Look, even before the Step 2 CS cancellation, my DMs and email were flooded with messages from osteopathic medical students who are fed up with the NBOME.
There is *real* anger toward this organization. Honestly, more than I even heard about from MD students and the NBME.
The question is, will that sentiment translate into action?
Amorphous anger on social media is easy to ignore. But if that anger gets channeled into organized efforts to facilitate change, then improvements are possible.
This much should be clear: begging the NBOME to reconsider their Level 2-PE exam is a waste of your time.
Best case scenario, you’ll get another “town hall” meeting, a handful of platitudes, and some thoughtful beard stroking before being told that they’re keeping the exam.
Instead of complaining to the NBOME, here are a few things that are more likely to bring about real change.
1) Vote with your wallets: take USMLE Step 3.
Almost all states allow DO licensure by completing the USMLE series. If you aren’t required to engage with the NBOME, don’t.
2) Lobby the state boards that don’t allow the USMLE.
As an MD who has passed the USMLE, I could practice in any state. Why shouldn’t a DO who passed the USMLE be able to do the same?
(State boards that prop up the NBOME with a COMLEX requirement are listed in the Tweet below.)
If you intend to practice in one of these states, talk to your state representative. Explain how the medical board is providing a deterrent to DOs serving patients in their state.
The board may be friendly with the NBOME, but they’re still accountable to the legislature.
3) Lobby the AOA to change the COCA accreditation requirements that compel schools to require COMLEX-USA.
It’s ultimately the COCA requirement that keeps the NBOME in business.
The AOA is the professional body ultimately responsible for securing the success of the osteopathic profession.
They should think carefully about whether, at this point in history, a “separate but equal” licensing exam hurts DOs more than it helps.
The LCME’s accreditation standards for MD schools are more stringent than COCA’s for COMs - and even they never mandated the USMLE.
(Still, most schools did - since the requirement gave access to student loans to cover registration fees).
Let the schools decide.
Last thing:
Don’t feel guilty about pursuing these tactics. None of them are underhanded. Market forces and political action are how things are supposed to work in America - and they’ll be needed to move an entrenched, monopolistic bureaucracy that ignores its constituents.
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The reason a physician in graduate medical education training is called a “resident” is because back in the day, they *literally* lived in the hospital.
(a short thread)
One text recommended two medical and two surgical residents per 100 beds, a number which would “prove sufficient for all purposes.”
(If you’re wondering why the residents lived on the upper floors, it’s because “in case of fire, they, being in good health, could easily escape.”)
But that’s not all.
A century ago, residency had no fixed time endpoint - training could last any amount of time.
Most programs also had a ‘pyramid’ structure, in which many interns competed for fewer resident positions at each level and ultimately just one chief resident spot.
The AAMC has recommended that residency programs offer only virtual interviews for the upcoming season.
Who wins, and who loses? Let’s find out!
(thread)
WINNER: Homegrown applicants.
Every year, many students choose to stay at the same institution for residency. Many PDs will be eager to snap up these “known quantities” from an otherwise more uncertain applicant pool.
LOSER: DOs and IMGs, who may not have a “home” program.
WINNER: Student travel budgets.
Previously, many applicants spent upwards of five figures traveling to in-person interviews. You gotta try *really* hard to spend that kind of money sitting in your living room doing Zoom and WebEx interviews.
Well, another residency application season is in the books.
And in 2019, the average residency applicant (all comers) submitted 92 residency applications.
Yes.
NINETY-TWO.
And each year, this number creeps higher and higher.
We need to talk about this.
(thread)
First:
Can we please stop defending application inflation by saying that applicants *HAVE* to apply to so many programs because the number of residency programs isn’t growing at the same rate as applicants?
It’s not true.
Statistically-speaking, there’s never been a better time IN THE PAST 50 YEARS for a graduating U.S. medical student to get a PGY-1 position.
But don’t take my word for it - let’s get it straight from @TheNRMP.
Since the announcement that Step 1 will go pass/fail, there’s been a growing false narrative that USMLE scores allowed IMGs to compete on a level playing field with U.S. MDs for competitive residencies.
Here is the uncomfortable truth - and what to do about it.
(thread)
Even with a scored USMLE Step 1, DOs and IMGs were not “beating out” U.S. MDs for competitive residency positions or specialties.
Does this look like a level playing field?
Almost all IMGs match in specialties in which there are not enough U.S. MD graduates to fill the available positions. The number of IMGs who match in competitive fields (like surgical subspecialties) is vanishingly small.