The Spiritual Life of a Medical Student

Lastly, I have to make a statement about Osteopathic incorporation into our curriculum. I’m a huge advocate of Osteopathy and was dismayed by the lack of integration during our courses. OPP covers the basics and I appreciated our lab time. UNECOM also provides 1hr of OPP for each system, which is much better than nothing. The one hr provides reminders about Osteopathic philosophy, but it is impossible to cover ALL the diseases of a system in one hour. Doctors are forced to resort to generalized philosophy, which is useful, but quick to lose a student’s attention after hearing it for 100th time.

90% of our time is devoted to learning about diseases as they are classified by the allopathic world. For diseases where the etiology is well-known, this is a fine approach. However, when a disease has an unknown etiology, all possibilities should be presented, including Osteopathic philosophy. Example: Asthma is “thought” to be caused by inflammation and spasm of the bronchioles. We “know” this because biopsy specimens show inflammatory cells and we provide antiinflammatory and bronchodilator medications that help with exacerbations. Why did NONE of the DO instructors discussing asthma ever mention the possibility that the patients could have somatic dysfunction of their upper ribs, thorax, OA? This is not a big leap of reasoning and any sensibly person who thinks to ask about the MSK system’s possible contribution to bronchospasm will see a possible connection and thus have another way to go about trying to help their patients via OA release to normalize the vagus, treating T1 and the ribs in general. I don’t think we should only treat all asthma exacerbations with OMT. I just think it is the responsibility of the school to encourage [require] all DOs who lecture to include Osteopathy in their lecture. Students of ALL Osteopathic medical schools deserve this type of instruction. Secondly, the disease index cites pathology and internal medicine sources for further reading. It should also cite Osteopathic resources, so students at least see there is Osteopathic literature regarding specific ailments and where it is if they have to desire to look it up.

Students tend to complain about schools not preparing them for the board exams, so the schools design their curriculum to prepare students for the boards. However, while board exams are a very real obstacle that we have to overcome, the slow deterioration of Osteopathy is rampant. If schools do not protect the teaching of Osteopathy by sprinkling it into the fabric of our curriculum in practical ways, it is going to continue to be lost and students who really want to learn Osteopathy are going to have to leave the country to get it.