must be bad) especially as a DO yourself.

Give posters some truly solid/legitimate reasons on why the program is sketchy?
 
I would say be careful with your assumptions(that a program is full of DOs and some FMGs it must be bad) especially as a DO yourself.

Give posters some truly solid/legitimate reasons on why the program is sketchy?

Meh, I think the DO's are probably getting as good an experience as they are likely to get at any other AOA/dully accredited program. It's not that the training is awful, just that it's apparently not a good enough program to attract USMD's.
 
Meh, I think the DO's are probably getting as good an experience as they are likely to get at any other AOA/dully accredited program. It's not that the training is awful, just that it's apparently not a good enough program to attract USMD's.
As someone who is going through the process now, what makes these programs sketchy? (I originally interviewed and thought I wanted to do another specialty, but now have decided on family med, so I'm trying to make sure I know what to look out for in family med programs as I'm interviewing)
 
As someone who is going through the process now, what makes these programs sketchy? (I originally interviewed and thought I wanted to do another specialty, but now have decided on family med, so I'm trying to make sure I know what to look out for in family med programs as I'm interviewing)

More than anything I'd say trust your gut. My gut was telling me something wasn't quite right at Ft Wayne.

The biggest thing is realizing that Family Med is a buyers market. Programs know this and there's some "marketing" that needs to happen by each program. But for me Ft. Wayne took it way too far. Gave me a crap ton of FWMEC branded swag, wanted me to commit to bringing my family to a second look event in the new-year before I even left the office. Called and emailed incessantly for a few weeks after my interview. And sent gifts every week or so afterward.

It just left me thinking "what's wrong with this place that the feel the need to try this hard to get people?"

Also, at the interview, people were somewhat evasive whenever I asked them specifics about the training. And the PD didn't even want to ask me any questions, he straight up told me he was ready to rank me to match and all I needed to do was tell him I wanted to be there so he could know whether or not to do so. He spent an hour and a half just talking about why I should come to his program, literally not one question about me or why I even applied as an out of state applicant in the first place.

The good places don't have to use those kind of tactics to fill with quality applicants. They just lay the details of the training out on the table for the applicants to judge, and rank the people they like in the order they want them because they know they'll fill without trouble.
 
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