I graduated from TCOM in 1974(first class to graduate). Over the years, I practiced with both MD’s and DO’s.
Over those years I have taught both students from allopathic and osteopathic medical schools. I have been an associate professor for both allopathic and osteopathic medical schools. I have treated allopathic doctors and their families. I have worked with physicians who have trained at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Dartmoth, UCLA, Albert Einstein, UT Galveston, UT Southwestern, Tx A&M, Tx Tech, and others.
I have never felt undertrained, biased against, inferior, or lacking in training.
I am a DO. and proud of it. I feel, that most of our graduates from DO Medical Schools are generally better prepared for medicine than those from allopathic schools. UNM Medical School is one exception. They are very well trained to become Primary Care Physicians.
As for the cost, you pay for what you get! You will enter practice from either side in bigtime debt. If your are in it for the money, forget medicine.
There are far many more professions with whom your will be better paid. If you don’t have a passion for medicine, forget it, we don’t need you.
I have never pushed any of my offspring toward medicine, because of the poor income, loss of family time, and decreasing lack of respect from patients.
You must love to be, and have a deep passion to be a physician today.
R. Paul Livingston DO.
The implications of money are downright insulting. Perhaps it’s retribution for posting my thoughts at the time…I don’t know. What I do know is that there have been MD’s who have spoken about the DO’s who haven’t gotten the residencies they were after or had to jump thru more hoops than what is perceived normal. I don’t care about the tuition so much anymore because I will definitely be applying for a military scholarship. Ideally I would like acceptance at USUHS so we’ll see.
I don’t care what I have to do to become a physician. I have had no experience with practising DO’s only DO students which isn’t the same thing. I have been told by MD’s I respect that they don’t care about the person’s credentials. They care about the level of care and competency.
I posted what I was told at the time and although it was not that long ago my opinions have changed as well as some of the issues I posted about. I appreciate you docs coming and posting just the “message” seems abit unnecessary. The thread is about the closing of one of the hospitals which I was talking to another DO about. He was more than likely bitter about becoming a DO because he would prefer to be a MD. He may have exagerrated the numbers he talked with me about but that’s him and his school.
Not all schools are great whether MD or DO and neither are the students. Many have no business in medicine. I have run into many but perhaps that is because these are the scholarship recipients who are now paying back their time and are unhappy across the board. I realized this and have since decided to take even the opinion of a school’s alumni with a grain of salt because they are not me. I don’t believe the schedule at Nova is condusive to the students. However I do not have a big enough sample to make a conclusive determination nor a second of experience on what it takes to become a good doctor. Schools requiring attendance with classes starting at 8am going till 5pm seems ridiculous to me. I have a long way till I’m in school, 4 years, so by then I expect things to be completely different.
I apologize for the tone of my post. I don’t mean any disrespect. You began in medicine before I was born and your insight is crucial here. I just don’t want this impression that the money of medicine is what matters to me. The cost of the education does and I don’t foresee going to a school which has lower than average pass rates but I have to be able to get in anywhere before I can be picky about which school I attend. I have been “broke” all my life. Medicine isn’t the winning lottery ticket I’m looking for. I’m looking for the level of satisfaction I see from the docs I know and have worked with. Men & women who have and continue to sacrifice their time, money, family, lifestyle…in order to treat their patients and love doing it. Not one feels they are sacrificing and that, to me, proves how much of a passion medicine is and that’s what I want. I know I’ll make enough to keep my wife home so she can raise our future kids. I don’t want the biggest house nor car nor clothes. Give me a cool gadget here and there and another widget for my homegym and I’m happy. Money matters little to me. As long as my family has money for what it needs to live comfortably and for those emergencies which spring up then we’re happy.
I want to be a doctor, whether this means DO or MD, it makes me no never mind. I want to be able to provide care for our troops and their families and work to make military medicine what it should be and not what it’s becoming. I can’t do this as a hospital administrator…well I guess I could but I would be approaching it from a numbers aspect and not human (patients).
Anyhow, don’t take offense to my post. I just don’t ever want to be accused of going after medicine for narcissistic or monetary reasons. I just want to get the most for my money and be given the freedom to practise the medicine I want as painlessly as possible.
Again, Welcome! I hope to see more from you because I know you have much more than I to contribute here.
I would reccomend that you seek out a DO who is in practice in you vicinity. Contact him or her and ask if you can visit with them or maybe even “shadow” them for a while in their practice. Most, I think would be willing to do so. I am the Cross Timbers Community Helath Center, in DeLeon, Tx. We have clinics in Brownwood and Eastland, Texas. over the years I have had both high school and collge students shadow me in the clinic.
I would reccomend that you seek out a DO who is in practice in you vicinity. Contact him or her and ask if you can visit with them or maybe even “shadow” them for a while in their practice. Most, I think would be willing to do so. I am the Cross Timbers Community Helath Center, in DeLeon, Tx. We have clinics in Brownwood and Eastland, Texas. Over the years I have had both high school and collge students shadow me in the clinic.
Totally correct. It does not matter which choice you take.(DO vs MD degree). It is your detication and motivation for being the best Physician that you can be that makes the difference.
Paul
Post deleted by OldManDave
Due to the progressive negative nature of this thread I am now closing it.