What to Expect on the Path to Earning A DO degree

Becoming a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) is a worthwhile and satisfying career choice for those passionate about helping others. However, the path to earning this degree is not without its challenges. As someone who has experienced the journey firsthand, there are some elements of this journey that I wanted to share in the hopes that this helps you decide if this career is right for you. From the demands of osteopathic medical school to the challenges of residency training and the ever-changing environment of the healthcare industry, there are many hurdles that aspiring physicians must navigate. I have listed some common challenges that prospective DOs may encounter on their journey, as well as insights on how to navigate them successfully.

The challenges on the path to earning a DO include the incredible time commitment training requires, a tremendous workload including learning a new language of medical terminology, and of course successfully passing didactic and practical exams. Taking this advice could help you to decide whether or not pursuing this rewarding career in osteopathic medicine is the right fit for you and it may also encourage those already on this journey to press on!

Common Challenges

It’s been quite the wild ride pursuing my DO degree, and even though I have found the experience to be largely rewarding, I can see how many bumps in the road could have been avoided if I had expected some of the following encounters. With that in mind, I’ve prepared the list below for your benefit:

1. Acceptance to an Osteopathic Medical College (COM) is competitive.
2. The time commitment is substantial.
3. The workload is intense.
4. Avoid potential burnout.
5. Maintaining social support and self-care is difficult but crucial for success.

I may be able to rattle off this list of challenges now, in hindsight, but in order to really understand how important each of these challenges is to prepare for, let’s dig a little deeper.

Acceptance to an Osteopathic School is Competitive

Aspiring health care workers have a lot of choices when it comes to the wide range of fields to pursue in medicine. For those interested in becoming a physician, there are two choices – a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and a Doctor of Medicine (MD). Both DOs and MDs are critical to the healthcare work force and for providing adequate care to patients, both nationally and internationally. It is important to research the training of both physicians and apply to the profession that resonates most with you. Take any opportunities you can to obtain shadowing experience with both DOs and MDs to assess what type of physician most resonates with you.

Some counselors have outdated information and will tell you that DO schools are easier to get into than MDs or that you should apply to DO schools if you have a lower MCAT score. This is no longer true. DO and MD programs are equally competitive. Along with having strong GPA and MCAT scores, the osteopathic programs are looking for well-rounded students who have knowledge, interest, and understanding of osteopathic philosophy and principles.

So, what does it mean to be well-rounded? Some standards that will help a pre-med student’s chances during the application process include:

• Demonstrate strong communication and interpersonal skills, resilience, grit, and maturity through personal statements and interviews.
• Document community service, leadership, and clinical experience.
• Participate in a variety of extracurricular activities.
• Possess knowledge of osteopathic medicine and shadow an osteopathic physician.
• Include examples of how the osteopathic care approach was utilized in research and clinical experiences in the personal statement.

Remember, a DO’s training is grounded in a distinctive osteopathic philosophy which is based upon four tenets: that a person is a unit of body, mind, and spirit; that the body has self-healing properties; that structure and function are inter-related; and finally, that rational treatment is grounded in these principles. Because this philosophy is the lens through which an osteopathic physician approaches a patient, DOs tend to have a well-rounded understanding of the musculoskeletal system and regardless of specialty, generally focus on preventative care, and overall wellness.

I was fortunate that I had worked with a DO, whose passion and love for the profession was infectious and inspired me to build my future practice upon the foundation of osteopathic principles and incorporate Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) into my patient care. I highly recommend shadowing a DO, as it will not only make you a more competitive applicant, but really broaden your perspective of all the options available. I was surprised to learn how Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) is applied across all specialties and practices from Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) to pediatrics and Ob/Gyn.

As part of your osteopathic medical education, you will receive about 200 hours of education in OMM. This involves an in-depth study of how to apply the osteopathic principles to patient care, as well as how to diagnose and treat dysfunction of the musculoskeletal system, enabling us to resolve or improve a wide range of conditions involving multiple systems of the body. Performing these osteopathic techniques to improve a patient’s health is called Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT).

Understanding OMT can make you a more competitive applicant and help you better appreciate a significant difference in training between Osteopathic and Allopathic curriculums. The knowledge will also better prepare you to embrace the time commitment and physical demands that come with the many benefits of learning this manual skill.

Getting into Osteopathic medical school, I had to do more than just want to be a doctor. I had to demonstrate that I was mentally and physically prepared to handle the osteopathic curriculum emotionally and academically, with maturity and resilience.

Once in Osteopathic medical school, there were other challenges. Fortunately, in my experience, competition was not one of them. There may have been a few students competitively striving to be ranked at the top of our class, but most of us quickly got over the shock of transitioning from being the brightest in our undergraduate classes, to being an “average” medical student. We quickly realized the benefits of collegial support rather than individual ego, which improved our grades and clinical skills.

The Time Commitment is Substantial

Time is one of our most precious commodities. Remember, you are training to provide care to others, improve quality of life and save lives. Most of your time during osteopathic medical school will be spent studying.  It is essential to plan your time wisely so that you do plan for study breaks and time to spend with loved ones, but school must be a priority.  If you are not ready for that, becoming a physician, whether DO or MD, is probably not the best career choice for you.

As a brief timeline for overall commitment, obtaining an undergraduate degree generally takes four years. Most medical school programs, whether DO or MD, take four years to complete. That is eight years, plus any additional gap years between undergraduate and osteopathic medical school, before graduation and residency.  Residency or graduate medical education (GME) is typically another 3-5 years but can be longer depending on the specialty you enter and any Fellowships you may wish to complete.

A huge portion of those eight years in school is spent studying, gaining knowledge and then applying that knowledge. I knew I had studied a lot in undergraduate and I knew there would be more once in medical school.  But it wasn’t until I was in osteopathic medical school that one of my professors explained that a typical undergraduate student will take between 15 to 22 credit units per semester, while osteopathic medical school may feel more like 24 to 28 credit units per semester. In most programs there is designated study time built into the schedule, but again, you must plan and spend your time extremely wisely. I often clocked four to eight hours a day for studying, not including mandatory class time.

For me, every year got better and more interesting as I was able to apply the necessary foundational scientific facts to the clinical world and patient care. I did have to sacrifice some family time and wasn’t able to go out every weekend with my non osteopathic medical school friends, but with careful planning I was able to go to some social activities and rejuvenate myself.  Every moment of studying with my future DO colleagues and practicing my clinical skills was certainly worth it; now that I am a DO. I can move forward in my career knowing that I put the time in and learned with excellence.

The Workload is Intense

One of the most important things to remember as you gear yourself up to pursue that osteopathic medical degree is that every class will build upon the one that came before it. This means that there aren’t any “coasting” classes where you can memorize something to pass a test and then discard the information after you pass.

The average osteopathic medical student learns more than ten new words every day. This may sound like an exaggeration, but Iris Reading.com estimates that a medical student must learn over 30,000 new terms before they graduate.

You’ll have to push yourself to stay on top of all the schoolwork and avoid falling behind. Memorization is required but understanding, critical and logical thinking, and applying concepts is what will help you succeed and retain the knowledge.

It’s important to recognize if you start falling behind, ask for help as soon as possible. There are many outside resources that can be helpful but some can be over-simplified or inaccurate.  It’s important to utilize the professors and student support services for accurately vetted support and resources.

Building a strong foundational knowledge is important because topics are revisited over and over again, expanding on the concepts and understanding, in osteopathic medical school, studying for boards, in residency, and then studying for boards again (Level 3)!

Avoid Burnout

Burnout is physical and mental exhaustion and may occur more frequently when someone feels like they are not in control of their life. Now that you’ve heard how long it takes to become a DO, both in years and hours, you’ll have some idea of why I warn you of potential feelings of being “burned out”.

It has been described by some as feeling a complete lack of motivation to finish anything, from homework to your actual degree.

It can also be described as straight-up mental fatigue and emotional fraying. I can remember one or two long study sessions ending with a desire to stare at a wall and stop thinking for a few hours!

I know there were some moments for me and for some of my classmates when we wondered “Do I still have what it takes? Am I good enough? Do I even want to be a DO anymore? Is this worth it?”

Avoiding burnout is about more than just seeing it coming. To get out ahead of the burnout, you have to be proactive. Have a dynamic support system that includes your own self-care, social support both in and out of medicine BEFORE you start. Only then will you be able to recognize potential signs within yourself and in your classmates. Notice if you begin to experience a loss of passion and excitement for what you are doing. It is not something to be ashamed of or hide; everyone is on their own journey. Ask for help both in and out of the medical community. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of spending time with friends to help me laugh through occasional mistakes, or how helpful a good meal, getting 30 minutes of exercise and committing to a sleep schedule was. Another thing that may counteract burnout is remembering why you decided to become a DO in the first place. Perhaps shadow a clinical professor or volunteer at a local health community clinic. Even though it may take a little bit of time, that interaction with patients reinvigorated me and enabled me to get back to studying.

Take a moment and think about what your support system looks like. Osteopathic medical school is hard for everyone, no matter how capable, but it’s totally doable. The problems often come when life throws something else at you while you are in osteopathic medical school or training (family health issues, personal health issues, etc.) School demands allow little wiggle room to process those additional emotional or physical stresses. Having a strong support system (consistent self-care and community support, both in and out of the medical profession) is key to getting thorough the long road successfully.

Social Support and Self-Care Take Effort and Are Crucial

Building and maintaining a network of support – family, friends, preceptors, peers, health professionals, and community members – can be particularly beneficial as you develop strategies to adapt and respond to the demands and challenges of medical training.

When memorizing so many terms a day and leaning so many new medical concepts the temptation to put off activities like healthy eating, exercise, sleep, or spending stress-free time with others is natural. But forgetting to take care of yourself and not interacting with other human beings will not help you take care of your future patients. Balancing a healthy social life and self-care with your academic and career goals will make you a better physician.

Create a weekly calendar that includes some exercise and social time. As you develop the learning styles that work best for you and establish the hours it takes to study, remember to keep some sanity time scheduled in that calendar.

In Conclusion

Pursuing a DO degree is well worth the challenges. One extremely rewarding aspect is that, due to your training in OMM and OMT, you can literally start helping friends and family members with musculoskeletal complaints as a first year student! Over winter and summer breaks, I would have a line of relatives and friends with back pain, neck pain and other complaints that I could address with my hands-on diagnostic and therapeutic skills. Seeing how I was able to reduce their pain and improve their range of motion and sometimes even help with deeper issues as a first and second student was incredibly rewarding and was due to my distinctive training. In short, make your studies a priority but don’t neglect your emotional, mental and physical wellbeing. Plan your time wisely, have a support system and while it may sound strange- have fun with your studies. And as a wise DO once said; at the end of every thought, word, action and deed is a patient.  Always remember why you are here.  To become a DO is to be in it for the long game. While being a DO is very rewarding, there are a lot of precious times, growth and memories to be had along the way. Enjoy the journey!