Osteopathic Internship

[wack]

Just curious. Why do you think some of the states with the strongest osteopathic schools (and the highest number of practicing DOs) are the ones that require the rotating osteopathic intership for licensing. Pennsylvania (PCOM), Michigan (MSUCOM), West Virginia (WVSOM), Oklahoma (OSUCOM). I forget the 5th state. If I was applying to Osteopathic schools all of these would be at the top of my list but I would be discouraged by the potential extra year of residency. Is there any meaning behind this correlation. Or am I just being a conspiracy theorist. I think it is strange that the rotating intership is required for osteopaths at all unless it is used as an intership year and counted towards residency.

I am just a med school applicant but the PGY years seem shady (for allopathic and osteopathic). Part learning and part cheap labor. When the osteopath powers that be get a tighter grip on a state do they use it extract more work from DOs (ie the intership). Before it gets started I am not criticizing DOs. MD residencies are always increasing in length and hoops also. Just an innocent question from the other side of the coin.

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[DrMom]

If you are in one of these states it is not a guarantee that you will have to do an extra year because some of the residency programs incorporate the rotating internship year into their program.

I've never gotten the impression that they keep this internship in order to get extra cheap labor, rather it fits the osteopathic philosophy to emphasize a good overview of primary care clinical medicine (although not all of that year is spent in primary care), even if you are going to specialize in something other than primary care.

BTW: even if you go to one of the schools in these states, you only have to do the internship year if you do your residency in those states and/or plan to practice in one of those states.

 

[Dr JPH]

A few comments...

First of all, DrMom is right. You do NOT necessarily need to do an extra year of post-grad training if you do indeed complete a DO internship.

There are different types of internships...traditional rotating, specialty emphasis, specialty track. In some cases the additional year will not count towards your residency and in some cases it will.

It depends on which type of internship you complete as well as the residency selected.

The internship year can be a great opportunity to learn more about what specialty you want to pursue, and about medicine in general. It is an opportunity to get your hands in all sorts of areas of medicine prior to deciding what you want to do for the rest of your life. Many interns spend time in: Surgery, Medicine, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, OB/GYN, Physchiatry, Trauma/ICU, Geriatrics, as well as a variety of other areas...sometimes up to the intern and his/her attending.

If you have the opportunity to complete an internship at a hospital that has a strong program with little scut work, you may actually be able to see what it's like working in that particular specialty...whereas the 4-6 week rotation as a medical student may be filling with nonsense scut work and too much reading to really focus on the patients.

So, again, the internship is not a trap but rather a great opportunity. I am not sure what will be in my future...I am at PCOM, but not sure if I want to practice in Pennsylvania (malpractice...another hot topic).

Also remember...just because you want to practice in the Big 5 does NOT mean you need to complete the internship. Yes, there are ways around it. For more about this, maybe you would like to post a similar question in the Residency Forum.

Best of luck to you.