“D.O. or Die”: Identity Negotiation Among Osteopathic Medical Students

Abstract

Doctors of osteopathic medicine (D.O.s) have historically faced an uphill battle to gain professional legitimacy and credibility in a U.S. medical culture dominated by allopathic medicine. Today, struggles surrounding the negotiation of a professional osteopathic identity can be found among osteopathic medical students who actively debate the merits of a potential change in the D.O. designation. This study examines identity construction by analyzing osteopathic medical students' accounts of identity that reveal certain ways they negotiate their emerging professional selves. By merging current literature on identity negotiation from health and organizational communication, we highlight the complex relationship between the discursive construction of professional identity and the embodied and material consequences of becoming a D.O.

Notes

¹There is a useful distinction to be made between D.O.s and doctors of chiropractic medicine. Unlike chiropractors, D.O.s are licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgery. Chiropractors practice drug-free health care and use spinal manipulation, or chiropractic adjustment, as a primary therapeutic procedure.

²OMT involves somatic dysfunction palpation, or the examination of the body through touch, and therapeutic manipulation, or the noninvasive movement of bones and soft tissue to their proper position through applied pressure to allow the body to manifest its natural tendency toward health.

³The U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is sponsored by the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, Inc. (FSMB), and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), and students must be graduates of or enrolled in an accredited MD or DO program in the United States or Canada in order to take the exam. The Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensure Examination of the United States (COMLEX-USA) is administered by the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Educators (NBOME). Although COMLEX-USA is accepted in all 50 states in the United States for licensure requirements, it is accepted by most, but not all, residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

⁴OMM stands for Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine.