My beef with DO students

I'd like to preface this with my intentions first, because discussing DOs is always a dangerous thing for someone on the MD track. I have complete respect for DO practitioners and their Art. I think no less of DOs, nor do I think they make worse doctors in any way. I have had the pleasure to interact with almost as many DO's as MDs, and they have performed just as well and I learned just as much. I can say this without bias, because it was not for a long time after my interactions with them that I even learned that they were DOs. My beef is with the younger generation of DO students (some of them, at least). The field of Osteopathic Medicine has fought long and hard for its right to be considered equal in the medical field. However, I have seen more and more behavior revolving around the idea that DOs are better than MDs, rather than both fields being equal in worth and quality. I hate hypocrisy, though I don't claim to be free from it. Three particular behaviors particularly irk me.

1) DO students and pre-DOs that claim that DOs are somehow better at treating patients as people, focusing on the patient rather than the disease, and are better at primary care because of it.

This is a bunch of subjective nonsense. There is no evidence to prove or even support this. Look at a veteran DO and a veteran MD and tell me if you notice any difference, besides personal choices of bedside manner. A good doctor of any degree does what works, and discards what doesn't. This is how one becomes a better doctor. There is no secret gift that DOs obtain at their school that can not be learned by MDs. Assuming some part of DO training does give them some sort of better grasp of medical art, an MD would see this, enquire about it, and begin to implement it. This is how medicine works, by continually learning and improving yourself. I personally don't think there IS some kind of training that makes newly minted DOs better at treating patients. What I think it is happening is that young DOs or DO students are eager and exceptionally friendly to patients (just as young MDs and MD students are). Patients are receptive to this eager use of the Art of medicine, and then say that this particular student is the best or most caring doctor they have had. They then assume this means that DOs are all better at patient relationships because of this. This isn't a fair assumption, as I said MD students and freshly minted doctors have an equal level of excitement that rubs off on patients. We are all young and eager to do what we have spent our whole lives preparing for. I have spoken to many veteran and retiring doctors, and what I always get out of it is this: "I was blessed to have a job that I could love for xx number of years, but I am tiring of it, and its time for me to quit." You will not be as fresh and excited your first day in the field when it is your last. I have watched my father since I was a child, and he has become more calloused by the long hard years of a dedicated practitioner. He still does his job with the same level of professionalism as he always had, but he doesn't leave a long shift the way he used to.

Anyways, the bottom line is this for me. If DO students can say that they are better at relating to patients than MD students, then I can say the reason is because they are closer to average intelligence (citing GPAs and MCAT scores), and thus find it easier to relate to patients because of it. Neither statement is fair or correct, so DO students please stop trying to insist you are better than MDs. We've accepted you as equals, why don't you do the same?

2) MD turncoats that become avenging angels of Osteopathy, and vice versa.

These people REALLY get my goat. It absolutely drives me nuts when someone wants nothing to do with DO schools, talks about nothing except MD schools, and then, when they don't get into allopathic schools, they are suddenly the champions of DOs. It tends to be these folks that commit 1) the most. I have no problem with you justifying that DO schools are just as good, because they are just as good at training doctors. However, when you start running around promoting the DO philosophy, saying how you couldn't think about doing anything but DO medicine, or even dare to try and talk down about MD students, you cross the line. I can accept that some students might fall in love with the DO philosophy after being exposed to it, but if you haven't even started school yet, or you are fresh into it, please don't come to me with that! You haven't even learned the extent of the DO philosophy, and you are going to go around trying to rub it into my face? Please!

The opposite goes as well. I know a bunch of students who were totally all about the DO gig, did nothing but talk and research DOs, etc. Then, they manage to get into an MD school, and all of the sudden its all about fit. It just so happens that they ALWAYS fit better at the MD school rather than the 8 DO schools they were accepted to. Always? Really? That's really interesting how you fit at the type of medicine that many pre-meds cling to as being superior. If you know you like osteopathy, go down that path. If you know you like allopathy, go down that path. If you are unsure, apply to both and keep an open mind. But don't you dare flip flop on me! This isn't a presidential debate people!

3) The American Osteopathy Association

These guys annoy me too. After all the battling and struggling to become equal, they have refused to reciprocate. The AMA gave their students the right to apply for Allopathic residencies, and even recently came out with a resolution prohibiting discrimination against DOs on the basis of their degree. And yet, MDs still can't apply for osteopathic residencies. This is absolutely unfair! You want equality? Its a two way street!