Your education

[drmoon]

I'm having a debate with a podiatry student about the differences between an osteopathic student's 3rd and 4th years vs. a podiatry student's. I already have my DPM and I've been through the clinical stuff. My contention is that pod students do not see nearly the same amount of pathology as DO students. I'm getting some flak from a pod student essentially saying that I don't know what I'm talking about and that there are plenty of DO's and DO students who bemoan their clinical years.

DO you guys ever feel shorted on your clinical experiences? Does it vary widely from school to school? Does it compare favorably with your allopathic brethren??

Thanks for the input. I'm still DO bound, anyway!

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[swdave]

There is a DPM in my first year class at MSUCOM. Unfortunately there his opinion may not be strong until we've done clinicals.

Do clinicals vary school by school? You BET they do. They vary within the school also. We have 12 or 13 base hospitals all with different strengths and weaknesses. Some stress more OMM, others tend to pimp more, some have call a couple times a month as a student, others have more.

There are a great deal of differences both in what a school OFFERS in clinical exposure and how tightly the REGULATE or control the clinical years.

This was certainly one of the MAJOR reasons I chose MSUCOM. They certainly have one of the strongest clinical programs if not the best of all the DO schools. Since a great many of the DO residencies are located in MI or affiliated with MSUCOM it felt it'd be worth it to come to MI now as a DO instead of later for rotations, internship or residency.

Later,

Dave

 

[drmoon]

WOW, Dave!! I thought I was wacko!! I'm 40 and I already have a DPM! But, 6 kids??? You da man.

I can see how the clinical years would vary from school to school, but aren't the requirements the same? Like, doesn't everyone have to do 8 weeks of gen med and surgery, etc.?? Are there rotations that are so bad that the student might as well not show up? That's the way it was for some of my clinical rotations/externships.

Is this the same in allopathic schools (as far as you know)?

 

[Freeeedom!]

I did my 3rd and 4th year clinicals at a mix of both allopathic and osteopathic hospitals...in fact only 2 rotations my senior year were osteopathic. So the options are open in your 4th year allowing for diverse education, virtually regardless of the school. Sure, there will be bad rotations, but reading student reviews and talking to interns/residents/students should clue you in to the good ones. I can VERY honestly say, that my rotations my senior year were great...and at great universities/institutions!

 

[swdave]

Hey drmoon,

So we are both a little "wacked" ahh well, life is what we make it eh?

As for the rotation stuff. Every school has some sort of "required" rotations but yes they really do vary quite a bit.

I think the problem is that Osteo rotations traditionally have been ambulatory-based which can be highly variable. That fact combined with the disappearance of many DO hospitals makes the AOA wary of making too many stipulations about rotation experiences. I think they make recommendations to the schools but they aren't anything iron-clad.

Another evidence of this is shelf exams during DO rotations. There aren't any that I've heard of within a DO school's curriculum. I could easily be wrong but I've simply not heard any DOs mention them.

Later,

 

[Freeeedom!]

Yeah, "shelf" exams are not universal in a DO curriculum, though they should be. We had exams, but they were far from organized...of course, this is during your 3rd year only guys. There is that big exam called step 2 at the end of your junior year that "should" motivate people to study.