Uncapping the pen...

It's May 9th, 2015. Three years gave passed since my last post in this blog. I wish I could say that I have been writing elsewhere, chronicling my residency experiences and writing about lessons learned during residency.  Unfortunately, on most days I have been so exhausted from the demands of residency that my blog has shifted down to my last priority.

Moving through the years of post-graduate medical education, I have noticed I always work the same amount of hours. During intern year, my hours were long and scheduled as shifts. My job was to advocate for patients, learn the ropes of the local hospital/clinic and learn how to navigate the medical community (and lets not forget the scut work- someone has to do it!). Second year, my job was to get better at the things I did intern year and supervise the interns closely. My scheduled hours were slightly better and I finally had a chance to start engaging in my neuromusculoskeletal (NMM) specialization and read more on my own time. Third year hours dramatically improved, but my clinic patient load increased. I have been seeing 12 patients in a half-day, and have found that I can keep up with associated calls, forms, messages, but closing the charts on time has been a challenge. I have taken on quite a few leadership roles now that I know the ropes and am familiar with the inner workings of various professional organizations.  I have also dedicated my time to becoming the next chief of my NMM residency. So while my shift-hours in residency will be significantly better this upcoming year, I will be as busy as ever- tending to my leadership roles and helping to promote positive ripples in my residency, the greater orlando community and the osteopathic profession. I am sure this last year in residency will yield memories and lessons just as the last three years have, and I'll try to make it a goal to post more, even if just a couple of lines every once and a while.

Speaking of the osteopathic profession, it is an interesting time for us. The profession has changed quite a bit since my last post.

The ACGME and AOA boards have merged, and this occurred for many reasons. Many fear that DO's will lose their identity in this process, but that does not have to happen. The primary tenets* of osteopathic medicine should be propagated in each profession. Why would we not want everyone in the health profession to observe tenets that so greatly benefit our own patients? We now need to fully open the osteopathic profession and leadership to MD physicians and leaders. Our questions going forward will be: Throughout the board integration process, how do we maintain the separate distinction between DO's and MD's? Throughout the history of our profession, we have struggled with the feeling of inferiority. It is a natural human reaction to doubt something that is not a common practice. When you exist in such smaller proportion than MDs and you are a relatively new profession, you're going to have to work hard at gaining equal recognition. Now we are truly equal, with boards merging. How do we maintain our separate identity in the years to come?  The DO profession should be engaging our medical students, residents and physician members alike in this discussion.

*Tenets of Osteopathic Medicine as approved by the American Osteopathic Association House of Delegates:
The body is a unit; the person is a unit of body, mind, and spirit.
The body is capable of self-regulation, self-healing, and health maintenance.
Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated.
Rational treatment is based upon an understanding of the basic principles of body unity, self-regulation, and the interrelationship of structure and function.