Since no DOs have replyed to this post I kind of feel obligated to answer some questions. Don't get me wrong. I love to hear people speculate on the DO education. Let me start by saying I in no way mean to insult anybody, please do not take offense. First a couple of responses.
The Osteopathic schools that I know of (in Missouri) are really tough on their students. From what I've heard, this is true at most Osteopathic schools - for example, I hear that COMP is extremely rigorous. If true, I imagine that it's because they're trying to shake their "reputation" and put out some well-trained grads.
This is not exactly true. We are taught the exact same subjects that MD schools teach their students. The only difference is that we are taught one extra subject, which comes out to about 2-3 hours/week of lab and 2-3 hours of lecture. I would not say my curriculum was more vigorous compared to any of the other medical schools in Philly. Secondly, although being a DO may carry some unwarrented bias when it comes to the residency match, we feel that we are not taking a back seat to anybody. There are bad DO students, there are bad MD students. By the way, every year my school matches their students into almost every field, even dermatolgy and Radiology.
I think a part of it is that most DO schools are private, so most graduates end up with a lot of debt. This has been driving DO students to specialty careers and for one reason or another, previous DO graduates have been successful in obtaining allopathic anesthesiology residencies. Thus, later students see that and strive to go into this field particularly since the lifestyle is good and the pay is well.
OK. This is like saying everybody that went to a private medical school (whether MD or DO) wants to go into Anesthesia only for the money. Although the compensation is very good right now, who knows what it will be like in the future. Only a couple of years ago, it was hard for any program to fill their slots. Money should never be a motivating factor. Who cares about money if you are not happy with what you are doing? By the way, I am on a military scholarship. I wanted to find a specialty that I actually enjoyed and could see myself doing everyday. Most of the people I talked from my school that are going into Anesthesia don't talk about the money. They talked about the procedures that they got to do. They talked about seeing a wide range of cases and providing care on a minute by minute basis and seeing immediate results. Caring if very ill patrients and actually feel like you are doing something.
the same reason there are so many MD's interested in anesthesiology
This is the one statement that sums up everything about why more DOs are going into Anesthesia. Why are MDs going into Anesthesia? The big question should be if Anesthesiologist made as much as Pediatricians and worked as hard as OBs, would they still go into the specialty? Everybody needs to answer this question for themselves. As to why are more DOs are going into Anesthesia, I don't think you will get an honest, non-speculative answer out of anybody. Sorry.
